,':

THE

LIFE AND TIMES

OF

HENRY LORD BROUGHAM

i.i

WKITTEN BY HIMSELF

w o

I

IN THREE VOLUMES

VOL. I.

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS

EDINBURGH AND LONDON

MDCCCLXXI

The Right of Translation is reserved

-E.1

wowGMOM

CONTENTS OF FIRST VOLUME.

CHAPTER I.
Wit.

PAGS

MY BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD — PRECOCITY, AS TOLD BY MY MOTHER

PARENTAGE AND ANCESTRY — WHY MY FATHER SETTLED

IN EDINBURGH HIS MARRIAGE THERE MY MOTHER'S HIGH-
LAND ANCESTRY, THROUGH THE STRUAN ROBERTSONS DEATH

OF MY PATERNAL GRANDFATHER SAVAGE FESTIVITIES AT

HIS FUNERAL ANECDOTES TOLD ME BY MY FATHER'S MO-
THER CHARACTER OF MY MATERNAL GRANDMOTHER THE

HIGH SCHOOL OF EDINBURGH DR ADAM THE RECTOR

GILBERT STUART MY PROGRESS AT SCHOOL MY SCHOOL-
FELLOWS FAMILY REMINISCENCES — ROBERTSON THE HIS-
TORIAN AND HIS FATHER THE ADAMS JOHN CLERK OF

ELDIN HIS NAVAL TACTICS LORD BUCHAN AND HIS

BROTHERS TOM AND HARRY ERSKINE, . . . 1-56

CHAPTER II.
^arlg EKe.

(Continued.}

I LEAVE THE HIGH SCHOOL AT BROUGHAM WITH A TUTOR

TALE AFTER THE MANNER OF RASSELAS 1 ENTER THE COL-
LEGE OF EDINBURGH WITH FOLKESTONE, AFTERWARDS LORD

RADNOR MY EARLY EFFORTS IN MATHEMATICS AND ME-

212204

IV CONTENTS.

CHANICS OPTICS, CHEMISTRY JOSEPH BLACK, JAMES WATT

MY FIRST SPEECH AT THE ROYAL MEDICAL SOCIETY 1

STUDY ORATORY 1 FOUND THE JUVENILE LITERARY SOCIETY

BECOME A MEMBER OF THE SPECULATIVE SOCIETY PEDES-
TRIAN RAMBLES APOLLO CLUB, AND HIGH JINKS FEATS

OF EDINBURGH BURSCHEN — HERON'S PLAY DAMNED — I GO ON

A YACHTING EXPEDITION AMONG THE WESTERN ISLES MY

FELLOW-TRAVELLER CHARLES STUART (STUART DE ROTHSAY)

ISLAY LIFE AT SEA ST KILDA — STORNOWAY CROSS TO

ELSINORE, 57-112

CHAPTER III.
lvteit to Sf nmarfc ant) j&canttinabta.

JOURNAL OF VISIT TO DENMARK AND SCANDINAVIA LANDING

AT ELSINORE — TRAVELLING IN DENMARK COPENHAGEN OB-
JECTS OF INTEREST — COLLEGE LIBRARY — 'PALACE THE TOWN

AND THE PEOPLE THE THEATRE THE EXCHANGE THE CON-
STITUTION OF DENMARK — SOCIAL CONVENTIONALISM ADMINIS-
TRATION OF JUSTICE KING CHRISTIAN AND HIS COURT JOUR-
NEY TO HELSINGBORG TRAVELLING IN SWEDEN DANISH AND

SWEDISH PEASANTRY COMPARED — SCENERY ADVENTURES

STOCKHOLM ARCHITECTURE PUBLIC PLACES JEALOUSY OF

FOREIGNERS SCIENCE AND LETTERS SITTING OF THE

ACADEMY OF SCIENCES SWEDISH ARTISTS AND THEIR WORKS

SOCIAL CONDITION IMMORALITY AND CRIME GUSTAVUS

III. AND GUSTAVUS IV. PERSONAL ANECDOTES OF ROYALTY

RUSSIAN AND FRENCH INFLUENCE, AND JEALOUSY OF BRITAIN

THE ARMY REVENUE TRADE AND CURRENCY LANGUAGE

POLICE RELIGION A CLAIRVOYANT DEPARTURE FROM

STOCKHOLM TO UPSALA COUNTRY PALACE OF GUSTAVUS III.

RURAL AFFAIRS REINDEER WILD ANIMALS RUNIC AN-
TIQUITIES UPSALA CATHEDRAL UNIVERSITY C A STLE

JOURNEY CONTINUED TOWARDS NORWAY VISIT BY LANTERN-
LIGHT TO THE FALLS OF TROLLHATTEN GOTEBORG OR GOT-

TENBORG SCOTS RESIDENTS A GHOST STORY WINTER

TRAVELLING THE FROZEN FIORDS SLEDGING GLIMPSES

OF SOCIAL LIFE IN FREDERIKSHALD PRIVATE THEATRICALS

VOYAGE HOME — NARROW ESCAPE FROM SHIPWRECK, 113-222

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV.
ant) t£

MY OPINION OF MY FRIEND CHARLES STUART - DEATH OF MY
BROTHER PETER - 1 AM ADMITTED ADVOCATE - PROFESSION
DISTASTEFUL - CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR JOSEPH BANKS —
WORK AT "COLONIAL POLICY" — LEADING MEN OF THE
SCOTCH BAR - HARRY ERSKINE - BLAIR - CHARLES HOPE -
MACONOCHIE (LORD MEADOWBANK) - CRANSTOUN (LORD CORE-
HOUSE) - JAMES REDDIE— WALTER SCOTT - JEFFREY - THE
'EDINBURGH REVIEW' — SYDNEY SMITH'S ACCOUNT CRITICISED
— JEFFREY'S AND HORNER'S ACCOUNT — MY OWN HISTORY OF
IT - THE EARLY CONTRIBUTORS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS -
PROGRESS OF THE ' REVIEW/ AND ITS INFLUENCE ON POLITICS
AND LITERATURE - LIST OF CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EARLY
NUMBERS, AND NAMES OF THEIR AUTHORS - ANECDOTES OF
JEFFREY AND HIS COADJUTORS .... 223-270

CHAPTER V.
£Tour tljtouglj fOoilaut) ant) £talr>.

NOTES OF A RAMBLE ON THE CONTINENT - CLOSED TO THE
BRITISH, AND NECESSARY TO OBTAIN AMERICAN PAPERS - THE
VOYAGE - THE HELDER - TRACES OF THE BRITISH EXPEDITION

- AMSTERDAM - UTRECHT - DELFT - DUTCH APPRECIATION
OF THE ' COLONIAL POLICY ' - RYSWICK - DISCUSSION ON THE
SLAVE TRADE - PROJECTS FOR CO-OPERATION IN ABOLITION -
THE HAGUE - A SITTING OF THE LEGISLATIVE BODY - HAAR-
LEM - DUSSELDORF AND ITS PICTURE-GALLERY - THE RHINE

- VENICE - PICTURES — JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY — NAPLES

- POMPEII - THE GROTTO DEL CANE - ROME - ST PETERS AND
THE VATICAN, ....... 271-308

CHAPTER VI.
iToluntccring project, ant i$iteston to Portugal.

NARRATIVE OF PROJECTS AS TO VOLUNTEERS AND MILITIA -
RECEPTION OF THEM BY GOVERNMENT - ESTIMATE OF THE

VI CONTENTS.

EFFICIENCY OF SUCH A FORCE IN COMPARISON WITH REGULAR

TROOPS NOTICES OF THE YOUNGER PITT LADY HESTER

STANHOPE — LORD LIVERPOOL LORD CASTLEREAGH FOX

DESIGNS OF NAPOLEON ON THE SPANISH PENINSULA CONDI-
TION OF PORTUGAL SPECIAL MISSION TO PORTUGAL MY

SHARE IN IT — LORD ST VINCENT LORD ROSSLYN GENERAL

SIMCOE THE BRITISH FLEET IN THE TAGUS — PROJECT FOR

THE SEIZURE OF THE ROYAL FAMILY, AND THE REMOVAL OF

THEM TO THE BRAZILS ANECDOTES OF LORD ST VINCENT

DEATH OF FOX MINISTERIAL RUMOURS — CONCLUSION OF THE

MISSION, 309-375

CHAPTER VII.

politics of tjfjc Dajy.

HOME POLITICS WHITBREAD's MOTION ON THE STATE OF THE

NATION NEGRO EMANCIPATION AND THE LOCAL PRESS OF

THE SUGAR COLONIES CONTINENTAL POLITICS IN 1807

CORRESPONDENCE WITH LORD HOWICK CONTINUATION ON

HIS BECOMING EARL GREY FOREIGN POLITICS AGAIN— PER-
SONAL PROSPECTS CONSIDERATION OF THE BAR AS A PRO-
FESSION SELECTION OF THE NORTHERN CIRCUIT PRACTICE

AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT SPAIN, PORTUGAL,

AND THE FIRST PENINSULAR WAR COURT POLITICS THE

QUEEN AND THE PRINCE OF WALES RESUMPTION OF CORRE-

376-429

CHAPTER VIII.
l^ome anfc ^Foreign ^oltticg, 1809.

THE PENINSULAR WAR SIR JOHN MOORE, HIS RETREAT AND

DEATH VICTORY AT CORUNNA INQUIRY INTO THE CONDUCT

OF THE DUKE OF YORK FRENCH AND AUSTRIAN WAR ON THE

DANUBE FRANCE AND SPAIN HOME POLITICS ATTEMPT TO

FORM A COALITION MINISTRY SPENCER PERCEVAL AND EARL

GREY CANNING CRITICISMS ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR

IN THE PENINSULA THE PRINCESS OF WALES AND CANNING

CANNING, CASTLEREAGH, AND LORD WELLESLEY ESTIMATE

OF SIR JOHN MOORE, ...... 430-488

CONTENTS. Vll

CHAPTER IX.

CONGRATULATIONS ON THE ELECTION OP LORD GRENVILLE AS
CHANCELLOR OF OXFORD - INFLUENCE ON THE "CATHOLIC
CLAIMS " - QUESTION OF GOING INTO PARLIAMENT — CONFLICT-
ING CLAIMS OF LAW AND POLITICS - DUKE OF BEDFORD'S
OFFER OF A SEAT - 1 ACCEPT, AND AM RETURNED FOR CAMEL-
FORD - FIRST SPEECH ON WHITBREAD's MOTION AGAINST LORD
CHATHAM, IN REFERENCE TO THE SCHELDT EXPEDITION -
FLOGGING IN THE ARMY, AND CASE OF THE HUNTS - JEFFREY
AND THE REVIEW - LORD ERSKINE - THE REGENCY QUESTION
- MINISTERIAL DIFFICULTIES - TO SERVE UNDER LORD GREY
ON A " SUPPOSED EVENT " - JOHN ARCHIBALD MURRAY - THE
PENINSULAR WAR - SEAT FOR CAMELFORD NO LONGER AVAIL-
ABLE, AND QUESTION OF CONTESTING WORCESTER IN THE
" POPULAR " INTEREST - PROSPECTS OF CONTINENTAL POLI-
TICS, ........ 489-534

APPENDIX OF NOTES, 535-552

PORTRAIT FROM THE PAINTING BY SIR THOMAS LAW-
RENCE, ....... Frontispiece.

537

TO THE READER.

THE following instructions were given by Lord
Brougham to me, as his executor : —

" Before the Autobiography can be published, you
must see that it is arranged chronologically.

" If (writing from memory) I have made mistakes
in dates, or in proper names, let such be corrected ;
but the Narrative is to be printed, AS I HAVE
WRITTEN IT.

" I alone am answerable for all its statements,
faults, and omissions. I will have no Editor em-
ployed to alter, or rewrite what I desire shall be
published, as EXCLUSIVELY MY OWN.

"BROUGHAM, November 1867."

In publishing Lord Brougham's Autobiography,
the above explicit directions, have been scrupulously

obeyed.

BROUGHAM & VAUX,

BROUGHAM, January 1871.

THE LIFE AND TIMES

OF

HENRY LORD BROUGHAM.

CHAPTER I. • -: i V

» ' 0 . > • . 8) ,

lEarlg 3Ltfe.

MY BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD — PRECOCITY, AS TOLD BY MY MOTHER
— PARENTAGE AND ANCESTRY — WHY MY FATHER SETTLED IN
EDINBURGH — HIS MARRIAGE THERE — MY MOTHER'S HIGHLAND
ANCESTRY, THROUGH THE STRUAN ROBERTSONS — DEATH OF MY
PATERNAL GRANDFATHER — SAVAGE FESTIVITIES AT HIS FUNE-
RAL— ANECDOTES TOLD ME BY MY FATHER'S MOTHER — CHAR-
ACTER OF MY MATERNAL GRANDMOTHER — THE HIGH SCHOOL

OF EDINBURGH — DR ADAM THE RECTOR GILBERT STUART —

MY PROGRESS AT SCHOOL — MY SCHOOLFELLOWS FAMILY

REMINISCENCES — ROBERTSON THE HISTORIAN AND HIS FATHER

— THE ADAMS JOHN CLERK OF ELDIN HIS NAVAL TACTICS

— LORD BUCHAN AND HIS BROTHERS TOM AND HARRY ERSKINE.

I HAD frequently been asked by persons whose
opinion I value, to write a Life of myself, with some
account of the many great public events of my time.
In undertaking this task, I cannot but regret that
I did not some years ago begin to put down many

VOL. I. A

2 EARLY LIFE.

details which I now may find it difficult to recall,
with that accuracy which a narrative professing to
be in many respects historical, essentially requires,
and to note down many circumstances relating to
myself and others which I may now find it impos-
sible to remember.

My present object is to relate, as far as my mem-
ory will serve, some circumstances of my early life,
which may form a sort of introduction to my auto-
biography, and to my account of matters of higher
importance.

;\I found amtaig my mother's papers, at Brougham,
tjie, , fragment -of ' -a notice respecting me she had
begun-1' to'- wTife '-a good many years ago. I am
tempted to give it exactly in her own words, because
it accurately represents her own impressions; and so
little was she given to laudation or exaggeration,
that what she has recorded of my early years may
be received as perfectly impartial. I only regret the
briefness of her notes : —

"NOTES ABOUT HENKY."

" BROUGHAM, Oct. 1826.

" In putting down what may hereafter be read
with some interest, I feel how unequal I am to the
task. His years of infancy and youth passed with-
out my contemplating that he would fill so high a
place among men as he now does, or I should have
kept memorandums that would have preserved in my
memory many circumstances that would have thrown

EARLY LIFE. 3

light upon his early life, and shown how soon his
great mental powers showed themselves. From a
very tender age he excelled all his cotemporaries.
Nothing to him was a labour — no task prescribed
that was not performed long before the time ex-
pected. His grandmother, a very clever woman, was
an enthusiastic admirer of all intellectual acquire-
ments, and used to compare him to the Admir-
able Chreighton, from his excelling in everything he
undertook. From mere infancy he showed a marked
attention to everything he saw, and this before he
could speak. Afterwards, to everything he heard,
and he had a memory the most retentive. He
spoke distinctly, several words, when he was eight
months and two weeks old ; and this aptitude to
learn continued progressive. When barely seven
years old, he was sent to the High School in Edin-
burgh, his father preferring that school to Eton or
Westminster. He went to school before the 19th of
September 1785, having been born on that day in
the year 1778, at No. 21, north side of St Andrew's
Square. He went through all the classes with
credit, and came away dux of the fifth or rector's
class, taught at that time by Dr Adam.

"The examination was in August 1791, at which
time he had not reached the age of thirteen — an age
unusually early, considering, too, that he had been
only one year, instead of two, the usual number, in
the rector's class.

" As, then, when he left it, he had not completed his

4 EARLY LIFE.

thirteenth year, he was considered too young to be
sent to college ; and therefore we left Edinburgh and
went to Brougham, taking with us the three eldest
boys, and Mr, afterwards Dr, Mitchell, as their tutor.
We did not return to Edinburgh till the winter of
1792; and Henry was then entered at the class which
is called the Humanity class. Next year he attended
the Greek class, taught by Professor Dalzell. In ad-
dition to these classical studies he attended the classes
of natural philosophy and chemistry, and of mathe-
matics under Professor Playfair, a great and good
man, who bore ample testimony to the large amount
of knowledge Henry had acquired when he was only
sixteen. When he was about this age, he wrote a
very able paper on ' The Eefraction of Light/ which
gained the prize adjudged to that subject by a Ger-
man university. By some mistake, he never got the
prize, but he did get the honour. At a very early
age he showed considerable talent for speaking in
public : really, in infancy, I may say, he showed this
tendency ; for he used to get up a make-believe court
of justice for the trial of a supposed prisoner — he
himself acting as counsel, prosecuting the prisoner,
examining the witnesses, summing up the case, and
ending by passing sentence. Before he was seventeen,
he became a member of the Speculative Society, a
debating club which met weekly from six to ten in
the evening, or even later. There he distinguished
himself both for close reasoning and even for speak-
ing that almost amounted to eloquence. But he was

EARLY LIFE. 5

most distinguished for close argument and extreme
quickness and readiness in reply — sometimes seasoned
with perhaps a little too much sarcasm. I have said
we took a tutor to Brougham, but really he was
more wanted for my two other sons, because Henry
always did his work by himself, scorning assistance,
and never applying for help when he could possibly
avoid it."

Among the earliest of my own recollections is the
account my father's mother gave me of the circum-
stance which led to her son's marriage with my
mother.

My grandmother was born in Queen Anne's reign,
so that I have conversed with a person who was alive
a hundred and eighty years ago, and who might have
heard her relative, Ann Brougham, who lived to the
age of a hundred and six, speak of events that hap-
pened in Queen Elizabeth's time ! This is only con-
jecture ; but it is at all events a certain fact that I,
now writing in the latter half of the nineteenth cen-
tury, have heard my grandmother, being, at the time
I refer to, about ninety years of age, relate all the
circumstances of the execution of Charles L, as they
had been told to her by an eyewitness who stood
opposite to Whitehall and saw the King come out
upon the scaffold. I think the story was told to her
about the year 1720, and she talked of her informant
as having been quite old enough at the time of the
execution to have carried away a clear and accurate

6 EARLY LIFE.

recollection of all the details. Her own memory was
most perfect ; nor did the event appear to her to be
so very remote, for she herself perfectly remembered
the attempt of the Pretender in 1715 — not that she
ever called him by that name, for she was rather a
Jacobite, but yet a very High Church Protestant,
continually fighting with her neighbour Mr Howard
of Corby, a most strict Papist, about transubstantia-
tion, which she called by a very expressive term, when
she referred to one of their angry discussions, which
Mr Howard ended by exclaiming, " It's no good your
denying it, Madam Brougham, for I myself have
crunched the bones!" — meaning when he took the
sacramental wafer.

She had a strong feeling for Charles II., and enter-
tained a high regard for her husband's cousin, Father
John Hudleston, who attended Charles in his last
moments.

But to return to my father's marriage. My grand-
mother told me that he left Eton before the accession
of George III., and for some years travelled on the
Continent ; his brother John, then captain of the
school, going to Cambridge, as he was intended for
the Church.

On my father's return to Westmorland, he fell in
love with his cousin, Mary Whelpdale, the last of a
perfectly pure Saxon race. Her father's estate, to
which she was sole heiress, was close to Brougham,
so that the alliance was all that could be wished.
Everything was in readiness for the nuptials — the

EARLY LIFE. /

wedding -coach, bought, and all the paraphernalia
prepared.

The very day before the wedding Mary Whelpdale
died. My father, struck down by the shock, lost for
a time the use of his reason. He was again sent
abroad, but on his return to "Westmorland, found the
scene of his calamity unendurable. A very intimate
friend of my grandfather, Lord Buchan, lived some-
times at Dryburgh Abbey, in Scotland, and sometimes
in Edinburgh. To him my father was consigned, in
the hopes that, introduced by him to the best Edin-
burgh society, he might find occupation and distrac-
tion enough to dissipate his grief."*

Accordingly to Edinburgh he went, and there, among
other distinguished personages, made the acquaintance
of Dr Kobertson, at whose house he met his eldest
sister, then a widow, and her only child Eleanor. This
acquaintance ended in a marriage, and then my father
and his bride moved to St Andrew's Square, to the
house in which Lord and Lady Buchan lived, and
there I was born on the 19th September 1778.t

It has often struck me that what seemed to my
father an irretrievable calamity, may have been the
means of saving me from obscurity. If Mary Whelp-
dale had been my mother, she would no doubt have
materially enriched the Saxon blood I derived from
my father ; but I should have remained in the state
of respectable mediocrity which seems to have charac-
terised my many ancestors, none of whom, so far as I

* Lord Buchan — see Appendix I. f Dr Robertson — see App. II.

8 EARLY LIFE.

have been able to discover, were ever remarkable for
anything. Many, no doubt, were fighters, but even
in that career of doubtful usefulness were rather pru-
dent than daring. Thus Udardus, who had the cus-
tody of Appleby Castle, instead of keeping it for his
employer, Henry II., allowed William the Lion of
Scotland to take it, and appears even to have gone over
to the enemy. This, indeed, is incontestably proved
by the Pipe Koll, 22 Henry II., an official copy of
which, stamped with the seal of the Public Eecord
Office, is now before me, and is in these words : " Ite
de Placitis eorundem in Westmarieland. Vdardus cle
Broham redd. comp. de qor ta xx. m. quia fuit cu ini-
micis Peg." After he had paid his fine, as appears by
a record of a subsequent date, he turned crusader ;
but instead of fighting and dying for the Holy Sepul-
chre, he returned to Brougham, and there died quietly
in his bed.

His son and successor, Gilbert de Broham, paid fifty
marks to King John, " ut remaneat, ne transfretet,
termin' ad passag, Dm Peg.," as appears in the Oblata
Poll of the second year of the reign of King John,
preserved in the Tower of London ; so, instead of going
to fight with the King's army in Normandy, he paid
this fine that he might be allowed to stay at home.
He afterwards got into hot water with King John,
who mulcted him of half of the diminished estate he
had inherited from Uclard, and gave it to his creature
Veteriporit, from whom it passed to the Cliffords, and
from them to the Tuftons. Nor do I find we improved

EARLY LIFE. 9

in intellect even after an infusion of very pure Norman
blood, which came into our veins from Harold, Lord
of Vaux, in Normandy.

I think, then, I am fairly entitled to argue that I,
at least, owe much to the Celtic blood which my
mother brought from the clans of Struan and Kinloch-
Moidart.*

I heard also from my grandmother a remark-
able story about her husband's funeral. He died at
Brougham in December 1 782. Neither my father, nor
his brother John, were then in Westmorland. Charles,
Duke of Norfolk (father of the Duke who went by the
name of the "Jockey of Norfolk," after his ancestor of
Bosworth), was then living at Greystoke, in Cumber-
land, and being a most intimate friend of the family,
attended the funeral as representing the chief mourner.
In that character his place was at the head of the table
at the funeral feast, where he was supported by all the
gentlemen of the county. After the dinner the Duke
rose and addressed the guests as follows : — " Friends
and neighbours, before I give you the toast of the day,
the memory of the deceased, I ask you to drink to the
health of the family physician, Dr Harrison, the
founder of the feast ! "

Many toasts followed. The guests drank long and
deeply. The funeral then proceeded on its way to
the parish church of Brougham, called Nine Churches,
a corruption of St Ninian, to whom it is dedicated, a
distance of three miles, the road winding along the

* See Appendix II.

10 EARLY LIFE.

ie

steep banks of the river Eamont. Arrived at tl
church, the hearse was met by the rector, but the
coffin had disappeared ! The shock was enough to
sober the merry mourners. On searching back, the
coffin was discovered in the river, into which it had
fallen, pitched down the steep bank, at a place where
probably the hearse, driven by the drunken coachman,
had lurched against a rock. The oak outer coffin was
broken to pieces, but the lead remained intact at the
bottom of the river, too heavy to be carried down by
the stream. The shock and the scandal produced by
all this had the effect not only of sobering everybody,
but of putting an end to such disgraceful orgies in the
county for the future. The accuracy of my grand-
mother's story was strongly confirmed by an event
which happened many years afterwards. In October
1846, the wall of our vault in the chancel of Nine
Churches had given way: on the vault being opened
to make the necessary repairs, I myself saw the lead
coffin of my grandfather battered and bulged from its
tumble down the rocky bank of the river.

My grandmother well remembered the events of
1745, for she was then past the middle age of life,
and the mother of several children, my father having
been born in June 1742. She used to talk of the
stirring events of that time, the battle of Clifton Moor,
the burial of a number of " Willie's dragoons" (the
Duke of Cumberland) in a ditch by the river Lowther,
close to Brougham, and the executions at Carlisle.
But these were comparatively recent events, and had

EARLY LIFE. II

little interest even for me, compared to her account
of the execution of Charles.

I have alluded to the intimacy that existed between
my grandfather's family and the Howards of Norfolk.
Among many letters now at Brougham from different
members of that family, but on subjects too private
for publication, I give, as a specimen of the style and
habits of the time, the following, verbatim et liter-
atim : —

" NORFOLK HOUSE, March 9 [1778].

" The Duchess of Norfolk presents her compliments
to the two Miss Broughams. She has taken the liberty
to send 30 yds. of silk, with triming, for a night
gown & pettycoat for each, which I hope they will
do me the favour to accept of.

" The Duchess desires her compliments to Mrs
Brougham.

" To the two Miss Broughams."

So much for my paternal grandmother; but I
should be most ungrateful if I said nothing of my other
grandmother, Dr Kobertson's sister, for to her I owe
all my success in life. From my earliest infancy till
I left college, with the exception of the time we passed
at Brougham with my tutor, Mr Mitchell, I was her
companion. Eemarkable for beauty, but far more for
a masculine intellect and clear understanding, she in-
stilled into me from my cradle the strongest desire for
information, and the first principles of that persever-
ing energy in the pursuit of every kind of knowledge

12 EARLY LIFE.

which, more than any natural talents I may possess,
has enabled me to stick to, and to accomplish, how
far successfully it is not for me to say, every task I ever
undertook.

I was sent when very young to a day-school in
George Street, Edinburgh, kept by a Mr Stalker, a
sort of infant school, in which girls as well as boys were
the pupils. Before I went there my father had taught
me to read ; but my grandmother, from day to day,
worked with me at my lessons, so that when I was
only seven years old I had outgrown Mr Stalker's
academy, and was sent to Luke Fraser's class at the
High School. All the time I was there, my grand-
mother was my daily help and instructress : under her
careful tuition I not only won and kept a good place
in my class, but, with a perseverance that almost
amounted to obstinacy, I on one occasion made Fraser
confess he had been wrong and I right, in some dis-
puted bit of Latinity for which he had the day before
punished me. My victory gained me immense credit
with all my schoolfellows, and I was called " the boy
that had licked the master." I am bound to say Mr
Fraser bore no malice, and when I left him to go into
the rector's (Dr Adam's) class, we parted the best of
friends.

I remained in the class of Luke Fraser, according
to the course of that seminary, for four years, from
September 1785, when I was seven years old, to
October 1789, when I entered the class of the rector,
Dr Adam, under whom I was two years nominally,

EARLY LIFE. 13

but really only the second of these two, having been
kept at home by illness almost the whole of the first
year.* During some months of that year, before I fell
ill, I had a private tutor, Mr, afterwards Dr, Mitchell,
an excellent scholar, who afterwards went to India as
a medical man, and died in the service of the Eajah
of Travancore, whose chief physician he became. I
had, however, the great benefit, before my illness, of
attending Dr Adam's class, and hearing daily his com-
ments upon the classics which we read, interspersed
with his general remarks upon political subjects and
allusions to the great events then engrossing the
attention of the world, for the French Eevolution
had broken out three months before his course began.
He was a zealous friend of liberty, and in those
times and in that place was termed a democrat.
Yet with all the violence of party and the influence of
the predominant powers — the Dundases — no excep-
tion was taken to his dwelling on those topics in
illustration of, and in connection with, the books he
taught. Of course, three or four years later, when
party violence was at its height, but when the crimes
of the French mob had alienated many admirers of
the Revolution, he carefully abstained from such sub-
jects, though he still continued of that class which
clung to the Eevolution more or less, in spite of its
crimes. His great learning, his able and useful works,

* An account of Luke Fraser will be found in Steven's * History of
the High School of Edinburgh,' p. 92. Dr Alexander Adam, the rector,
of whom so much interesting matter follows, is sufficiently eminent to
be commemorated in the usual works of biographical reference.

14 EARLY LIFE.

and his irreproachable character, as well as his untir-
ing diligence and exemplary patience in the discharge
of his duties, commanded the respect of all, and
endeared him to those who had the inestimable benefit
of his instruction. He had the faculty of exciting
both an ardent love of the subjects he taught, and a
spirit of inquiry into all that related to them. Stirred
by his precepts and example, I spent the months dur-
ing which I was kept from school by indisposition, in
reading and trying my hand at composition. The
progress I made during this illness clearly proved to
me two things : first, the importance of allowing boys
sufficient time for reading, instead of devoting the
whole day, as at school, to Latin and Greek exercises ;
next, the great benefit of having a teacher who would
dwell upon subjects connected with the lessons he
taught, but beyond those lessons, thus exciting the
desire of useful knowledge in his pupils.

Dr Adam had been violently assailed for his ex-
cellent Grammar by Gilbert Stuart, who had also
attacked Dr Eobertson's ' History of Scotland/ in
various reviews both in London and in one which he
established in Edinburgh. Stuart was in both in-
stances, and, indeed, in all his writings, entirely influ-
enced by his violent temper and his self-interest. The
historian was attacked because he was supposed to
have, as Principal, defeated his attempts to obtain a
professorship ; the grammarian was attacked because
his work had superseded one by Stuart's cousin, Eud-
diman. Stuart was a man of extraordinary talent

EARLY LIFE. 15

and learning, displayed in many works, one of which,
published before he was of age, obtained for him the
degree of Doctor of Laws. But his profligate life and
want of all principle brought him into contempt ; and
his works, some of which have great merit, have sunk
into oblivion, in consequence of the spite and the un-
fairness that runs through them, and deprives them
of all trustworthiness/""

I returned to school, my health being re-established.
The work did not at all oppress me, and I left it at
the head of the class and of the school — what is there
called dux. This was in some respects accidental. I
was at the head of the class with Keay (afterwards
high at the Scotch bar), and acknowledged him my
superior, — possibly from his having attended the whole
of the former year.t I never disputed the place with
him ; but on his leaving Edinburgh, before the break-
ing up and the examination, I succeeded to the head-
ship. Horner, a year after, belonged to that class, but
it was his first year under the rector. Next year he
also left it at the head. Murray (afterwards Lord
Murray) had been of his year, but left the school for
Westminster. I had always, except during the ill-
ness I have referred to, the blessing of robust health,
only interrupted, when a child, by putrid fever, which
produced an extraordinary effect in destroying my
memory almost entirely ; for I had just learned to
read, taught by my father, and I had in those ten
days lost all knowledge even of the letters. I very

* Gilbert Stuart — see Appendix III. f See Appendix IV.

16 EARLY LIFE.

soon recovered it, and in a few weeks was sent, as I
have already said, to Stalker's day-school.

It is a great mistake, into which Lord Cockburn
and others have fallen, the fancying that I at all distin-
guished myself at the High School — a mistake caused
by persons reflecting backward from one period to
another. The only instance I have the least recollection
of, was when the Principal of the University (Robert-
son) visited the school at one of the examinations
yearly held before the vacation: he said to Mr Fraser
that I ought to have been at the head of his class. But
the answer was, "No ; Reddie is in his right place :"
and so he was. My great kinsman was deceived, not
by his partiality, but by my having a better voice and
delivery : the manner prevailed over the matter — as I
dare to say it has often done since, on greater occasions
and with a far less critical audience. Reddie was
afterwards in a very high station at the Scotch bar —
one of the most learned and sound lawyers of his day.
Tie distinguished himself especially in the great ques-
tions connected with maritime rights and international
law, and enjoyed the friendship and patronage of
Hope, afterwards Lord President; nor did anything
prevent him from rising to the top of the profession,
and to the head of the bench, but his modest, retiring,
and unambitious nature, which led him to accept an
oilice at Glasgow of great importance and of judicial
functions, though ] nimble compared with what, by the
consent of all, he was so well entitled to.

It was an inestimable advantage to my studies at

EARLY LIFE. i;

all times that they were directed by my great kinsman
the Principal, after the first impulses they had received
from my grandmother, his eldest and favourite sister,
and who had lived with him, having the care of his
family, for many years before the marriage of either.
As a matter of course, he was consulted by my father
in all that regarded the education of his children.
And he used to visit us at Brougham, where I well
remember accompanying him upon his walks in the
woods, where he would occasionally repeat aloud
Greek or Latin verses. We had to deplore his irre-
parable loss in 1793 ; but I recollect going to his villa
in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, where he resided
several months before his death, to tell him of an im-
portant debate in the General Assembly, in which his
son, afterwards Lord Robertson, the judge, had greatly
distinguished himself. My youngest brother, although
born some years after the Principal's death, was named
after him, and the surname, as well as the Christian,
ought certainly to have been given; but a little Cumber-
land family pride prevented this, as we supposed. He
always recommended translation, as tending to form
the style by giving an accurate knowledge of the force
of expression, and obliging us to mark and estimate the
shades of difference between words in phrases in the
two languages, and to find, by selecting the terms, or
turning the idiom, the expression required for a given
meaning; whereas when composing originally, the idea
may be varied, in order to suit the diction that most
easily presents itself, of which the influence produced
VOL. I. B

18 EARLY LIFE.

by rhymes, and moulding the sense as well as suggest-
ing it, affords a striking and familiar example.

He had much exercised himself, therefore, in trans-
lation, and even intended to publish one of Antoninus'
Meditations, done while at college. The appearance
of a translation at Glasgow prevented this publication,
but the manuscript remains, and is in my possession ;
and the version is very ably and learnedly executed.
With this strong opinion in favour of translation,
which was also that of his son Lord Eobertson, both
of them prescribed it to me, and among other things
made me translate all the History of Florus. The fol-
lowing letter to Lord Eobertson shows an extremely
imperfect taste, and a considerable misconception of
the task prescribed ; possibly arising from the ambi-
tion of the writer : —

"BROUGHAM, January 15, 1792.

" DEAR SIR, — You would no doubt be surprised that
I did not write to you by Mr Mitchell, who was in
Edinburgh. I was prevented doing this by reason of
not having finished the task you were so kind as pre-
scribe to me before I left town — a task which was so
very delightful that nothing could have hindered me
performing it, had not Mr M. begged I would desist,
until I should make some improvement in my writing,
which had been spoilt by beginning too soon to scrawl
versions. I was in this manner prevented from making
use of your kindness for three or four months.

"You will perhaps remember that you allowed me
to translate either Livy or Florus. I pitched upon the

EARLY LIFE. 19

latter — not that his style appeared to me any way
superior to that of the other; but as I had read,
partly at Edinburgh and partly here, almost the
whole of the first five books of Livy (a copy of which
was the only part of his works I had), it naturally
occurred that there would be less field for exertion
in translating an author with whose works I was
acquainted, than in trying one whose works were
quite new to me. Besides, I was confirmed in my
choice when I recollected that you seemed to give the
preference to Florus. That author, though concise
and nervous, is not the less elegant and instructive.
Full of vigour, and just, in his descriptions, relating
the conquests of Rome in that rapid manner, as it were,
in which they were acquired. As he writes in a very
peculiar stile, so I thought that by a literal transla-
tion his elegance would be lost. I have endeavoured,
therefore, by taking a little freedom, to transfuse his
beauties into the English language, without impair-
ing the sense. How far I have succeeded I must leave
you to judge. This I can with truth affirm, that
throughout the whole of the translation I am indebted
to the assistance of no one, and I hope you will ex-
cuse its many defects and inaccuracies, particularly the
badness of the writing. I am sorry, dear sir, that I can
give you no news, as affairs in the country commonly
wear a very uniform aspect. As for my studies, I
have read about four books of Virgil's ^Eneid, begin-
ning at the VI. ; one of Livy ; have got through
above three parts of Adam's Roman Antiquities ; and

20 EARLY LIFE.

am employed in the Greek verbs. "When business
is over I amuse myself with reading, skaiting (sic), or
walking. If you can find leisure to write me a few
lines, I shall think myself particularly honoured by it.
As I fear I have already tried your patience, wish-
ing many happy new years to yourself and Mrs E.,
the college family — Kussells and Brydons — in which
I am joined by all this family, I beg leave to sub-
scribe myself, dear sir, yours with the greatest respect
and esteem, HENRY BROUGHAM."

Before I refer to my kinsman's answer, I may
interpose a letter which the kindness of a member of
the Kinloch-Moidart family has permitted me to use;
and I give it merely as showing the local impressions
made on me at the early age of thirteen.

"BROUGHAM, July 14, 1792.

" MY DEAR COUSIN, — As my mother, ever since the
receipt of your kind letter, has been in a great bustle
with company, I, at her request, take advantage of a
cover which is going to your friend Mr Bell, from a
gentleman who dines here to-day with a most abomin-
ably formal company ; but if you expect much enter-
tainment from my pen you will be disappointed, for
nothing is more true than that the stillness of a coun-
try life furnishes few occurrences worthy of a place in
black and white.

' To go back to April : James and I spent a very
agreeable week at Skirwith Abbey, the seat of a

EARLY LIFE. 21

neighbouring gentleman. The house, which is modern,
is a handsome building, somewhat like the Physicians'
Hall, though without pillars: it is vastly naked, being
placed in the midst of a moor or common, with little
or no wood of any size about it, and the garden above
half a mile from the house. Mr Yates's agreeable
family consists of two grown-up daughters (the
youngest of whom, with her mother, is now in Edin-
burgh consulting Mr Bell), and three sons, the eldest
about 16, the youngest 9.

" About the end of June, Mr Mitchell, James, and
I made an excursion to the Lakes, about twenty-five
miles from this, and staid there a day or two. The
lake at Keswick is certainly a most grand, romantic,
and agreeable sight. A fine sheet of water expanded
in the bottom of a most beautiful valley, surrounded
by mountains of wood, and interspersed with woody
islands (one of which is faced with a mock fortifica-
tion, and is the residence of a country squire). The
lake begins with a fine cascade and terminates in a
beautiful river. The whole of this enchanting scene,
lighted up by a most beautiful morning, presented to
persons like us, unaccustomed to such sights, a picture
of beauty and sublimity not to be easily forgotten. At
one end is the celebrated vale of Borrowdale, at the other
the neat town of Keswick, where we saw a very fine
museum filled with great curiosities, both ancient and
modern, but scarcely to be compared with Weir's in
Edinburgh, though of a more universal nature. Be-
sides the Lakes, I have been much about since spring

22 EARLY LIFE.

began, and as I ride a great deal, I have seen every
one of the country seats hereabouts.

" I think the conduct of your wise baillies during
the late riots proves them to be idiots and monsters that
ought to be expunged from the face of the creation.
I ought to make 1792 apologies to your sister for not
answering her very kind letter, which I received by Mr
Mitchell. Eead this to her, with my love, in which the
rest of this family join, not forgetting my dear Peter.

" Tell your good mother that Mrs Syme looks upon
her letters, and those of my aunt Nelly (to whom, and
all other friends, remember me), as her greatest con-
solation, and that she expects a letter from them soon.
We were all sorry for B. Eussell's death ; indeed, except
John, I think she was by much the best of that family.

" Expecting your answer by a parcel which is coming
here from Mrs Hope this week, I remain your most
affectionate cousin, H. P. BROUGHAM/'

To go back, then, to my holiday task, the translation
of Florus. I consider that my learned kinsman was
much more lenient in his judgment on the work than
his illustrious father would have been, whom we never
thought of troubling with it. The following is his
answer to my letter of January : —

"April 21, 1792.

"DEAR HENRY, — I should make an apology for
having delayed so long to answer your letter. The
truth is that I received it during the hurry of the
winter session, when I could not command time ; and

EARLY LIFE. 23

since the commencement of the vacation I was pre-
vented for some time by indisposition, and afterwards
it took me some leisure times to read your work with
that attention which I wished to bestow upon it.

" I have now perused it with very great pleasure, and
compared a very great part of it, sentence by sentence,
with the original, and I am happy that I can, with
perfect sincerity, say, that high as my expectations
from you were, they have been greatly exceeded.
Instead of confining yourself everywhere to a literal
translation, you have often given a turn to the expres-
sion which shows that you entered fully into the ideas
of your author, and your translation discovers a know-
ledge both of the Latin and of the English far above
what could have been expected. I will not say how
much your translation has pleased me in another point
of view, as affording a proof of industry and applica-
tion, which, when joined with your abilities, cannot
fail to insure your success in any line of life which
you may follow. I think you should persevere in
translating : it is one of the best exercises, and im-
proves your knowledge both of Latin and English.

"My father and mother, Mrs Eussell, Betsy and Elie,
are at Lennell. John and Mary are with us. Mrs
Hope and all our friends here are well. Mrs Eobertson
desires to join me in best compliments to your papa,
mamma, and grandmamma, and all the children. — I
am, dear Henry, your affectionate cousin,

"Wn. ROBERTSON.

"No. 67 PRINCES STREET, April 21, 1792."

24 EARLY LIFE.

Notwithstanding any vices in my translation, I cer-
tainly had acquired no habit of inaccurate version, no
contempt of strict closeness, or such faults must have
been cured by subsequent experience and reflection, as
well as the incorrect taste disclosed in the letter ; for
whatever I have since attempted in prose, and still
more the only efforts in verse, which the entire want
of poetical faculty has confined to translation, have
nothing to distinguish them but the rigorous close-
ness, the whole poetical merit clearly belonging to the
original. Of this an example may be given in the
commotion among my Eton friends caused by my
quoting from Horace in the House of Commons, when
repelling some most absurd slander of the grossest
description. Instead of the Latin —

" Falsus honor juvat et mendax infamia terret
Quern nisi mendosum et medicandum 1 " *

I gave —

False honour charms, and lying slander scares,
Whom but the false and faulty 1

Next day, in Westminster Hall, I was mobbed by
Eton friends at the bar, Jonathan Eaine at their
head, calling on me to say by what right I had used
words which they could not find either in Francis
or elsewhere, and requiring me to declare where
I had found them, but I would only answer, " No-
where."

No doubt the merit of extreme closeness depends
•much on the frame of the original, and it may be

* Hor. Ep., I. xvi.

EARLY LIFE. 25

given sometimes word for word without becoming
actual prose, as —

" Vive vale. Si quid novisti rectius istis,

Candidus imperti ; si non, his utere mecum." *

Live long, farewell : if better rules you see,
Candid impart ; if not, use these with me :

which, literal as it is, cannot be reckoned more pro-
saic than the Latin.

I have often heard the great historian preach, and
though very young at the time, was struck with the
excellence and the usefulness of his discourses. His
notions of practical moderation, and the wish to avoid
the fanaticism of the High Church party (what with
us would be called the Low Church, or Evangelical),
led him generally to prefer moral to theological or
Gospel subjects. Yet he mingled also three themes
essential to the duties of a Christian pastor. He loved
to dwell on the goodness of the Deity, as shown forth
not only in the monuments of creation, but the work
of love in the redemption of mankind. He delighted
to expatiate on the fate of man in a future state of
being, and to contrast the darkness of the views which
the wisest of the heathens had with the perfect light
of the new dispensation. He oftentimes would ex-
pound the Scriptures, taking, as is the usage of the
Kirk, a portion of some chapter for the subject of
what is called Lecture, as contradistinguished from
Sermon ; and in these discourses the richness of his
learning, the remarkable clearness of his explanation,
the felicity of his illustration, shone forth, as well as

* Hor. Ep., I. vi.

26 EARLY LIFE.

the cogency and elegance of his practical application
to our duties in life, the end and aim of all his teach-
ing. Such was he as a preacher.

But one sermon I can never forget.* The occasion
was the celebration (5th November 1788) of the cen-
tenary of the Ke volution ; and his sister, considering
that to have heard such a man discourse on such a
subject was a thing to be remembered by any one
through life ever after, took me (although only ten
years old) to hear him. It was of singular and strik-
ing interest, from the extreme earnestness, the youth-
ful fervour, with which it was delivered. But it
touched in some passages upon a revolution which he
expected and saw approaching, if not begun, as well
as upon the one which was long past, and almost
faded from the memory in the more absorbing interest
of present affairs. I well remember his referring to

* " CANNES, November 1866.

. . . " After what Elwin said about the notices of Robertson, Black,
and others, having been already printed in the ' Lives of Men of Letters,
Philosophers,' &c., I have been doing my utmost to answer his objection,
by an attempt to rewrite them, but I have entirely failed. I find I
cannot do this without utterly destroying any merit the original com-
position may possess. Hence, these notices must remain as I have
placed them in the ' Autobiography.' But you may, if you think it
necessary, state where I have taken them from : it is no plagiary to
steal from one's self, and I would rather state the fact, than print the
notices with inverted commas. They are much too long for notes at
the foot of pages ; besides, all footnotes must, if possible, be avoided.
In the MS. of the other volumes, there are notices, and characters, of
men at the bar and public men : I daresay some of these will be found
to have been already printed. Hence, let the best mode of dealing with
all these be well considered. You cannot do better than consult Forster ;
but bear in mind that they must not be omitted, and that I cannot
undertake to rewrite them. — Yours, H. B.

"To WILLIAM BROUGHAM, Esq.,

Brougham, Penrith, Angleterre."

EARLY LIFE. 2?

the events then passing on the Continent as the fore-
runners of far greater ones which he saw casting
their shadows before. He certainly had no appre-
hensions of mischief, but he was full of hope for the
future, and his exultation was boundless in contem-
plating the deliverance of "so many millions of so
great a nation from the fetters of arbitrary govern-
ment." His sister and I often afterwards reflected on
this extraordinary discourse with wonder, and I feel
quite certain of some such expressions as these hav-
ing been used, and of his foretelling that our neigh-
bours would one day have to celebrate such an event
as had now called us together. We dined with him
the same day on leaving the church, for it was the
afternoon service that he had performed. His eldest
son, afterwards Lord Eobertson, was of the company ;
and when the Principal expressed his satisfaction at
having had his presence at church (a thing by no
means of weekly occurrence), the answer was : " Ay,
sir, if you'll always give us such sermons, you may
make it worth our while." "Ah!" answered he,
" you would like it, as the boys say," referring to a
vulgar taunt. I have again and again asked my
learned kinsman to show me the sermon, which he
admitted he possessed among his father's papers,
fairly written out. His answer was that he wished
to avoid giving it publicity, because, in the violence
of the times, the author would be set down for a
Jacobin, how innocent soever he was at the date of
its being preached. Those times have happily long
since passed away ; and the sermon having been found

28 EARLY LIFE.

among the judge's papers, after a long and fruitless
search, I am now possessed of it, written in his own
hand, and can see the places where he added passages
on the inspiration of the moment, particularly that
above cited, my recollection of which is distinct, and
is confirmed both by the conversation upon it I have
often had with his sister, and by the judge's appre-
hensions, who was of the strong alarmist party.

It is fit that some mention should be made of Dr
Kobertson's family, and of his private life as con-
nected with these memoirs. His father, a Robertson
of Struan, was settled for some years as minister of
the Scotch Church in London Wall ; and I recollect
when the affairs of that establishment came before
me in the Court of Chancery, and one of the counsel
connected with Scotland was beginning to explain its
nature, I told him that my great-grandfather, the
historian's father, had been its pastor, so that I might
be excused for taking an unusual interest in its con-
cerns, reminding him of the Scotch saying that blood
is thicker than water. He returned to Scotland in
1718, and was settled at Borthwick, in the county of
Edinburgh, having married Miss Pitcairn of Dreg-
horn; and it was always remembered in the family
that Sir Richard Steele, with whom he had become
acquainted in London, showed his respect for him by
being present at the marriage. The historian was
born at Borthwick, 19th September 1721.

I have been curious to ascertain the kind of genius
which distinguished his father, besides his talent for
drawing, of which I possess a specimen showing some

EARLY LIFE. 29

skill. It is a miniature in Indian-ink of James Earl
of Seafield, one of the forfeited lords, to whom he
was distantly related. The family were also said to
be descended from John Knox. The historian pro-
fessed himself quite unacquainted with the reasons of
this rumour which connected him with "the rustic
apostle," whose character and conduct he has de-
scribed so faithfully and strikingly.

By the kindness of a kinsman I have had the great
satisfaction of receiving a copy of the only sermon
which he ever published, as well as of two or three
hymns, translations and paraphrases from the Greek
of the New Testament. The sermon is able, judicious,
correctly composed both for accuracy of diction and
severity of taste, and contains passages of great
beauty and effect. It resembles what in England
would be called an Ordination Sermon or Charge,
having been delivered at the opening of the Metro-
politan Synod in May 1737, and is a full description
of the duties of ministers, the title of it being that
"they should please God rather than men." His
poetry is elegant and classical : one of his pieces is a
beautiful paraphrase of the 14th chapter of St John
to the tenth verse : —

1 " Let not your hearts with anxious thoughts

Be troubled or dismayed;

But trust in Providence divine,

And trust my gracious aid.

2 I to my Father's house return;

There numerous mansions stand,
And glory manifold abounds
Through all the happy land.

30 EARLY LIFE.

3 I go your entrance to secure,

And your abode prepare;
Eegions unknown are safe to you,
When I, your Friend, am there.

4 Thence shall I come, when ages close,

To take you home with me;
There we shall meet to part no more,
And still together be.

5 I am the Way, the Truth, the Life:

No son of human race,
But such as I conduct and guide,
Shall see my Father's face."

When I went to Glasgow in 1860 to preside at
the Social Science Congress, and when, as usual
on these occasions, I attended divine service in
the Cathedral Church, I recollect being much struck
with the accident of this hymn being sung, when,
very certainly, I alone of all the congregation knew
who was the author, for the hymn-book gives it
without any name.*

Both sermon and poetry plainly show good taste,
as well as strong but sober reason, came to the great
historian by descent as well as by study ; but that his
father held opinions more strict on some subjects than
the relaxed rigour of Presbyterian rule prescribed,
half a century later, is proved by his requiring his
son's promise never to enter a playhouse. This was
stated by him in reference to hii-i father when de-
bating the question of John Home's having written
the play of ' Douglas/ It is needless to add that,
however much he differed with his father on this

* See Appendix V.

EARLY LIFE. 31

subject, he strictly adhered through life to the pro-
mise thus given ; insomuch that when Garrick and
Henderson at different times visited him, they enter-
tained and interested him by exhibiting to him in
private, specimens of the art in which both so emi-
nently excelled."* The traditional character in his
family of the venerable person whom I have men-
tioned was anything rather than sour or stern, how
severe and unbending soever may have been his
moral feelings. For the sweetness of his placid
temper, and the cheerfulness of his kindly disposi-
tion, I have heard him spoken of in terms of the
warmest enthusiasm by such of his children as were
old enough at the time of his decease to recollect
him distinctly. The idea of again meeting him in
another state was ever present to my grandmother's
mind (who was his eldest daughter), and especially
when stricken with any illness. It was with her a
common source of argument for a future state — as
proved by the light of nature, and in her pious mind
a confirmation of the truth of Christianity — that, be-
lieving in the divine goodness, she could not conceive
the extinction of so much angelical purity as adorned
her parent, and so fine an understanding as he pos-
sessed. Their mother was a woman of great ability
and force of character ; but, like many of that caste,
women especially, she was more stern and more
severe than amiable, and this contrast, unfavourable
to the one, redounded to the augmented love of the
other. It cannot be doubted that the son's character

* See Appendix VI.

32 EARLY LIFE.

derived a strong tincture from both parents ; but while
he, like his father, was mild and gentle in his temper
and of an engaging demeanour, his firmness and deci-
sion— nay, his inclination towards the Stoical system
of morals, and even to a certain degree of stoical feel-
ing, too — was derived from his mother.

The death of these two excellent persons was sin-
gularly melancholy, and served to impress on the
minds of their family a mournful recollection of their
virtues. Mr Eobertson had been removed to the Old
Greyfriars' Church of Edinburgh in 1773; and ten
years afterwards, both he and his wife, seized with
putrid fever, died within a few days of each other,
leaving eight children — six daughters and two sons —
of whom "William was the elder. William had been
educated first at the school of Dalkeith, under a very
able teacher of the name of Leslie, a gentleman at
that time of the greatest eminence in his profession.
On his father's removal to Edinburgh, he was taken
thither and placed at the University, though only
twelve years old.

The age of twelve was only a year or two less
than usual at the Scotch universities. My contem-
poraries and myself were barely fourteen when we
entered, attending the mathematical as well as
the Latin and Greek classes, and next year that
of natural philosophy.

His diligence in study was unremitting, and he
pursued his education at the different classes for
eight years with indefatigable zeal. He had laid

EARLY LIFE. 33

down for himself a strict plan of reading; and of
the notes which he took there remain a number of
books, beginning when he was only fourteen, all
bearing the sentence as a motto, which so char-
acterised his love of learning, indicating that he
delighted in it abstractedly, and for its own sake,
without regarding the uses to which it might be
turned — " Vita sine litteris, mors."

When the London University (now called Univer-
sity College) was founded in 1825, I had a good deal
of correspondence with Lord Eobertson, who strongly
recommended taking as our motto this inscription in
his father's note-books. I give what is above stated
as his gloss upon the motto or text advisedly.

His whole life was spent in study. I well remem-
ber his constant habit of quitting the drawing-room,
both after dinner and again after tea, and remaining
shut up in his library. The period of time when I
saw this was after the 'History of America' had
been published, and before Major Bennett's map and
memoir appeared, which, he tells us, first suggested
the ' Disquisition on Ancient India/ Consequently,
for above ten years he was in the course of constant
study, engaged in extending his information, examin-
ing and revolving the facts of history, contemplating
ethical and theological truths, amusing his fancy with
the strains of Greek and Eoman poetry, or warming
it at the fire of ancient eloquence so congenial to his
mind, at once argumentative and rhetorical ; and all
this study produced not one written line, though thus

VOL i, c

34 EARLY LIFE.

unremittedly carried on. The same may be said of
the ten years he passed in constant study from 1743,
the beginning of his residence in a small parish, of
very little clerical duty, to 1752, when we know from
his letter to Lord Hailes he began his first work.
But, indeed, the composition of his three great works,
spread over a period of nearly thirty years, clearly
evinces that during this long time his studies must
have been much more subservient to his own gratifi-
cation than to the preparation of his writings, which
never could have required one-half that number of
years for their completion.

In 1741, according to the constitution of the Scotch
Church, he was licensed by the Presbytery of Edin-
burgh to preach, orders being only conferred upon a
presentation to a living or kirk. Two years after, he
was appointed minister of Gladsmuir, a country parish
in East Lothian ; and this event happened fortunately
on the eve of the irreparable loss sustained by the
family in the death of both their parents, which left
his brother and his sisters wholly without provision.

He immediately took the care of them upon him-
self, and would form no connection by marriage until
he had seen them placed in situations of indepen-
dence. He thus remained single for eight years,
during which his eldest and favourite sister super-
intended his household. In her sound judgment he
always had the greatest confidence ; for he knew that
to great beauty she added a calm and a firm temper,
inherited from their mother, but with greater meek-

EARLY LIFE. 35

ness of disposition. An instance of her fortitude and
presence of mind was sometimes mentioned by him,
though never alluded to by her : a swarm of bees
having settled on her head and shoulders while sitting
in the garden, she remained motionless until they took
wing, thus saving her life, which was in imminent
jeopardy. She was married in 1750; and, the year
after, he married his cousin Miss Nesbitt. She, after
a long attachment, married Mr Syme, minister of
Alloa, where her daughter was born. He was a sound
divine and a learned man, much esteemed by the
Principal, with whom he coincided on the great
question of lay patronage which then agitated the
Church, as it has in our day, having caused the great
schism dividing the Establisment into two. He had
under his care as pupils the sons of Mr Abercromby,
the chief person in the neighbourhood, Sir Ealph and
his brother Sir Robert.

If such as has been described was the Principal's
estimate of his sister, it is needless to say that her
affection for him, and the veneration in which she
held him all her life, and his memory when gone,
knew no bounds. I recollect while very young, when
he came to Brougham, being much struck with her
manner of addressing him. It was always " Sir," not
brother ; and he called her " Mally " (Molly) ; but this,
I afterwards observed, did not betoken any distance,
or want of perfect and cordial familiarity. His other
sisters addressed him in the same manner, but in this
case there was not by any means the same familiarity.

36 EARLY LIFE.

She was indeed, as her brother always said, a very-
remarkable person, and this was apparent from his
regard for her opinion and advice, as well as from the
discussions on various subjects which I have heard
between them. I well remember her great admira-
tion of Lord Chatham, and that she did not quite
agree with him in his estimate of the son, who stood
a good deal higher in his opinion than in hers, not
because of his being at all a Pittite, but probably
from his friendship with the Dundases (the two Pre-
sidents), father and son."5' He was, as he told Wal-
pole many years before Chatham's death, a moderate
Whig, a Whig of 1688; to which Walpole says he
made an answer, that no one ever believed he ven-
tured, with such a person. His sister was avowedly
a Whig in the mere party sense of the term. But as
an orator, Chatham was the model she used to place
before my eyes ; and her dreams were, when she
heard of my attempts, that her preaching had not
been in vain. It was a subject on which she often
came with her daughter (my mother), of whom she
had a very high and most just opinion, as had the
Principal. But I greatly doubt if she herself, had
she survived to 1830, would have exercised the self-
control and self-denial which the daughter showed,
in opposing, by her remonstrances and earnest advice,
my being Chancellor.

* 1. Robert Dundas of Arniston, born 1685, Lord President of the
Court of Session 1748, died 1753; 2. Robert, his son, bora 1713, Lord
President 1760, died 1767.— Brunton and Haig's History of the Sena-
tors of the College of Justice, 507, 523,

EARLY LIFE. 37

Some of my grandmother's nearest relatives were
persons of eminence, to which they had raised them-
selves; and both from this and from her brother's
great position, gained, like theirs, by his own exer-
tions, she constantly impressed on my mind the duty
of following such examples; but always required
that distinction should be sought by just means : and
above all, she used to inculcate the duty of benevo-
lence, and to dwell upon its reward in the pleasure
beneficence produced. An ardent love of liberty and
hatred of oppression seemed part of her nature. A
horror of war and delight in peace could with diffi-
culty be overcome by any circumstances that could
be urged to create an exception. The words " Peace
is my dearest delight " were ever in her mouth. She
felt an affection for the Quakers on this account;
and when any one had anything to say against them,
her answer always was, " Well, but it is the only
sect that never persecute ; " and on the Independents
being cited against her, she would say, " But Oliver
Cromwell was an Independent, not a Quaker, and if
he did not resist toleration, he made war/' If it was
hard to find an exception to peace and tolerance, no
exception would she ever suffer to the necessity of
strict economy, public and private. The necessity
of economy must only yield to claims of humanity,
irresistible in their nature and wholly undisputed.
For next to a sense of strict justice, humanity was a
constant topic.

Many an argument have I heard between her

38 EARLY LIFE.

brother and her on some capital conviction, when
she leant towards mercy, and against that kind of
punishment. Her view was perfectly sound, that
the smallest punishment which was sufficient to pre-
vent a repetition of the offence, was all we had a
right to inflict, and that punishing with death tended
to counteract one of the objects of all punishment,
by turning the feelings in the party's favour through
the aversion felt to the punishment. The Principal
would say that her reasoning was owing to her feel-
ings of misplaced pity for the offender. And this
was the case latterly, when her mind had no longer
its original strength, and the discussion was renewed
with her daughter and the rest of us. We then saw
that she was arguing from her feelings. But in
former times these were the impressions on all sub-
jects she has left, and they were inherited by her
daughter. It used to be a joke amongst us that she
had not inherited her mother's beauty ; and we after-
wards found that the extraordinary likeness to Dante
of her profile and her bust, so much admired by
Chantrey, made some amends for the defect.

Of the relations who have been alluded to, the
Adams and the Clerks were the most remarkable, as
they were all first-cousins of the Principal and his
sister. The Adams were famous as architects, break-
ing through the old and plain, but bad style, and
introducing, witli some variations, the Greek and
Italian. They were patronised by Lord Bute and
Lord Mansfield, and by most of the English nobles

EARLY LIFE. 39

who had buildings to erect on their estates. In and
near London those most remarkable are Caen Wood,
the villa of Lord Mansfield, and Lansdowne House,
formerly Bute House.""" They took part in Parliament
with the Whigs, which lost them the King's (George
III.) office of architect. They represented the county
of Kinross, as did a younger member of the family,
who afterwards was Chief Judge of the Jury Court
in Scotland. Of the Clerks, the father of Lord Eld in.
(Scotch judge) married an Adam ; he was author of
the system of naval tactics adopted with such signal
success in the navy. Sir Howard Douglas has denied
this as regards Eodney's battle in 1782 — his father,
Sir C. Douglas, having been captain of the fleet.
But the fact is undeniable that Clerk had brought
his plan to maturity, and communicated the parti-
culars to several persons, long before Eodney's action,
and while Eodney was abroad ; he having gone to the
West Indies in January 1780, and Clerk, as he states
in the preface to his book, having gone to London
in 1779, when he met by appointment Mr E.
Atkinson, Admiral Eodney's particular friend, and
Sir Charles Douglas, his captain, to whom he detailed
and explained every part of his system, for the ex-
press purpose of having it communicated to the
Admiral before his departure with the fleet. Mr

* Of the two brother architects, Robert and James, a good account is
given in the fragment of a general biographical dictionary by the Society
for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The well-known fagade of the
Adelphi, off the Strand, has its name to commemorate the joint work of
the brethren.

40 EARLY LIFE.

Clerk adds that such communication was made ; that
the Admiral expressed, before he left London, his en-
tire approbation of the scheme ; and after his return
openly acknowledged that it was Mr Clerk who had
suggested the manoeuvres by which the victory of the
12th of April 1782 had been obtained.

Clerk's system was followed by Howe, St Vincent,
Duncan, and Nelson, and with well-known success.
The manoeuvre is, in fact, the same that Napoleon
practised on shore — the placing an adversary between
the fire of two bodies. What makes Clerk's merit
the more remarkable is, that he was not a professional
man, and had never even gone a voyage to sea.*

John Clerk's intimacy was very close with the
Principal and his sister, who both had great confi-
dence in his practical sense upon most subjects, when
not perverted by certain odd prejudices and fancies.
For instance, she being, like him, a warm advocate of
exercise as a means above everything for promoting
health, used to quote him as saying, when asked,
" What were you to do in bad weather ? " " Why,
run up and down stairs ; there is no better exercise,
or better fitted to bring all the muscles into play."

Once during the Reign of Terror, a fast-day sermon
was preached, which we attended with him ; and
after morning service, when we were complaining of
the preacher as having exaggerated by charging the
Jacobins with sacrificing the priests at the foot of the
altar, — " Foot of the altar ! " said John, "that is only

* See Appendix VII.

EARLY LIFE. 4!

a way of speaking ; but it lets the wretches off too
easily. They never let them get to the foot of the
altar, but murdered them in the streets or the prisons/'
Dr Adam was a teacher of the greatest merit, and
a man distinguished by qualities very rarely found in
combination with his literary eminence. The hard-
ships which he endured from poverty in his early life
have seldom been equalled, never exceeded. When
he was endeavouring to educate himself, he for some
years suffered from actual hunger, his only means of
subsistence being the small sum of three guineas a-
quarter received from teaching, and out of which he
had to pay fourpence a-week for a miserable lodging,
two miles out of the town, and his daily food was
oatmeal-porridge and penny rolls. He dispensed
with fire and candles : the former, by severe exercise
when the weather permitted — when it was bad, by
climbing one of the highest staircases in which Edin-
burgh abounds ; the latter, by reading at the room of
some fellow-student. His temper was never soured
nor his spirits distressed ; the zeal of studying and
success in it, sustaining him, and even making him
feel happy. These particulars have been related by
his pupils, among others the first Lord Meadowbank,
but were very rarely even alluded to by himself, and
only in general terms when illustrating in his class
the value of industrious habits, and the comforts they
bring under the most adverse circumstances. For it
was one of the greatest merits of his teaching that he
constantly lectured his pupils on moral and religious

42 EARLY LIFE.

subjects, on their duties to heaven and to their fellow-
creatures, beside dwelling on the illustration of his
remarks derived from their learning, classical, histo-
rical, and geographical. It is difficult to conceive a
more useful discipline in all respects than his class
afforded. But in no particular was his instruction
more valuable than in opening the mind to the con-
templation of characters, ancient and modern, and
drawing from them the conclusions in favour of poli-
tical virtue of every kind. He always spoke with
great natural eloquence, and made very deep impres-
sion by the force and conciseness of his statements,
and the rich illustrations from history, the constant
reference to individuals, and the appeals to classical
authority. It would be difficult to exaggerate the
effects of his lectures, for such they were, though often
consisting of a few sentences interspersed in the les-
sons as they went on. Among his favourite topics
was inculcating the love of independence, the duty
and comfort of making one's own fortune, and relying
on one's self alone. Then he would chide a pupil's
idleness or inattention ; and if the lad was of the
higher orders, — " But you will get a post or a pension
when others are working their way uphill." Then
the delights of learning in all its branches formed a
constant theme, and the mischiefs of all obstructions
in the way of its acquirement. " A tax upon paper
is a tax upon knowledge," was a frequent expression.
He was always extolling the ancient writers : it was
his business. He would point out their beauties, and

EARLY LIFE. 43

especially those less obvious, and would say, — " It is
too late to doubt of them ; whoever should do so
would find he had come too late ; for all men's minds
have long ago been made up on the subject." But he
ever dwelt on their works having been the result of
the greatest care, and of each being a monument of
industry; describing Sallust, for instance, as passing
his whole time in composition and careful correction.
The eloquence of the old orators he would descant on
by the hour, and show that its success was due to dil-
igent preparation. With some exceptions he much
undervalued the modern : of these exceptions Chat-
ham was the chief, and he highly commended his
method of bringing up his son, notwithstanding he
had kept him from a public school. Of that son's
eloquence he had formed an estimate strongly affected
by his political opinions, which were those of the ad-
mirers of the French Eevolution ; and although he
avoided the expression of them, it was pretty manifest
how he leant, even after its crimes had begun to stag-
ger most of its partisans. I found when I had left
his class that he was of those who very reluctantly
admitted any faults in the Eepublicans. Whatever
opinions he held on this subject, he always inculcated
the most decided attachment to our own constitution.
His taste in all matters of composition was sound and
severe. If he admired Seneca more than was strictly
just, he gave no preference to him over the purer
models; and his liking plainly proceeded from the
great storehouse found in his prose writings of moral

44 EARLY LIFE.

truths, those which he warmly inculcated. It must,
however, be observed, that there are in many parts of
Seneca's philosophical writings passages of great elo-
quence, in none more than the treatise on Providence,
in that on the great question of the origin of evil,
and that on the shortness of life.

The steady honesty of Dr Adam, his devotion
to his principles, his unwearied zeal and heartfelt
enthusiasm in impressing them on his pupils, can
never be forgotten by those who had the inestimable
benefit of his teaching, and of learning, beside that
which was the first and main object of his instruction,
those other things with which it was connected, and
on which no other teacher ever thought of dwelling.
I consider myself indebted to him for whatever success
has attended my life, whether speculative or practical;
and a few of our fellow-pupils were so sensible of the
great value of his general comments, and remarks on
men and manners, that we made it a common practice
to take notes of his observations, and to interchange,
and correct, or extend them.

Moreover, he inculcated not only the expediency
of written translations beyond those which were given
in as our exercises, but of practising composition and
speaking. Two or three of us used to meet of an
evening and hold a debate on some subject which he
had handled in his class ; and having been taken by
my tutor to hear a debate in a meeting composed
chiefly of students in the University, but open to all
who chose to subscribe, I tried my hand at compos-

EARLY LIFE. 45

ing an essay on the subject I had heard debated,
" Whether prosperity or adversity was most favour-
able to virtue." On showing it to my father, I found
a very severe judge, who thought the declamatory
speeches I had heard misled me, and set me on
other subjects that required argumentation and (being
an old Etonian) classical allusions, and even quotations.
The Doctor was more lenient, and gave me encourage-
ment ; but I found by his questions that he substan-
tially agreed with the judgment of the domestic forum.
This excellent man had been a good deal thwarted by
the authorities, provoked to personal altercation with
unworthy antagonists, and assailed by a corrupt por-
tion of the press. As to the authorities, his first
work was a most excellent book on the principles of
Latin and English grammar, designed to promote his
great object of making classical studies a help to
other studies, and not a hindrance — and- he wished to
introduce it in the school ; but he found all the other
masters, who had been accustomed to teach Ruddi-
man's Grammar, opposed to the substitution of his ;
and also the magistrates, patrons of the school, for the
same reason, resolved to abide by Ruddiman's. After
a severe contest, both in the courts of law and the
town council, the latter issued a positive prohibition
to the school to make use of Adam's Grammar, and
he could therefore only indirectly urge his doctrines.
I grieve to add that at one time the Principal (Robert-
son) took part against him, who on all other occasions
stood his warm friend, and obtained for him from the

46 EARLY LIFE.

University, his degree. But the question of extra-
mural teaching, in after-times so much discussed, had
arisen upon the introduction of Greek in the school
by Adam as early as 1782 ; and the professors endea-
voured, but without success, to prevent this. The
Principal, who must have strongly disapproved of
their opposition, yet yielded to it, probably on the
ground of the professor of Greek depending entirely
on the number of his pupils, from having no salary ;
and on the assumption that, with the frugal habits of
the Scotch, few or none would send their sons to
attend the Greek professor, if they had learnt a little
Greek the year before at the High School.

The trouble which the Doctor had with some of
the masters under him, arose from the improvements
in teaching which he endeavoured to introduce, at
first with great resistance and only partial success — in
the end, with their perfect assent. During the for-
mer period his chief opponent was Nicol, whose vio-
lence led to a personal quarrel, which had nearly
ended in a duel. The man did not want talent or
learning, but was of most intemperate habits and dis-
solute life. He was the intimate friend and pot-com-
panion of Burns, some of whose best known and most
popular bacchanalian songs bear traces of this inti-
macy. Of these the one most in favour with the
Scotch begins with —

" Willie brewed a peck of maut (malt),
And Eab and Allan came to pree."

The Willie is Nicol ; the poet is Kab ; and Allan was

EARLY LIFE. 4?

one of the Mastertons, at whose school I learnt writ-
ing and arithmetic. Nicol's habits were well known
to the boys, as were those of the other masters. They
had an uncouth rhyme characterising their masters.
In this, Luke is the teacher — Luke Fraser, under whom
I was before rising to the rector's class ; Frango was
French, a most respectable and learned man ; and
Cruikshanks (a very able and successful teacher, as
well as worthy man, under whom Horner and Murray
were, until the former went to the rector's class and
the latter to Westminster) is represented by Crukem-
shango : —

" Sandy Adam loves his book,
And so do Luke and Frango ;
Willie Nicol loves his bottle,
And so does Crukemshango."

I am pretty confident that the last line is owing to
the rhyme and the contrast, and not to the fact. The
attacks of the masters and their friends never gave
Adam any uneasiness that had not long ceased when
I was under him, and he never at any time made the
least allusion to them in his class. The treatment of
the press he had a good right to despise, when it came
from the same disreputable quarter in which the Prin-
cipal was assailed. The history of Gilbert Stuart
affords a remarkable and an edifying instance, per-
haps a singular one, of great talents and considerable
powers of work, though irregular, failing to obtain
success, or to keep alive the memory of works dis-
tinguished by both learning and ability, owing to the

48 EARLY LIFE.

malignant feeling under which they were composed,
and their being devoted to its gratification. That
these intemperate habits and irregular life would not
have produced this effect, there are unhappily too
many proofs in the history of authors. An able and
learned work on the ' History of the British Constitu-
tion/ made the University of Edinburgh give him the
degree of Doctor of Laws when little more than one-
and-twenty ; and he soon after published his ' Views
of Society in Europe/ being an historical inquiry con-
cerning laws, manners, and government. Immediately
after this he was a candidate for the Professorship of
Public Law, in the University, and he fancied that he
owed his rejection to the influence of the Principal.
Nothing could be more fitting than that such should be
the case ; for the life of Stuart was known to be that
of habitual dissipation, in the intervals only of which
he had paroxysms of study. To exclude such a per-
son from the professor's chair would have been a duty
incumbent on the head of any university in Christen-
dom, whatever, in other respects, might be his merits.
But no admission was ever made by the Principal's
friends that he had interfered, or, indeed, that the
opinions and inclinations of the magistrates, who are
the patrons, rendered any such interference necessary.
But the disappointed candidate had no doubt upon
the subject, and he set no bounds to his thirst of
revenge. He repaired to London, where he became a
writer in reviews, and made all the literary men of
Edinburgh the subjects of his envious and malignant

EARLY LIFE. 49

attacks, from 1768 to 1773; the editors of such jour-
nals, as is too usual with persons in their really re-
sponsible situation, but who think they can throw the
responsibility upon their unknown contributors, never
inquiring whether the criticisms which they published
proceeded from the honest judgment or the personal
spite of the writers. It is the imperative duty of
every one who conducts the periodical press, to use
his utmost diligence in preventing concealed enemies
or rivals from using his paper as the vehicle of their
attacks. He should lay down the rule never again
to receive any contribution from a person who had
deceived him by suppressing the fact that he had a
grudge or an interest against the object of his former
attack.

Stuart returned to Edinburgh, and set up a maga-
zine and review, of which the scurrility, dictated by
private resentments, was so unremitting, that it brought
the work to a close in less than three years, when he
went back to London, and recommenced his anony-
mous vituperation of Scottish authors through the
periodical press. He also published in 1779, 1780,
and 1782, three works: one on the ' Constitutional
History of Scotland/ being an attack on Dr Eobert-
son's first book ; another on the ' History of the
Keformation in Scotland/ and the third on the * His-
tory of Queen Mary ' — being also an elaborate attack
upon the Principal. The ability and the learning of
these works, and their lively and even engaging style,
have not saved them from the oblivion to which they

VOL. i. D

50 EARLY LIFE.

were justly consigned by the manifest indications
prevailing throughout them all of splenetic temper,
of personal malignity, and of a constant disturbance
of the judgment by these vile unworthy passions.
The same hostility towards the person of the Princi-
pal even involved this reckless man in a quarrel with
his eldest son : it led to a duel, in which neither
party was hurt — an accommodation having taken place
on the field. I have heard Stuart's second say that
he was obliged, knowing his friend's intemperate
habits, to oppose the proposal — which he made with
his usual want of conduct, and, indeed, of right
feeling — that all the parties should dine together on
quitting the field ! That second (Mr James Gray),
an able and an honourable man, always admitted
Stuart's unjustifiable conduct towards the historian,
one of whose nieces he (the second) afterwards married.
Stuart's dissipation continued unbroken, excepting by
his occasional literary work ; and he died of a dropsy
in 1786, at the early age of forty.

Such was the man and such his fate who assailed
Dr Adam with a bitterness and pertinacity as signal
as he had shown towards the great historian. His
admirable Grammar was received universally by the
literary and didactive world (by the scholar as well
as the teacher) with the approbation which it so
well deserved ; but it had one fault — it was on a
subject on which Stuart's cousin, Euddiman, had
published a book. This was enough to enlist Stuart's
ferocity against both the work and the writer. He

EARLY LIFE. 51

published anonymous reviews without end, and he
also published, under the name of t( Busby," a
bitter attack upon the personal peculiarities of Dr
Adam. Every one felt unmitigated disgust at such
base and unprincipled proceedings, and the Rector,
like the Principal, gave the unworthy author the
mortification of leaving his assaults unanswered; nor
did he even make any allusions to these attacks,
though he occasionally expressed his regret at the
prohibition of his Grammar by the authority of the
town council.

The moral inculcated by Gilbert Stuart's failure
has been noted. The lesson of temperance and regu-
larity of life is as remarkably taught by the Doctor's
personal conflict with one of the masters, Nicol,
already referred to as the boon companion of the great
lyric poet of Scotland. The temperate habits of our
times make it hardly possible that a poet should now-
adays attain eminence by bacchanalian songs, and
even that ideas should be introduced that owe their
point and force to drinking associations, as in the
most pathetic of lyrics, " Auld lang syne." Even of
professed drinking-songs there is this to be said, that
they rarely tend to promote intemperance, and are
for the most part only displays of wit and humour.
They are chiefly perhaps to be excused, if not de-
fended, in the same way that Voltaire pleaded in
extenuation, if not justification, of his " Pucelle," that
the most reprehensible passages, how offensive soever
to decency and morals, had no tendency to inflame

52 EARLY LIFE.

the passions, and were not prurient but witty,
though indecent ; a defence which no one of correct
taste or sound morals can ever regard as more than
an assertion that the matter complained of, though
bad, might have been worse !

I don't recollect the Doctor ever distinctly casting
my horoscope, as he did that of some others ; but the
following letter from a daughter, who still lives, of
one of the professors, mentions an odd guess of my
own, like that of Erskine's mother, which he used
to cite as an evidence of providential inspiration
— for he never doubted that Providence acted by
secondary causes.

The account given in the following letter of the
reprimand is in one particular inaccurate. It was
not for an essay, but for a message sent by the
minority on a division in the Speculative Society,
composed of Jeffrey, Horner, Kinnaird, and myself,
and of which Jeffrey was the bearer to Professor
Hume, whose class we were attending. The message
was of an offensive, perhaps hostile description, com-
plaining of his having said publicly, " Those young
men, like their masters the French, are evidently
skilled in political arts." Jeffrey, as instructed by
us, asked if he had used these expressions ; and said,
that if he had we felt bound to declare they con-
tained a falsehood. We were all summoned. Jeffrey
was out of town, Horner was ill, as well as Kinnaird,
and I alone could attend. The reprimand was per-
fectly justified by our proceeding, and was most

EARLY LIFE. 53

gently administered. The following is an extract
from the lady's letter: —

" I am sorry I myself was so young during Lord
Brougham's college life as to have paid much too
little attention to all that I might have heard. To
me he was always most excessively kind, but it was
the kindness of a young man to one who was com-
paratively a child. But I do remember one thing
which made an impression on me : I heard that he
and Homer and Lord Kinnaird had been engaged in
the Speculative Society in defending an essay on some
political subject, which essay (and its defenders) was
on much too liberal principles for the tastes of the
rulers of the day; and, in short, the three young
men were sentenced (by the Senatus Academicus, I
think it was) to submit to be reprimanded by the
Principal of the College for disseminating French
principles and sedition. Of all of the three none
were forthcoming but Brougham : Homer was ill or
something, and Lord Kinnaird was absent, and Lord
Brougham alone came before Principal Baird to
receive his lecture. I believe the good Principal's
admonition was a lenient one, for he was a kind,
good-hearted man, who did not in his conscience
think the worse of the young gentlemen for their
essay; and so Lord Brougham listened respectfully
and made his bow, and all was over. This was
an event that showed the spirit of the times ; for the
essay, I believe, contained nothing but what has
become since the prevailing opinion and the law of

54 EARLY LIFE.

the land. This is the story as nearly as I can re-
member it; but if there is anything materially incor-
rect in it, I daresay Lord Brougham could tell you
the exact way of it, if he or you think it of any con-
sequence.

" There is a curious little anecdote which I heard
from Mary Eobertson at the time Lord Brougham
was made Lord Chancellor. She told me that when
she and the Broughams were all children they were
invited to a little ball at her uncle Mr Abercromby's.
We had a house somewhere about Coltbridge or Cor-
storphine (I do not know which), where the ball was
to take place ; and all the children, Kobertson's and
Brougham's together, were packed into a hackney-
coach to go ; but when they came to the toll-bar, not
one of the party was found possessed of a sixpence to
pay it; on which, after some consultation among them-
selves, Henry Brougham jumped up and said to the
tollman, ' Oh, you surely will let us pass, for / am
the Lord Chancellor/ Mary Eobertson could not
tell me whether he had at that time any idea of be-
longing to the law, but if it was a mere dash, it was
a curious coincidence."

If it was not owing to chance that at Edinburgh
I received the care and counsels of the great historian,
it was not to mere accident that I was indebted for
my intimacy with the great advocate and orator,
Erskine, and his brother Henry, only inferior to him
in fame from his provincial position. The house in
which we lived on the north side of St Andrew's

.EARLY LIFE. 55

Square was under the same roof, and next door to
Lord Buclian, eldest brother of the Erskines, a man
of eccentric character and much underrated, but of
considerable learning and talents, and so highly
esteemed by Lord Chatham that he gave him a diplo-
matic appointment, which he was kept from filling by
some quarrel about etiquette and rank ; but Chatham
continued his correspondent all his life, and I have
seen his letters when I used to visit Lord Buchan at
Dry burgh. They were on various subjects, public and
personal, and I recollect the orthography was very
indifferent, as for instance does being generally spelt
dos or doz. He was exceedingly kind to us as chil-
dren, and I continued his acquaintance afterwards,
his phrase being, " Ye're min ain bairns of the hoose,"
(you are mine own children of the house). This led
naturally to a great intimacy with his brother Henry;
and when I was called to the bar, I had the benefit
of his advice and instruction, as well as of profiting
by the example of his advocacy, which had the highest
merit, and placed him at the head of the Scotch bar.
When I afterwards removed to London, the family
friendship was continued by the celebrated brother,
with whom my intercourse was constant and familiar.
Both these eminent men impressed upon me, as the
first of qualities in an advocate, that to which they
owed their own great success, the sacrificing every-
thing to the cause, and indulging in no one topic, or
any illustration, or any comment, or even in a phrase
or a word, that did not directly and manifestly serve

56 EARLY LIFE.

the cause in some material particular. This rule per-
haps applies to all the departments of eloquence; but
it is of paramount importance, nay, an absolute obli-
gation, and of necessity to be obeyed in the conduct-
ing of a cause before any tribunal, even before a
popular assembly. Both the Erskines had been edu-
cated at the High School, of which the younger all
his life cherished an affectionate remembrance. The
University he had not attended, having been at St
Andrews for a short time before he entered the navy.
The care of his education devolved upon his brother
(Lord Buchan), who was greatly his senior, and who
most liberally, out of his moderate income, supplied all
his wants. He died at his brother's seat near Edin-
burgh. Both these brothers inculcated their political
as well as professional opinions very strongly on me
at all times. They were stanch friends of liberty
and enemies of oppression, whether exercised over
bodies of men or individuals ; and I can bear testi-
mony to the warmth of feeling as well as the skill and
judgment which Lord Erskine showed at the end of
his life in the great case of the Queen. The remark
made on Loughborough that his Scotch returned to
him in his latter days (the phrase being that his English
had run out of him by the effects of age), does not
apply to Erskine. The taint of the High School of
Edinburgh could not be perceived at any time of his
life.

OF^HE

UNIVERSITY

CHAPTER II.

(Continued.)

I LEAVE THE HIGH SCHOOL — AT BROUGHAM WITH A TUTOR — TALE
AFTER THE MANNER OF RASSELAS — I ENTER THE COLLEGE OF
EDINBURGH - WITH FOLKESTONE, AFTERWARDS LORD RADNOR

- MY EARLY EFFORTS IN MATHEMATICS AND MECHANICS —
OPTICS, CHEMISTRY — JOSEPH BLACK, JAMES WATT — MY FIRST
SPEECH AT THE ROYAL MEDICAL SOCIETY — I STUDY ORATORY

- 1 FOUND THE JUVENILE LITERARY SOCIETY - BECOME A
MEMBER OF THE SPECULATIVE SOCIETY - PEDESTRIAN RAM-
BLES — APOLLO CLUB, AND HIGH JINKS — FEATS OF EDINBURGH

BURSCHEN — HERON'S PLAY DAMNED — i GO ON A YACHTING

EXPEDITION AMONG THE WESTERN ISLES - MY FELLOW-TRAVEL-
LER CHARLES STUART (STUART DE ROTHSAY) — ISLAY — LIFE AT
SEA — ST KILDA — STORNOWAY — CROSS TO ELSINORE.

HAVIXG finished with the High School, I passed the
next fourteen months, from August 179L to Octo-
ber 1792, at Brougham, where Mr Mitchell was -my
tutor — a man of excellent temper as well as sound
learning, who intended to take orders in the Scotch
Church. By his conversation on every subject, it
was impossible not to profit; and his moral maxims
were as enlightened as his opinions on literary and

58 EARLY LIFE.

scientific subjects. The time was principally devoted
to Greek and Latin; and I was further instructed
in such duties by my father, who retained his love
of and familiarity with the classics ; and, encouraged
by him, I tried my hand at writing English essays,
and even tales of fiction. I find one of these has
survived the waste-paper basket, and it may amuse
my readers to see the sort of composition I was guilty
of at the age of thirteen.

My tale was entitled " Memnon, or Human Wis-
dom," and is as follows : —

"Memnon one day conceived the useless project
of being perfectly wise. There is scarcely any man
who has not at one time or other let this folly pass
through his head. To be very wise (said Memnon
to himself), and, of consequence, very happy, one has
only to be without passions, and (as we all know)
nothing is easier. In the first place, I shall never
love any woman ; for when I see a perfect beauty I
shall say to myself, ' These cheeks will one day be
wrinkled ; these fine eyes will be fringed with red ;
that plum (sic) neck will turn flat and flabby ; that
beautiful head will grow bald/ Now, I have only to
see all this with the same eyes at present that I
must see it with afterwards, and surely that head
will never turn mine. In the second place, I shall
always be sober. In vain shall good cheer, delicious
wines, agreeable society, try to tempt me. I have
only to figure to myself the consequence of excess — a

EARLY LIFE. 59

heavy head — a disordered stomach — loss of reason,
health, and time ; and surely I shall never eat but to
satisfy nature ; my health shall be constant, my ideas
always luminous and pure. All this is so easy that
there is no merit in keeping to it. Then (continued
Memnon) I must think a little of my fortune. My
desires are moderate ; my income is lodged in the
hands of the Eeceiver-General of the Finances of
Nineveh ; I have wherewithal to live independent ;
and that is the greatest of earthly blessings. I shall
never have the disagreeable necessity of paying court
to anybody. I shall envy no one, and be envied by
none. Besides, here is another thing equally plain.
I have friends : I shall keep them ; so they can have
nothing to dispute with me about : I shall never be
out of humour with them, nor they with me. In all
this there's no sort of difficulty. Having thus formed
in his room his little scheme of wisdom, Memnon put
his head out of the window. He saw two women
washing near his house, under the plane-trees : one
of them was old, and seemed not to be thinking
about anything; the other was young, handsome,
and appeared much engaged. She sighed ; she wept;
and seemed to have only the more graces. Our sage
was moved — not with the beauty of the lady (he was
quite confident he never could be guilty of such a
weakness), but he was touched with the affliction she
appeared to be in. He went down -stairs, and ap-
proached the young daughter of Nineveh, in the
intention of consoling her with wisdom. The fair

60 EARLY LIFE.

creature related with an air the most natural and
affecting, all the injuries she had received from an
uncle whom she never had — with the artifices by
which he had taken from her a fortune she never
possessed, and all the evils she had to fear from his
ill-treatment. ' You appear/ said she, ' to be a man
of such good counsel, that if you'll only have the con-
descendence to step home with me and examine my
affairs, I'm sure youll relieve me from the cruel
embarrassments into which I have fallen.' Memnon
followed her without hesitation, for the purpose of
examining, safely, her affairs, and giving her good
advice. The afflicted lady carried him into a per-
fumed apartment, and politely bid him be seated
upon a large sofa, where they both remained with
their legs crossed, and opposite to each other. The
damsel, while she spoke, cast her eyes on the ground,
and sometimes dropt tears from them ; and whenever
she raised them, they always happened to meet those
of the sage Memnon. The conversation was full of
tenderness, which redoubled every time they looked
at one other. Memnon took her affairs extremely to
heart, and felt every moment more and more a desire
to oblige so worthy and so unfortunate a personage.
Insensibly they ceased (in the heat of conversation)
to sit opposite to each other — their legs were no
longer crossed. Memnon gave his advice so near
and so tenderly, that neither one nor t'other could
now speak of business, and they no longer knew
where they were. Whilst they continued in this

EARLY LIFE. 6l

situation, in comes the uncle. As may easily be
imagined, he was armed cap-a-pie. His first words
were that he proposed (as was reasonable) killing
Memnon and his niece on the spot ; and the last
thing which escaped him was that he would pardon
them, if he was well paid for it. Memnon was forced
to give all he had about him. These were happy
days when one could get off so cheap. America was
not then known, and afflicted ladies were not half so
dangerous as they are in our times. Memnon went
home in shame and despair : he found a card invit-
ing him to dine with some of his intimate friends.
If (said he) I stay at home by myself, I shall think
on nothing but my sad adventure. I shall eat none,
and shall fall sick. I had much better go and make
a frugal meal with my companions. The sweets of
their society will make me forget the morning's folly.
He goes to the place appointed ; they perceive him
somewhat out of sorts ; they make him drink to
drown sorrow. A little wine taken in moderation is
a cure both for mind and body, so thinks the sage
Memnon; and so thinking, he gets drunk. They
propose to play after dinner. A little play, well
regulated, with one's friends, makes an honourable
pastime. He plays, loses all his ready money, and
four times more on tick. During the game a dispute
arises ; they turn warm. One of his particular friends
throws a decanter at Memnon's head ; and shuts up
an eye for him. The sage Memnon is carried home,
mortal drunk, with the loss of all his money, and

62 EARLY LIFE.

half his eyes. He throws up a little of his wine, and
as soon as his head is a little clear, he sends his
servant to the Receiver-General for money to pay his
particular friends. He is told that his debtor had
that morning broke fraudulently, to the alarm of half
the families in town. Memnon, quite beside himself,
sets off for court, with a patch on his eye, and peti-
tion in his hand, to demand justice of the king against
the bankrupt. He meets in the drawing-room several
ladies, who sported, with an easy air, hoops of twenty-
four feet in circumference. One of these, Avho knew
him a little, muttered (eyeing him askance), ' How
horrid ! ' Another, who was better acquainted with
him, accosted him with a ' How do, Mr Memnon ? But,
indeed, Mr Memnon, I'm prodigious glad to see you.
By the by, Mr Memnon, how do you happen to have
lost an eye I ' And so she trifled on, without waiting
for an answer. Memnon hid himself in a corner,
and waited for the moment when he might throw
himself at the monarch's feet. The moment came,
and he kissed the ground three times, presenting his
petition. His most gracious Majesty of all the Nine-
yells received it very favourably, and handed it to
one of his satraps to make a report of its substance.
The satrap took Memnon aside, and said to him,
grinning bitterly, and with a contemptuous air,—
' You're a pleasant sort of a blinkard, truly, to
address the king rather than me, and still more
pleasant to dare to demand justice against an honest
bankrupt whom I honour with my protection, and

EARLY LIFE. 63

who, indeed, is the nephew of my kept mistress's
waiting- woman ! Leave off this business, friend, I
advise you, if you value the health of your remaining
eye/ Memnon having thus in the morning abjured
women, the excesses of the table, play, quarrels, and,
above all, the court, had been, before night, duped
and pigeoned by a fine lady, filled drunk, rooked at
play, drawn into a quarrel, robbed of an eye ; and
had been at court, where he found himself laughed
at. Petrified with astonishment, and overpowered
with grief, he moves homeward, death- sick at heart.
He finds his house surrounded by bailiffs, in the act
of gutting it on the part of his creditors. He stops
half dead under a plane-tree ; he here meets the fair
lady of the morning, walking with her dear uncle.
She bursts out a laughing at seeing Memnon with
his plaister. The night came on ; Memnon laid him-
self down on some straw near the walls of his house.
A fever seized him ; he fell asleep in the crisis of the
disorder, and a celestial spirit appeared to him in a
dream. It was clothed in resplendent light ; it had
six fine wings — but neither feet, nor head, nor tail,
nor resemblance to anything earthly. ' What art
thou ? ' said Memnon. ' Thy good genius/ replied
the being. ' Eestore me, then/ said Memnon, ' my
eye, my health, my money, my wisdom/ He then
related how he had, in one day's time, lost all these.
'These are adventures for you/ said the spirit, 'which
we never meet with in our world/ ' And where may
your world be 1 ' said the man of woe. ' My country/

64 EARLY LIFE.

said the spirit, 'is five hundred millions of leagues
from the sun, in a little star near Sirius ; as you see
here.' ' Dear, what a nice country!' said Memnon :
1 so you have no sluts who dupe a poor man ; no
particular friends who win his money and knock out
his eye; no bankrupts; no satraps who laugh at
you because they refuse you justice.' ' No/ said
the native of the star, 'none of these things at all.
We are never cozened by women, for we have
no women. We never commit excess at table, for
we never feed. We have no bankrupts, for with
us there is neither silver nor gold. We can't have
our eyes closed up, because we have not bodies
made like yours ; and satraps never do us injustice,
because in our little star all the world is on a foot-
ing/ Memnon then addressed him : ' My good mas-
ter, wifeless and dinnerless \ how do you contrive
to pass your time V 'In watching over the other
world intrusted to our care/ said he, ' and I am come
here just now to console thee.' ' Alackaday ! ' re-
plied Memnon, ' why didn't you come last night to
prevent me from committing so many follies V 'I
was with thy eldest brother Haspar/ said the celestial
being. ' He is more to be pitied than thou. His
gracious Majesty the King of the Indians, at whose
court he has the honour of belonging, hath caused
put out both his eyes for some petty indiscretion ;
and he is at this moment in a dungeon with his hands
and feet in irons/ ' It's very hard/ said Memnon,
'when one has a good genius in the family, that one

EARLY LIFE. 65

brother should be blind in one eye, the other in both
—one lying on straw, the other in prison/ ' Thy lot
shall change/ replied the animal of the star. * It is
true thou shalt always be half blind ; but then, this
excepted, thou shalt be happy enough, provided
always thou shalt not form the foolish project of
being perfectly wise/ 'That, then, is out of the
question 1 ' said Memnon, with a sigh. ' As impos-
sible/ said the other, ' as to think of being perfectly
clever, strong, powerful, or happy. Even we our-
selves are far from it. There is, indeed, one globe
where all that may be had ; but in the hundred
thousand millions of others which are sprinkled over
space, everything is got by degrees. One feels less
pleasanter in the second than in the first; still
less in the third than the second ; and so on, down to
the last, where every mother's son is an absolute fool/
' I greatly fear/ said Memnon, ' that our little terra-
queous globe is precisely the little habitation of the
universe about which you are doing me the honour to
speak/ ' Not altogether/ said the spirit, ' but nearly
so ; everything must have its place.' ( But stay/
said Memnon ; ' some poets and philosophers, then, are
in the wrong to say that everything is for the best ? '
'They are quite right/ said the philosopher of the
upper regions, ' if we consider the arrangement of the
whole universe/ ' Ah ! ' replied poor Memnon, ' I
shall never be able to see that, till I've got back my
other eye/ '

"We returned to Edinburgh for the college session
VOL. i, E

66 EARLY LIFE.

in October; and I recollect, after passing through
Carlisle, breakfasting at Netherby, where we saw Sir
James Graham, then a child, in his nurse's arms.
The Bishop of Carlisle (Vernon, afterwards Archbishop
of York) and I have often talked of the change which
forty or fifty years had made on that infant.

Under Playfair I then began the course of mathe-
matics. Nothing could be more admirable than his
teaching. He was at all times accessible to his pupils
for explaining things left short in the class, and re-
moving doubts or difficulties that occurred in their
reading at home. In this respect he was superior to
the other great teacher of that time, Dugald Stewart,
under whom we all derived the most solid instruction
that lectures could afford, in the most attractive form
of eloquence ; but probably partly from the exhaustion
of his delivery, and partly from aversion to disputa-
tion, which such conferences were apt to occasion, he
very often declined to see his pupils after the class
rose.

Playfair's winter course was six months, and the
summer three, at the second of which I attended
with Lord Folkestone (now Eadnor), whose intimacy,
both personal and political, I have since constantly
enjoyed, and a better man I have never known, to
say nothing of his great abilities. Those who had the
advantage of hearing him in the discussions in the
House of Lords upon the distress of the country at
the end of 1830, and on the Eeform Bill the year
after, when he delivered a speech of the most finished

EARLY LIFE. 6/

excellence, may remember my reference to a still
nobler oration in the Duke of York's case in 1809,
which no less accomplished judges than Windham,
Canning, and Dudley, each severally assured me was
one of the most powerful that they ever heard. One
great merit of Kadnor's eloquence was its being so
plainly produced by strong and honest feelings. It
proceeded manifestly from the speaker's heart, and it
went direct to the hearts of his hearers.*

In 1794, on an exercise which I gave in, the Pro-
fessor (Playfair) desired me to wait till the class rose,
and then he said that I had hit upon the Binomial
Theorem, asking me by what steps I had been led to
it ? I of course answered, as was the fact, that it had
been by induction. But he said, " This piece of good
fortune ought to make you fonder of the mathematics
than ever ; " and as I wished to master the Fluxional
Calculus, which he had done no more than explain
the nature of, in that course, I desired to know what
he would recommend me to read with that view. He
said there were two works, either of which deserved
to be studied, La Caille and Bezout, but he preferred
the latter, t I set to work with that, and in a few
months showed him that I had profited by the study.
My intimacy with Playfair continued all his life. I

* See Appendix VIII.

f Nicolas Louis De Lacaille, who died in 1762, author of a host of
books on astronomy, mensuration, and the higher mathematics.
Etienne Bezout, author of ' LaTheoriegenerale des equations algebriques,'
and of several other books chiefly directed towards the mathematical
training of the several branches of the French military and naval force.

68 EARLY LIFE.

used to correspond with him on mathematical sub-
jects, and I remember his letters in answer to mine
from the north, observing that " I was as usual on
our common subject, when in my aphelion." I re-
collect when we were volunteers together in an
artillery- corps. He was particularly diligent in super-
intending our ball-practice, and on the first occasion
of it, received great delight from the accidental suc-
cess of his old pupil in levelling the gun, which shot
through the centre of the target. " You see," he said,
to those about him, " how we mathematicians carry
the day." He would not allow it to be, as I admitted,
a mere chance, and did not approve of my modesty
being displayed to the detriment of science. The last
time we met was in 1816 at Eome, where we passed
part of the winter, the famous year when all the
heads of London society were there — Jerseys, Hamil-
tons, Devonshires, Cowpers, Barings, Kings, Vernons,
Westmorlands.

In 1794-5 I was led away for a few weeks from
the calculus by the interest I took in a problem pro-
posed by the Academy of Sciences at Berlin for a
prize — the deflection of a projectile from the vertical
plane; and a solution having occurred to me, or a
supposed solution, I drew up a paper (or memoir) and
sent it. I never received the acknowledgment of
it, and very properly ; for I am certain, from what I
recollect of it, that the demonstration was wrong,
at least was inadequate, though I believe the theory
was correct, which ascribed the deflection to the

EARLY LIFE. 69

rotatory motion of the projectile, and its condensing
the air.

But I recollect an experiment which, accompanied
by my brother James and Eeddie, I tried, in order to
ascertain the effects of the rotation. It was to fire
a bullet from a fowling-piece placed horizontally,
through a series of screens placed vertically. It was
found that the bullet first deviated to the left, and
then, on piercing the first screen, swerved to the right,
and so at each screen changed its direction — indicat-
ing, as we supposed, that the direction of rotation was
changed by the screens.

I, however, soon returned to pure mathematics,
and several of the propositions afterwards mentioned
in my paper on Porisms, were investigated at this
time. I was also diligently employed in experiments
upon light and colours, and conceived that I had
made some additions to the Newtonian doctrine,
which I sent to the Eoyal Society in the summer of
1 795. The paper was very courteously received ; but
Sir Charles Blagden (the Secretary) desired parts to
be left out in the notes or queries as belonging rather
to the arts than the sciences. This was very un-
fortunate ; because, I having observed the effect of a
small hole in the window-shutter of a darkened room,
when a view is formed on white paper of the external
objects, I had suggested that if that view is formed,
not on paper, but on ivory rubbed with nitrate of
silver, the picture would become permanent; and I
had suggested improvements in drawing, founded

70 EARLY LIFE.

upon this fact. Now this is the origin of photography;
and had the note containing the suggestion in 1795
appeared, in all probability it would have set others on
the examination of the subject, and given us photo-
graphy half a century earlier than we have had it.

The experiments and propositions as printed in the
Philosophical Transactions I have since considered as
proceeding in great part from confounding colours
made \>y flexion with those formed by reflection; for
I am convinced that all the phenomena in my experi-
ments may be explained without having recourse to
the supposition of different reflexibility, by consider-
ing the colours as formed by flexion and then reflected.
But there is a different reflexibility.

The Newtonian is another kind, not of the white
rays being separated into their component parts by
one reflection, but of the rays being reflected instead
of refracted or transmitted ; and I showed that this
is owing, not to the different rays having different
capacities of reflection, but to their having, in the first
instance, been separated by refraction, the experiment
being not of reflection without previous refraction,
but after much refraction, and that their different
refrangibility is in truth alone the cause of their ap-
parent different reflexibility. I believe all opticians
have admitted the correctness of my reasoning in
this ; and that the different reflexibility of the New-
tonian system has long ceased to be admitted at all.
In these papers I only had a query as to different
flexibility, which Newton does not suggest; but in

EARLY LIFE. 71

papers long since given in the Philosophical Trans-
actions, and in the Memoirs of the National Institute
of France, the existence of this property is fully
shown by various experiments.

Besides the two optical papers (1796-1797), there
was one on Porisms, inserted in the Philosophical
Transactions the year after (1798).

Great as was the pleasure and solid advantage of
studying under such men as Playfair and Stewart,
the gratification of attending one of Black's last
courses exceeded all I have ever enjoyed. In my life
of that great man ('Lives of the Philosophers')
I have attempted to describe this pleasure.* Not a
little of this extreme interest certainly belonged to
the accident that he had so long survived the period
of his success — that we knew there sat in our pre-
sence the man now in old age reposing under the
laurels won in his early youth. But, take it altogether,
the effect was such as cannot well be conceived. I
have heard the greatest understandings of the age
giving forth their efforts in their most eloquent
tongues — have heard the commanding periods of
Pitt's majestic oratory — the vehemence of Fox's
burning declamation — have followed the close-com-
pacted chain of Grant's pure reasoning — been carried
away by the mingled fancy, epigram, and argumenta-
tion of Plunket ; but I would without hesitation pre-
fer, for mere intellectual gratification (though aware
how much of it is derived from association), to be

* See note, p. 26.

72 EARLY LIFE.

once more allowed the privilege which I in those days
enjoyed, of being present, while the first philosopher
of his age was the historian of his own discoveries,
and be an eyewitness of those experiments by which
he had formerly made them, once more performed
with his own hands.

His style of lecturing was as nearly perfect as can
well be conceived ; for it had all the simplicity which
is so entirely suited to scientific discourse, while it
partook largely of the elegance of all he said or did.
The publication of his lectures has conveyed an accu-
rate idea of the purely analytical order in which he
deemed it best to handle the subject with a view to
instruction, considering this as most likely to draw
and to fix the learner's attention, to impress his
memory, and to show him both the connection of the
theory with the facts, and the steps by which the
principles were originally ascertained. He would
illustrate his doctrine of latent heat by referring to
what is seen and felt, but passed without remark, in
the boiling of a kettle, and the steam coming from its
spout of different heat at different distances; or would
remind us of the surprise expressed by finding that
boiling water is cooled far more quickly than could
be foreseen upon the addition of a very little cold; or
that a hot chestnut which the mouth cannot bear, is
in an instant made bearable by the least drop of wine
sipped with it, and the wine not becoming sensibly
hotter. His experiments were often like Franklin's,
performed with the simplest apparatus — indeed with

EARLY LIFE. 73

nothing that could be called apparatus at all. I forget
whether he showed us the experiment of a bladder
filled with inflammable air, and rising to the ceiling,
which he had often shown to his friends in private,
and which was the origin of the air-balloon ; but I
remember his pouring fixed air from a vessel in which
sulphuric acid had been poured upon chalk, and show-
ing us how this air poured on a candle extinguished
the light. He never failed to remark on the great
use of simple experiments within every one's reach ;
and liked to dwell on the manner in which discoveries
are made, and the practical effect resulting from them
in changing the condition of men and things.

The scheme of the lectures may thus be apprehended
— the execution imperfectly ; for the diction was
evidently, in many instances, extemporaneous, the
notes before the teacher furnishing him with little
more than the substance, especially of those portions
which were connected with experiments. But still
less can the reader rise from the perusal to any con-
ception of the manner. Nothing could be more suited
to the occasion: it was perfect philosophical calmness;
there was no effort, but it was an easy and a graceful
conversation. The voice was low, but perfectly dis-
tinct and audible through the whole of a large hall
crowded in every part with mutely attentive listeners;
it was never at all forced, any more than were the
motions of the hands, but it was anything rather than
monotonous. Perfect elegance as well as repose was
the phrase by which every hearer and spectator

74 EARLY LIFE.

naturally, as if by common consent, described the
whole delivery. The accidental circumstance of the
great teacher's aspect, I hope I may be pardoned for
stopping to note, while endeavouring to convey the
idea of a philosophic discoverer. His features were
singularly graceful, full of intelligence, but calm, as
suited his manner and his speech. His high forehead
and sharp temples were slightly covered, when I
knew him, with hair of a snow-white hue, and his
mouth gave a kindly as well as a most intelligent
expression to his whole features. In one department
of his lectures he exceeded any I have ever known
— the neatness and unvarying success with which all
the manipulations of his experiments were performed.
His correct eye and steady hand contributed to the
one : his admirable precautions, foreseeing and pro-
viding for every emergency, secured the other. I
have seen him pour boiling water or boiling acid
from a vessel that had no spout, into a tube, holding
it at such a distance as made the stream's diameter
small, and so vertical that not a drop was spilt. While
he poured he would mention this adaptation of the
height to the diameter as a necessary condition of
success. I have seen him mix two substances in a
receiver into which a gas, as chlorine, had been in-
troduced, the effect of the combination being perhaps
to produce a compound inflammable in its nascent state,
and the mixture being effected by drawing some string
or wire working through the receiver's sides in an air-
tight socket. The long table on which the different

EARLY LIFE. 75

processes had been carried on was as clean at the end
of the lecture as it had been before the apparatus was
planted upon it. Not a drop of liquid, not a grain of
dust remained.

The reader who has known the pleasures of science
will forgive me if, at the distance of much more than
half a century, I love to linger over these recollec-
tions, and to dwell on the delight which I well re-
member thrilled me as we heard this illustrious sage
detail, after the manner I have feebly attempted to
portray, the steps by which he made his discoveries,
illustrating them with anecdotes sometimes recalled
to his mind by the passages of the moment, and
giving their demonstration by performing before us
the many experiments which had revealed to him
first the most important secrets of nature. Next to
the delight of having actually stood by him when
his victory was gained, we found the exquisite grati-
fication of hearing him simply, most gracefully, in
the most calm spirit of philosophy, with the most
perfect modesty, recount his difficulties, and how
they were overcome ; open to us the steps by which
he had successfully advanced from one part to an-
other of his brilliant course ; go over the same
ground, as it were, in our presence which he had
for the first time trod so many long years before ;
hold up, perhaps, the very instruments he had then
used, and act over again the same part before our
eyes which had laid the deep and broad foundations
of his imperishable renown. Not a little of this

/6 EARLY LIFE.

extreme interest certainly belonged to the accident that
he had so long survived the period of his success —
that we knew there sat in our presence the man now
in his old age reposing under the laurels Avon in his
early youth. But, take it altogether, the effect was
such as cannot well be conceived.

One thing was very striking in his lectures, as also
in his conversation, and it was equally remarkable
in his friend and pupil Watt ; the great care, even
to minute particulars of evidence, which he took to
appropriate to every one his share in the discoveries
of which he was treating. His love of justice was
one of the most marked characteristics of his nature,
as it was of the Duke of Wellington's. I well re-
member Denman saying, Avhen he saw him rush
forward to defend some officer unjustly attacked, or
to obtain for him the share of commendation that he
thought had been inadequately awarded, " Of all that
man's great and good qualities, the one which stands
first is his anxious desire ever to see justice done, and
the pain he manifestly feels from the sight of injus-
tice." This observation came with peculiar grace
from one who in such attributes was the greatest
judge of the day.

It is somewhat remarkable that both Black and
Watt have suffered more than almost any who can
be named from the plagiarisms of others, and their
unfairness, sometimes from national, sometimes from
personal prejudices. They bore this with different
degrees of equanimity. Black seemed never to re-

EARLY LIFE. 77

gard it at all ; indeed he was singularly exempt from
either vanity or ambition, and only cared for the
progress of science, by whomsoever it was assisted,
though regarding as essential to that progress the
due ascertainment and positive declaration of each
person's merits. I have heard him with astonish-
ment, in bearing testimony to the great merits of
Lavoisier, both as a great discoverer and generaliser
of facts observed by others, and bestowing praise
unstinted upon his works, without even making the
least allusion to the entire suppression in them of all
reference to his name as founder of the new school
of chemistry, by the discovery of latent heat and
permanently elastic fluids; and this after he had
received, years before, letters in which Lavoisier
expresses his " zealous admiration of the profound
genius and discoveries which had made such revolu-
tions in science ;" and the year after, "that he had
for a long time been accustomed to regard him as his
master, and only lamented not having been able to
convey his admiration in person, and rank himself
among his disciples." When Black saw that the
discovery of latent heat was distinctly claimed as
Lavoisier's own, after it had for twenty years been
described in the Professor's lectures, and been re-
cognised all over Europe as his discovery, he was
not a little surprised at the conduct of his corre-
spondent. These strange proceedings of Lavoisier
were, as we learn from Professor Eobison, only
treated with a silent contempt expressed for the

78 EARLY LIFE.

flattery of his letters. Fourcroy gives Black the full
credit of his discoveries, and distinctly states that
they had been the foundation of the new system
(Elem. de Chym., i. 30, 40; Syst. de Cour. Chy-
mique, ii. 28, 40).

I remember the first time I ever was in his society.
When I went to take a ticket for his class, there stood
upon his table a small brass instrument for weighing
the guineas given. On learning who I was, he entered
into conversation in a most kind manner. He said
he concluded I was not a medical student, as all but
two or three of the class were ; among whom were
Messrs Yogt and Watenbach of Hamburg, and M.
Koenig of Dresden. He asked what classes I had
attended, and expressed himself much pleased with
what I told him of the great interest I took in math-
ematics and natural philosophy, recommending the
study of Newton's Optics, both for the substance and
the method. When I was going away he said : " You
must have been surprised at my using this instru-
ment to weigh your guineas, but it was before I knew
who you were. I am obliged to weigh them when
strange students come, there being a very large
number who bring light guineas; so that I should
be defrauded of many pounds every year if I did not
act in self-defence against that class of students;"
and he particularly mentioned one class, describing
them.

The qualities which distinguished him as an
inquirer and as a teacher followed him into all

EARLY LIFE. 79

the ordinary affairs of life. , He was a person
whose opinions on every subject were marked by
calmness and sagacity, wholly free from both passion
and prejudice, while affectation was only known to
him from the comedies he might have read. His
temper, in all the circumstances of life, was unruffled.
This was perceived in his lectures, when he had
occasion to mention any narrow prejudice or any
unworthy proceeding of other philosophers. One
exception there certainly was, possibly the only one
in his life. He seemed to have felt hurt at the
objections urged by a German chemist called Meyer
to his doctrine of causticity, which that person ex-
plained by supposing an acid, called by him acidum
pingue, to be the cause of alkaline mildness. The
unsparing severity of the lecture in which Black
exposed the ignorance and dogmatism of this foolish
reasoner cannot well be forgotten by his hearers, who
both wondered that so ill -matched an antagonist
should have succeeded where so many crosses had
failed in discomposing the sage, and observed how
well fitted he was, should occasion be offered, for a
kind of exertion exceedingly different from all the
efforts that at other times he was wont to make.

Against this Meyer he had no prejudice of a national
kind whatever. One subject of his constant praise
was Magroff, whom he held up as a great example
of skilful and judicious analytical investigation, and
placing him greatly above Potts. Of Bergman he had
by no means a great admiration, but Magroff was less

80 EARLY LIFE.

ambitious in his researches, and Bergman claimed the
place of a discoverer, which Black was unwilling to
allow him, appearing to join with those who pleasantly
said his greatest discovery was the discovering Scheele.
It is needless to add that of Scheele he had the
greatest admiration. In truth he placed him at the
head of all ; and except Sir Isaac Newton, I do not
remember any name so devoutly revered by him as
Scheele's. When, a year or two after, I passed in
my Swedish tour one night through Koping, where
Scheele lived, though a native of Pomerania, I well
remember being haunted by the recollection of Black,
an account of whose death had reached me just as I
was setting out for Stockholm.*

Among others who have since been distinguished,
Thomas Young and George Birkbeck were my fellow-
students under Black.t

Long before entering the Speculative Society, and
when only somewhat trained in the young Debating
Society, after little more than one session at the col-
lege, I had an opportunity of trying my voice at a
great meeting, that of the Eoyal Medical Society,
a chartered body, to which almost all the medical
students, and one or two others, belonged. The
meetings were weekly, and between 100 and 150 were
often present, including a small number of visitors.

* Charles William Scheele, the Swedish chemist, born 1742, died
1786.

t George Birkbeck, born 1776, died 1841, chiefly known for his exer-
tions in the establishment of Mechanics' Institutes. George Young, cele-
brated for deciphering the Rosetta inscription, born 1773, died 1829.

EARLY LIFE. 8 1

The subjects, of course, were almost always medical,
or connected with medical science, but occasionally
subjects were broached which had little or no connec-
tion with it. The business consisted of one or two
papers which were read, each member being required,
in his turn, to give in a paper ; and the whole having
been read, without debate, by the secretary, a second
reading took place, at any part of which all present
might introduce objections or discussion on popular
topics, but of a scientific description. The debate was
often of considerable length, and sometimes even
adjourned. The subject on which I spoke was the
much-vexed question of " liberty and necessity," and,
according to my recollection, I spoke after Mr Wool-
comb, subsequently an eminent physician at Plymouth,
and a man of great learning and ability, universally
respected through life ; but whether my contention
lay with him, or others who had espoused the same
side, that of " necessity," is not in my recollection.
I, however, found that, after the first alarm had abated,
I had no difficulty in making my way, and my speech
was far better received than it deserved ; the impres-
sion made being very much owing to my youth, which
appeared very clearly from my person, and might
have done still more from my topics. The Logic
class which I was then attending furnished many of
the terms used ; as, for instance, I not only charged one
of my antagonists with petitio principii, but had the
pedantry to charge another with an idolum theatri*
Bacon's expression for a vulgar error.

* EifitoXoj/ Qfarpov.
VOL. I. F

82 EARLY LIFE.

It is pretty clear that, whatever merit the delivery
or composition might have, or whatever town as well
as college gossip it might give rise to, the argument
was far from unanswerable; for it mainly consisted in
an attempt to prove that a denial of free-will was incon-
sistent with the foreknowledge of the Deity, whereas
the necessitarian side of the question is often supposed
to be more aided by that topic. In truth there is
some difficulty in this view of the question ; and that
is perhaps best avoided by the assumption, quite
well grounded, that with Omniscience there is no
such thing as before and after, all times being alike
present to the infinite and eternal mind.

The success of this attempt impressed on me more
than ever the necessity of care and attention in pre-
paring for any such occasion, and the necessity of
going beyond books, and even not resting satisfied
with the most important study of all, as preparation
for eloquence — the oratory of the ancients. It became,
therefore, my constant practice to hear all the speak-
ers and preachers who were most admired. The Court
of Session always, and the General Assembly in the
month of May, were accessible ; and I was not only
frequently taken there by my father, but also went
with one or two of my companions. At that time it
\vas impossible to enter into the particular merits of
different speakers : little more could be learned than
their excellence or defects of manner, with something
of the difference between oratory as read or as heard.
The great speakers and preachers left a lasting impres-

EARLY LIFE. 83

sion, and from some of the most eminent I really
may be said to have brought away lessons or sugges-
tions that have been turned to account. Even thus
early I profited not a little from the great leaders of
the bar, and somewhat from great preachers, both
masters of declamation and of pathos. From one
whose eloquence was remarkable, and in pathetic
passages especially, I learnt a use of the voice which
was thus impressed on my mind when very young,
and which I have often employed in after-life -
namely, of dropping the voice at particular passages,
to command general attention, or enforce silence.
It was from the use of this expedient that some,
as Abercromby (Dunfermline), used to talk of
" Brougham's whispers," alluding to my power of
whispering through the House of Commons to the
very door and wall. The preacher from whom I
learned this had a very feeble voice, which probably
suggested it to him. I certainly had not the same
reason. Of the great advocates, Hope had a most
powerful voice ; Erskine one of great variety, but of
sufficient compass ; Blair a strong but inarticulate
one, his manner dignified, with his matter making
amends for the defects of his voice. In those days,
however, it was little more than the manner that was
studied and remarked.

After my return from the Continent, I was admitted
an advocate, early in 1800, but I had for several years
before been devoting myself to the practice of public
speaking ; having begun this by establishing, with

84 EARLY LIFE.

some of my friends, a debating society, which was
founded in December 1792. I have now before me
the original minute-book, in which the first entry is
as follows : —

"This society was formed in December 1792;
and at the first meeting, on the 22d day of Decem-
ber 1792, received the name of the Juvenile Literary
Society."

Then follows a list of the members, twenty-one in
number, headed by my name as founder and first
president. Among the first members were Horner,
Henry Mackenzie (afterwards Lord Mackenzie), John
Forbes (afterwards Lord Medwyn), James Keay, who
rose high at the bar; Andrew Wauchope, who dis-
tinguished himself in the Peninsular war; and Andrew
Thomson, the eloquent preacher and leader in the
Church Courts.

The laws were very strict. Absence without ex-
cuse, to be inquired into by a committee, was fined.
Coming late, half an hour beyond the time of meeting,
was also fined ; and occasionally, though very rarely,
expulsion was inflicted for repeated breach of the
rules. The laws were sometimes revised by a com-
mittee of inquiry, and altered upon its report. At
the end of the session and commencement of the six
months' vacation a commission was appointed, on the
model of that in the General Assembly, to look after
the affairs of the society. The meetings were on
Saturday morning, when there were no college classes.
The members presided in rotation, and an essay was

EARLY LIFE. 85

read from the chair, and submitted to criticism. The
questions were put into a list, upon the report of a
committee. One was given out for each meeting,
and a member appointed to debate it on each side ;
any other afterwards taking part in the discussion.
Many of the speeches were read, but sometimes an
extempore debate was had on a question proposed by
the president, without any notice. The politics of the
day were generally excluded ; but from a letter from
Forbes (Lord Medwyn), addressed to the secretary in
1794, there appears to have been an apprehension of
their introduction.

I see one debate was on theatrical representations
being injurious to virtue, and decided in the negative
by four to one. On the question whether Elizabeth
was justified in putting Mary to death, I stood alone
against Elizabeth, which shows that the answer I gave
at Edinburgh two years ago had not been an opinion
recently formed. Having attended the drawing-room
given by Lady Belhaven (his Grace the Lord High
Commissioner's wife), in Holyrood House, I was taken
to see the chamber in which Eizzio had been mur-
dered, and the queen's bedroom adjoining; and on
my expressing the natural feeling of horror at the
assassination, and the outrage also to her feelings,
with some observation upon the conduct of Elizabeth,
they said, " Then of course you consider Mary as
innocent of all that has been laid to her charge." I
answered, " Quite the contrary ; I regard her conduct
in the worst light possible as regards Scotland, my

86 EARLY LIFE.

only doubt being upon her share in Babington's con-
spiracy."

On the question whether the lawyer or the divine is
more useful to society, it was given in favour of the
divine, — all the lawyers voting in the majority ! That
Brutus was unjustifiable in killing Caesar, was decided
in the affirmative, as I well recollect, after an excel-
lent speech by Horner on that side of the question.
" Whether the prodigal is a worse member of society
than the miser;" — I voted with the majority, Horner
the other way. " Whether man is happier in a rude
than in a civilised state ;" — both Horner and I voted
in the minority, I grieve to say, the decision being for
the civilised state. " That benevolence is a stronger

O

principle of action than interest ; " — Horner voted with
the majority, I with the minority.

On looking over the rules and the proceedings of
this society it is very remarkable to find the extreme
regularity with which the business was conducted,
and the order which prevailed; so that the example of
these boys mii>iit be a lesson to their seniors in other

«/ o

assemblies.

Such of us as were destined for the bar afterwards
entered the Speculative Society, which had been long
established, and had a hall and library of its own in
the college. Men older than ourselves were amono-

o O

its active members ; but of our standing were Jeffrey
(though a little older), Ilorner, Murray, and Moncrieff,
Miller, Loch, Adam, Coekburn, Jardine — and there
were several students who had come from England.

EARLY LIFE. 87

Of these, the most distinguished were, Lord Henry
Petty (afterwards Lansdowne), and Charles Kinnaird
(afterwards Lord Kinnaird), Lord Webb Seymour,
and somewhat later the two Grants, Glenelg, and his
brother Sir Eobert. Political differences ran high at
that time, and there was a personal quarrel with the
professors, who had accused us of French principles.
There was another quarrel from an attempt to exclude
William Adam, when Charles Hope (afterwards Lord
President) behaved as he always did, most honour-
ably, and with a total disregard of political differences.
Notwithstanding these impediments, great progress
was made in the practice of debating, which many of
us showed in after-life that we had well learned ; and
I remember Lord Medwyn, when he came to London
during the session of Parliament, saying, that when he
heard the debates he recognised his old brethren of
the Speculative as well as their speeches there.4"

It is fit to mention that the great lights of the
Scotch bar at this time were Erskine, Tait, and Charles
Hope, as speakers ; Blair and Eoss, as lawyers.t Ad-
mirable as Harry Erskine was in all respects, both as
an advocate and a speaker, the person who struck me
most, and gave me the first conception of an orator,
was Hope. I had never been in London, and had heard
none of the great speakers. The effect produced on
me by Hope's eloquence was beyond anything I could
previously have conceived ; nor have I ever forgotten

* See Appendix IX.

f These will be found commented on in Chapter IV.

88 EARLY LIFE.

it. He was a very powerful speaker in all respects,
but his declamation was of the very highest order.
Even his violent political opponents confessed this.
I have heard Gillies and Malcolm Laing assert, that
if he had been earlier introduced into Parliament, he
would have proved superior to Pitt. Gillies himself
had great powers as a speaker; and for close logical
argument, Cranstoun (afterwards Lord Corehouse) was
never surpassed. This was the opinion of all our law-
yers who heard him at the bar of the House of Lords.
Peel said he was the finest speaker he had ever heard,
except Pitt — which was not a very happy comparison,
as no two styles of speaking could be more entirely
different. Indeed, Sir William Grant was the only
Parliamentary speaker of the same order as Cranstoun.

Between 1795 and 1799, I generally (as my father
did not care to return to Brougham) took advantage of
vacations to make walking tours through different
parts of the Highlands. These were wild scrambling
excursions, but abounding in mirth and jollity ; for
we were young, .active, and overburdened with high
spirits.

My companions generally were, my brother James,
John Russell, my cousin (his mother being a daughter of
Dr Robertson), James Ferguson, and Charles Stuart,
my most intimate friend (afterwards Lord Stuart
de Rothsay). 1 kept no journal of our tours ; and
only recollect that we visited the Falls of the Clyde,
Stirling, Loch Katrine and its romantic scenery, and
a large portion of the Western Highlands. We must

EARLY LIFE. 89

have been indefatigable walkers ; for I well remem-
ber, on one occasion, Stuart and I had not only walked
the feet off our stockings, but also the soles off our
boots. Some charitable friend near whose house we
then were, but whose name I utterly and most un-
gratefully forget, re-equipped us, and then we went
on to Inverness. These walking expeditions were the
pleasantest times of my life ; for I was then working
very hard, and while in Edinburgh allowed myself no
relaxation. And yet this is not strictly true; for
there was a set of us guilty, at occasional times, of
very riotous and unseemly proceedings. After the
day's work, we would adjourn to the Apollo Club,
where the orgies were more of the " high jinks " than
of the calm or philosophical debating order ; or to
Johnny Dow's, celebrated for oysters. I do believe it
was there that I acquired that love for oysters which
adheres to me even now ; so much so, that on coming
to an inn, the first question I generally ask is, Have
you any oysters ? But sometimes, if not generally,
these nocturnal meetings had endings that in no small
degree disturbed the tranquillity of the good town of
Edinburgh. I cannot tell how the fancy originated ;
but one of our constant exploits, after an evening at
the Apollo, or at Johnny's, was to parade the streets
of the New Town, and wrench the brass knockers off
the doors, or tear out the brass handles of the bells !
No such ornaments existed in the Old Town ; but the
New Town, lately built, abounded in sea-green doors
and huge brazen devices, which were more than our

90 EARLY LIFE.

youthful hands could resist. The number we tore off
must have been prodigious ; for I remember a large
dark closet in my father's house, of which I kept the
key, and which was literally filed with our spolia
opima. We had no choice but to hoard them ; for,
it is pretty obvious, we could not exhibit or otherwise
dispose of them. It was a strange fancy ! and must
have possessed some extraordinary fascination ; for
it will scarcely be credited, and yet it is true as gos-
pel, that so late as March 1803, when we gave a fare-
well banquet (I think at Fortune's Hotel) to Homer,
on his leaving Edinburgh for ever to settle in London,
we, accompanied by the grave and most sedate Hor-
ner (set. 25, or, to speak quite correctly, 24 years and
7 months), sallied forth to the North Bridge,, and there
halted in front of Mr Manderson the druggist's shop,
where I, hoisted on the shoulders of the tallest of the
company, placed myself on the top of the doorway, held
on by the sign, and twisted off the enormous brazen
serpent, which formed the explanatory announcement
of the business that was carried on within. I forget
the end of the adventure, but I rather think the city
guard exhibited unusual activity on that occasion,
and that we had a hard run for it. Looking back to
those pranks reminds me of the inexhaustible fund of
spirits we possessed, and how that capital foundation
of never-tiring energy and endless restlessness enabled
some of us to work on with unfailing strength to the
end of life ; and even now, writing at nearly 90 years
of age, I can recall those, not boys' but young men's

,EARLY LIFE. 91

freaks with pleasure and even exultation ; yet I agree
with what the old beggar Ochiltree, in the best of
all Scott's novels, says, " Aye, aye, — they were daft
days thae, but they were a' vanity and waur." *

I remember another occasion, which, however, had
none of the riotous element, but was only a piece of
sober fun. There was a man called Heron — at least I
think that was his name — who was addicted to writing
plays — execrable stuff; and yet he contrived, through
some intimacy with the theatrical people, to get one
of them put upon the Edinburgh stage. I totally for-
get the name of the piece ; but I perfectly remember
going with some of my merry friends to witness the
first performance. It dragged wearily through two or
three acts, the audience showing unmistakable symp-
toms of impatience, when, at a scene representing a
dinner or supper, one of the actors after giving a toast
said, " What shall we drink now ? " To which I, from
the middle of the pit, raising my lanky figure, replied,
" Well drink good afternoon, if you please " 1 The
effect was electrical ; not another word of the play
would the audience hear ; and after vain entreaties
from the manager that they would permit it to pro-
ceed, the curtain fell amidst shouts that must have
wellnigh been the death of the poor author.t

Late in the summer of 1799, I joined an expedition
fitted out by John Joseph Henry, an excellent and
enterprising man of large fortune in Ireland, nephew
of Lord Moira, who afterwards married the Duke

* See Appendix X. f See Appendix XL

92 EARLY LIFE,

of Leinster's daughter. He had attended the Col-
lege of Glasgow under Professor Miller, and occasion-
ally came to Edinburgh, where I became acquainted
with him. Charles Stuart, who was at Glasgow
under Professor Young, also knew him, and joined
the expedition. * Its purpose was to visit Iceland,
and examine the various objects of interest in that
island. But after cruising about the Western Islands,
lona, Staffa, St Kilda, and others, it appeared to
Stuart and myself manifest that the season was too
far advanced, and that the voyage to Iceland must
be given up, as in fact proved to be the case. While,
however, we were among the Western Isles, I wrote
the following letters to my kinsman, Lord Kobert-
son : —

"ISLAY, August — , 1799.

" MY DEAR SIK, — Here we are safely moored in a
comfortable berth, for which we gladly exchanged our
good ship and bad cabins. You must excuse various
things in this letter, want of arrangement, poverty of
matter, and bad, or at least careless, style. As for the
egotism of the epistle, debit it all to the traveller, and
to my confidence in the interest which you are pleased
to take in my rambles.

" We made a much longer stay in Glasgow than I
either wished or expected. Gents of £16,000 per an-
num are always in a hurry, and do little — always busy,
and lose time. However, I believe you will agree
with me in thinking my time neither disagreeably

* See Appendix XII.

TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES. 93

nor unprofitably spent when I inform you that after
a pleasant visit to Stirlingshire I passed the rest of
the fortnight constantly with a set of ten or twelve
military men, of long standing in the army, famous
for knowledge of the world, and besides, in general,
men of the best abilities and temper. The evenings
(if sober) were diversified by visits to the Glasgow
natives, whose golden brutality served to render our
private society doubly agreeable.

" We came to Greenock for the purpose of superin-
tending our preparations several times ; but as these
trips were generally made in company of the above
parties, and always in the night, our amusements
were not interrupted.

" On Sunday last I went aboard, and our parties
continued much in the same style. I must, however,
out with tout ce qui s'est passG before we weighed.
Our adventures prior to this period would have filled
a volume. The only part of them which I look back
on with regret is the bottle department ; and over
this scene I shall decline leading you, because I draw
a curtain over it, and you'd run a great risk of cut-
ting yourself in the dark among the fragments of
innumerable dozens of empty bottles.

" A circumstance occurred to detain us two days
after we went on board, but to me its tenor was so flat-
tering as to compensate for the delay. Several appli-
cations had been made to Government, by Lords Bute
and Moira, for a protection against pressing. These
were point-blank and uniformly refused. I thought

94 TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES.

of writing to Sir J. Banks, who applied, and sent mo
notice by return. Next post came a second letter,
stating his having obtained his request at once, on
putting it upon the footing which I suggested.

" The protection accordingly arrived, to our great
joy; and to mine in particular, as it was enclosed to me,
with a very polite letter from Mr Secretary Nepean.

" On Tuesday we dropped down, almost becalmed.
A delightful day and charming scenery made us
forget the slowness of our motion ; and a gentleman,
with your humble servant, performed the pleasant feat
of dining in the maintop. We drank freely to our suc-
cess, and superintended a salute fired on our land
friends going ashore. I cannot describe, with any
degree of justice to the subject, the joyful nature of
this scene. All our spirits afloat, a fine vessel, good
crew, prospect of a pleasant voyage in the bush, and
good weather in hand, enchanting scenery and agree-
able company, rendered us completely cheerful. When
in this humour, our passport, &c., before described,
arrived from port, to my great joy. As soon as the
new spirit of life which this imparted had subsided,
a pleasant breeze again enlivened us ; and scarce had
our joy become, for a second time, calm, when turning
a point the homeward-bound West India fleet arrived
in full view and full sail. The setting sun showed us
such a sight as I shall never forget ; and whilst they
passed us with a salute, slowly fired, I could not help
thinking that if a romance-writer had wished to select
circumstances for an outset to his piece, or indeed for

TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES. 95

any part of it, his fancy might, ten to one, have never
conjured up such a collection of agreeable traits as
conspired to illuminate our debut upon the sea. This
you'll think mighty romantic for one who at that
moment was sitting aloft with a pint tumbler of
claret in one hand and a sea-biscuit in t'other ; but
true it is and of verity we were all sympathetically
struck. As we got down towards Govan, and the
Channel, I went to deck; and after viewing the lumin-
ous track of the ship's wake, sometimes from deck,
sometimes in the boat hoisted for me, I retired to the
cabin, where we supped in perfect harmony. I took
a last walk, and then slept for an hour aloft : this put
me in mind of bed, so to bed I went. Turn the leaf,
and you'll find fortune beforehand with you.

"At four in the morning I awoke, and found the
vessel rolling and pitching, the wind blowing, the
captain swearing, and the sailors, as is usual, all
abroad. Force brought them to their posts, and fear,
more than shame, kept them at work. "We were
making for the Mull of Cantire, the doubling of
which is more dreaded than twenty West India
voyages. This I knew, and had prepared for, keep-
ing myself quiet and easy, by stripping naked in
my berth, and taking towels, &c., to bed with me.
By nine the storm increased. I seemed destined,
within twenty-four hours, to experience every dif-
ferent feeling. Now all was confusion and bustle :
the captain alone was calm as I am at present. I
heard his orders in the wind : as things blackened

96 TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES.

he stripped, and became, if possible, more cool, as did
the men. In this posture of affairs I heard him say,
' God I there's nothing for it!' but instantly the ship
righted, though the rolling continued and the sea-sick-
ness increased, all men vomiting but myself, who had
taken care to shut my eyes for half an hour at first.
Next night it grew calmer, and before that, we had a
hot dinner. The greatest of my foes was a cascade
of rum, the cask being beaten through our cabin
window ! The immediate consequence was intoxica-
tion ; but this soon went off.

"Making Islay at 11 o'clock, we landed; and after
a little rough admiration, divided into two parties ;
one attended Shawfield to Islay House, the other went
along the coast to view the country and see a wreck
lying at some distance. You may easily believe I
was of the latter division. The bay in which the
brig was wrecked is nine miles long, and the finest I
ever saw : we only wanted a storm to complete the
scene. The vessel was cast ashore last November, and
is quite dry at low-water. The sailors were all busy
trying for the last time to float her round a point of
land to Bowmore harbour, where we were landed; and
in a few hours they actually succeeded. We saw the
wreck raised along by a few barrels, though her bottom
is battered to pieces, and her masts cut off by the
maintop and foretop. She arrived at two in the morn-
ing, and we had her captain to see us all drink. After
a botanical and mineralogical walk, our appetite re-
minded us of dinner; so a pot was boiled in tent,

TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES. 9/

and a fine live salmon being caught was introduced.
After a few turns in the warm water he became quiet — •
' vitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata sub umbras/ —
either the shades below, or the shade of our awning,
or the uninvited guests (umbrae) who flocked round
us. You have no idea, sir, how good boiled salmon is.
"To acquire this three things are requisite — a stormy
voyage, then a rustic entertainment without knives and
forks, and chiefly the utter and absolute and animated
freshness of the fish. I would turn up my nose at
your CALLER Edinburgh fish. We concluded our meal,
or rather feast, with some fine mutton ; and then, on
a green bank, and in a fine evening, with our faces
towards the wreck and the Irish coast, Giant's Cause-
way, &c., quaffed goblets of the delicious nectar of
Bordeaux and the Ehine — in other words, claret and
old hock from our ship. A short walk up the country
sobered us completely, and we returned to the village
to tea. At supper we had the heads of the town, and
(inter alias) a man who has written wisely against tea,
and still more wisely against the Newtonian theory.
It is amusing to find in this remote and barbarous
corner a carle who holds Sir Isaac in utter contempt.
Next morning, after visiting the ship, we went to
Islay House, where we have remained ever since, to
our vast edification. Every day we have made ex-
cursions through the island, and constantly found
materials for gratification and amusement. The coun-
try is fertile and only needed cultivation, which Shaw-
field is giving it in great abundance. The natives are
VOL. i. G

98 TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES.

a very simple and worthy set of men, and the women
either very handsome or intolerably ugly. Shawfield's
family is truly agreeable, and we all live together like
brothers and sisters. We have hopes of seeing Lady
Charlotte herself, should our vessel be wind-bound ;
but though the temptation is great, our eagerness to
reach the main point is still greater.

"Monday Evening.

" I must now think of finishing this long letter,
and shall fatigue you farther by giving you some
idea of our plan. It may hereafter be modified by
circumstances, but the outline will most likely remain
the same. You may communicate this or any other
part of the present letter to our folks, just as you
please and how you please. We sail to-morrow or
next day ; and after touching at another island, St
Kilda or the Lewis, we make direct for the Faroe
Islands, and reach them probably in eight or ten days.
There is as much to be seen in them as at Iceland.
Thence we go (perhaps changing our vessel) to Ice-
land ; and after travelling there about six or eight
weeks, we determine whether we return by the east
or west, and this must very much depend upon the
state of the privateering and the facility of obtaining
neutral ships to convey us. If we go by west, we
take a full view in the best season of the Hebrides,
Orkneys, &c., and conclude all by going to Iceland
for some time — perhaps for a considerable time. If
we go by east — or if, instead of making Iceland, we
go from Faroe to Norway, which is possible (and

TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES. 99

which, if you see my mother uneasy, you may tell
her is the plan resolved on) — then our Continental
tour must occupy a longer time, as perhaps the
temptations of the season may draw us to Peters-
burgh. This, I confess, is my wish — winter is the
time for Eussia and Lapland. So, good-night and a
merry Christmas ! I shall write a line from our next
point of appui. — H. B.

" Should you be from home when this arrives, I leave
you to judge whether it may not be proper to drop
James a few lines, informing him that I am well, &c. ;
but as you please. — H. B."

"STORNOWAY, August 14, 1799.

" MY DEAR SIR, — I am much afraid that you begin
to be tired of my letters, but I trust more to the in-
terest you were so good as to express for our success
than to any chance which my details can possibly
have of amusing you or giving any important in-
formation. My last was dated from St Kilda, but
you will not receive it for six or seven weeks. It
contained little or nothing, was written in a pelting
hurry, and more for the sake of the joke than any-
thing else. We had a most favourable run from
Islay. During two days and nights the wind was fair,
the sky clear, the sea calm ; but my enjoyments were
sadly damped by a very unwelcome guest — a season-
ing sickness; it lasted all that time : and about fifty
hours after our departure from Islay we came in sight

ICO TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES.

of St Kilda, or Hirta - - the most remote, and, I
think, most singular of all the British Islands. We
put off a boat with several of our party, ordering
them to hail the natives, and to send out a country
bark, well-manned, to carry us over the neighbouring
surf. They got slowly to shore, and landed with
difficulty on a very rocky coast, with a heavy rolling
sea. "We afterwards found, by their not making
signal and some other circumstances, that we were
taken for a French privateer, and avoided as such,
all the inhabitants preparing their all for a flight to
the mountains. We in the vessel stood round, and
had a full coasting view of this most singular spot
and its adjoining rocks and islets. A more awful
scenery you cannot imagine. The grandeur of the
scenery was heightened by the fineness of the day,
and still more by the idea that a single puff of wind
might prove fatal to us, by raising the whole fury
of the Western Ocean. At last came two boats, one
belonging to the place and ours besides, but both
manned by the savayes. This alarmed us: we thought
tli at our party must be lost or taken, and the arm-
chcst was instantly opened ; but the boats approach-
ing, we found the natives quite pacific, and several
came on board — among others their priest, without
whom nothing would induce them to venture near us.
The worthy man partook of our cabin cheer, and we
prepared to go ashore with some provender. We
found him and his compatriots in a state of ignorance
truly singular : they had heard of the Avar with

TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES. IOI

France, but knew nothing of Lord Howe's victory,
nor any subsequent event ; yet the proprietor's tacks-
man goes there twice a-year : but we were told that
he carefully conceals every event from them if suc-
cessful, in order to keep up their alarms, 'which, we
found, he turns to good account. AYeVXvere ^rau^ed
with this miniature of what some in the great world
are accused of doing, and still more diverted with
the simplicity of these savages, who can thus be
duped and made to believe their wretched residence
and miserable possessions a bait sufficiently alluring
to the ' grande nation/ Yet so it is, that they live
in as constant dread of invasion as if all the wealth
of London and Liverpool were stored up in St Kilda.
A.bout eight o'clock we set off in the St Kildian boat
with above twenty of the natives and ten of our-
selves. The sea was a little threatening, so we had
to keep round by west. Our crew talked most in-
fernally, and rowed very ill. Seeing that this pro-
ceeded from laziness and loquacity, I desired the first
(who alone could speak a word of English) to pro-
mise them a dram if they rowed better, and to bid
them be more quiet. The effect was instantaneous,
and immediately the song arose, extempore in com-
position and far from unmusical in execution ; of
course pleasing in point of effect. I lay snugly
wrapped up in my boat-cloak, which I beg leave to
introduce you to as the envy and admiration of our
whole party. We now weathered the gigantic rocks
of Borera, which surround St Kilda to the north and

102 TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES.

north-east ; and as it was past eleven, I allowed myself
to be lulled asleep by the cadence of the chorus and the
oars. About half-past twelve I heard a little confu-
.sion, and -fpipd. the steersman quitting the helm to
give-pJacevto a more experienced one. Upon looking
r^ifidi la isceif^ presented itself which beggars all de-
scription. We were roughly and rapidly rolling through
such a frightful pass as you cannot form any idea
of. On each side huge masses of broken and impend-
'ing rock stretched up to a terrible height above our
heads. These were towards their bases pierced with
large, dark, rough caves, into which the sea dashed
with stunning noise. Around our crazy overloaded
bark lay huge masses of broken rocks, which rendered
our course very serpentine, and every instant the keel
grazed with a heavy and petrifying noise along the
sunken rocks.

" A circumstance occurred which, if you ever were
at sea, must add vastly in your mind to the charms
of this fine scene. Every stroke of the oars was
attended with a vivid and durable stream of fire,
throwing out sparks on all sides still more bright.
My attention was called from this grand spectacle
to the ludicrous panic -struck pickle of our worthy
Doctor. 'Good Lord, sir— 0 sir— 0 sir!' 'Well,
Doctor/ said I, ' here is a fine scene for you/
' 'Deed, my dear sir, I fear it won't do/ ' Look at
that cavern/ ' We touch the bottom ! ' 'Is not
this light delightfully horrible ? ' ' Hear ! hear !
how we touch the sides!' 'Only see, Doctor,

TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES. 103

what a noble scene — the flashing of the water, the
foaming of the sea, the majesty of the rocks I ' ' Oh
dear ! I am sure our boat can't weather it/ 'Then,
Doctor, the craziness of the vessel, the shallowness of
the water, the horrible gulfs near us. By the by,
don't Mr Burke reckon terror the basis of the sub-
lime?' 'Mr Brougham, sir — sir, I am just looking
where we shall leap out, for a last chance, when the
boat is dashed to pieces ! ' At one o'clock, after
much perilous navigation, and a vast deal of grand
scenery, we opened into a fine safe bay, and in half
an hour more landed. We were conducted to the
town (of which more hereafter), and entered the
priest's house. A more wretched hovel never shel-
tered beast from the storm than this ; and yet it is
the only thing tenantable in the island, except the
tacksman's. We refreshed ourselves a little, with his
wife and mother; then, your humble servant being
superintendent of stores and servants (ex officio),
repaired with his train and provisions to the other
house, was surrounded by many of the savages,
ordered a fire, boiled a kettle, and blessed his own
providence in the first instance for thinking of so
charming and refreshing a beverage. I always make
a point of landing in full uniform. My command
over the stores and servants gives me vast dignity
and patronage. Besides this, a joke goes about of
giving us all nicknames. One is 'Lark;' — the Doctor,
from his crawling after weeds, stones, and puddles,
is ' Toad' ; and I, from some foolish mistake or other,

104 TOUR IX THE WESTERN ISLES.

' Billy Pitt/ So that from hence wherever we go
I am believed to be related to that 'excellent min-
ister/ You cannot conceive, therefore, how all these
items procured me respect and worship ; all the
island was at my nod in a second. While tea was
preparing, I marshalled them thus : servants at my
elbow, for aides-de-camp; provender in the rear;
male natives in front ; female ditto at some dis-
tance from our gentlemen — a most necessary precau-
tion to prevent jealousy. To each native I distri-
buted a ration of tobacco and a dram — their two
greatest prizes, though neither had been in the
island for two and a half years. We then drank
tea and fine milk till three in the morning. Several
of ours went to bed ; others slumbered over the fire.
I sat up with the clergyman, whom I instantly put
under the question, and talked over on all topics
(insular ones) till near five o'clock, when we sallied
forth to view the island in four different parties, the
priest with us. And now for the first time we had
a view of the city. Conceive, if you can, a sort of
green bosom, at a quarter of a mile's distance, with
steep green mountains, and on one side with a fine
bay opening into rocky scenery; at one corner the
dreadful pass, which I described before, and which
appeared almost as bad by daylight. The rest of
the scene is all ludicrous. The green bosom is di-
vided into 400 'rip' or fields of barley and oats and
potatoes — 25 feet %3! in the centre several green
tufts of grassy sod, upon heaps of loose stones — these

TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES. IO5

we at last discovered to be the houses, twenty-six in
number : on the hills, more such molehills, rather
smaller, for cutting peats. This is the town, or city
of Hirta, or St Kilda. It contains 100 inhabitants ;
and the rest of the island is only broused by some
sheep, horses, and cows. The view of this village is
truly unique. Nothing in Captain Cook's voyages
comes half so low. The natives are savage in due
proportion ; the air is infected by a stench almost
insupportable — a compound of rotten fish, filth of all
sorts, and stinking sea-fowl. Their dress is chiefly
composed of a coarse stuff made by themselves, some-
what like tartan. They wear this chiefly in trousers
and jackets, with coarse brogues, also made by them-
selves. They make brooches of clumsy iron rings,
with pins across : these are worn by the women to
tuck up their plaids. Needles coarse in proportion ;
thong-ropes for ascending the rocks in quest of nests
and birds ; fish-hooks finer than the other articles ;
thread and horn-spoons are the remaining manu-
factures of this place — infinitely coarser and more
clumsy, and made in smaller quantity and less
variety, than those which navigators have found
in any of the Pacific islands, New Holland in the
south excepted. A total want of curiosity, a stupid
gaze of wonder, an excessive eagerness for spirits and
tobacco, a laziness only to be conquered by the hope
of the above-mentioned cordials, and a beastly degree
of filth, the natural consequence of this, render the
St Kildian character truly savage. To all this our

106 TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES.

people added tlie leading trait of furtivity of dispo-
sition. ' We were in a constant jeopardy of pocket,
so nimble-fingered are the savages. Bottles, sticks,
&c. &c., all were seized ; but so simple-minded were
the filchers that we as speedily recovered the said
chattels.' My dear boat -cloak fell among others.
I went in suddenly upon the suspected house, and
drawing my sword, an instantaneous tremor pervaded
the house, and I was told one of the servants had got
it. The servants being called, and another flourish
of the sword given, the simple men of St Kilda lifted
up a board, and tremblingly gave me back the dear
stray. These apparently trifling traits in the char-
acter of these poor people will, I trust, be excused,
as the best mode which my hurry and confusion can
leave me of conveying to you an idea of the manners
of a tribe which exemplifies most remarkably the old
proverb, c One half the world don't know how the
other lives.' We made several remarks on the state
of the island, and the mode of management to which
it is subject. Were its extent, fertility, and popula-
tion of sufficient consequence, no better method of
improvement could be fallen upon than to send a
schoolmaster, and then to abolish the present iniquit-
ous method of collecting its produce. The tacksman
(whom the people think a steward) resides twice a-
year there, to plunder under the name of Madeod's
factor. He pays £20 sterling only to Macleod, and
makes above twice as much himself. For this pur-
pose all the milk of cows is brought into his dairy

TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES. 107

from Mayday to Michaelmas, and all the ewes' milk
together for the whole year. Every second lamb-
rani and every seventh ewe go to the same quarter ;
and this sanctified to his use under the name of a
tenth. The rest of the rent is made up in feathers, at
the rate of 3s. per stone, and the tacksman sells them
in the Long Island for 10s. He is quite absolute in
dispensing justice; punishes crimes by fines, and
makes statutes of his own account, which are impli-
citly obeyed. There are no murders ever known
here ; and the priest told us, innocently enough, that
the only adulteress in St Kilda is the steward's dairy-
maid, who comes from the Long Island. There is
no money current here — nothing like barter — and
the rate of assessing the rent to Macleod is the only
criterion of the prices of articles. According to this
we found that a fat sheep is valued at 3s. 6d., a cow
at 30s., a horse at 20s., barley at 16s. per boll, and
potatoes at 3s. per barrel, which may contain about
eight pecks. The inland parts of the island (if it can
be said to have any) are as fit for grazing sheep and
cattle as almost any other places in the Western
Islands ; and several other spots besides the one
where the town is, appear equally susceptible of
cultivation — i. e., capable of producing no light or
mean crops of barley. Upon the whole, I should
suppose that with crops, with cattle, and with the
vast resources of sea-fowl, eggs, and fish, St Kilda is
capable of supporting a population of 1500 souls with
ease. The only mortals among the present inhabitants

108 TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES.

whom we found in any degree civilised above the
brutes, were the priest and his family. He comes
from the Long Island, and has been here fifteen years.
He is a missionary, placed here with a salary, £25
sterling, by the Society for Propagating Christian
Knowledge. If in the course of your calls you ever
see Mr Kemp (who corresponds with him once in an
olympiad), pray give Mr Lachlan M'Leod's respects
to him, and tell him that he complains grievously of
his short allowance. This will make me quit of my
promise to him ; — to say the truth, I think he has
quite enough, unless that it requires some bribe to
keep a man in St Kilda.

" After a cheerful breakfast on good milk, &c. &c.,
we heard divine service performed audibly and
fluently by our host in his kitchen, his only church.
An altar stood in medio — viz., a kettle simmering on
a fire. The savages stood round and the priest per-
formed in a corner. He read, sang, and spoke in
Gaelic, if I can judge, better in point of harmony,
fluency, and attic smoothness et ore rotundo, than
any I ever heard. I sometimes thought he was read-
ing Homer, and reading him with justice. I find
this letter has run to such an unconscionable length
that I must now beg to subscribe myself your most
obedient servant,* HENRY BROUGHAM."

" STORNOWAY, August 19, 1799.

" MY DEAR SIR, — Again you hear from me. Since
my last letter has appeared to be worthy of your

* See Appendix XIII.

TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES. 109

notice, any anecdotes or remarks collected here must
relate to the party more than the place, and an
account of Lewis would only be a repetition of what
must already have been printed. My reasons for
writing, then, are truly selfish — to let you know what
we have done to kill time, and to give you a farther
sketch of our plans. Every morning we shoot grouse,
hares, snipes, and deer till five o'clock, then eat the
most luxurious dinners of game and fish, drinking
claret, champagne, hermitage, and hock : at night we
are uniformly and universally dead (drunk). Your
humble servant being in the chair (ex officio) does his
best, and having a good capacity enough for wine,
does odd enough things. Yesterday our mess fell off
— Campbell and I and two natives set in to it, and
among four had twelve port-bottles : the natives and
Bob being stowed away, I finished another bottle and
a half of port with an old exciseman, major of the
volunteers. This morning I went out and found all
Stornoway in full tongue at my astonishing feat;
went to the moors, walked it off, and killed a brace
of hares at one discharge (keeping their skins for
shoes) above a hundred yards off, and a grouse soon
after still farther ; and to-night we give a ball. Now
for business : my friend Stuart and I separate from
the party at Faroe and try Iceland; after this go
abroad for twelve months, and first to Sweden, Nor-
way, and Denmark ; live cheap and study at Upsal ;
then take Eussia. Now, could not you give us a
letter or two of recommendation, either to your own

110 TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES.

or your father's friends abroad, or the Colonel's \ By
the by, don't you know Mr Coxe 1 Mr Stuart is
the late Lord Bute's grandson and the Duke of
Ancaster's nephew. He could get recommendations
from his friends, but (like myself) is on a concealed
march till he is forced to draw.

"If anything in my power can atone for this
trouble, name it. I believe you cannot. I have
moved heaven and earth to send you a buck and some
birds, but it won't do till the cold weather. With
great respect, HENRY BROUGHAM."

"ON BOARD THE PRIVATEER,
ULLAPOOL, Sept. 1, 1799.

" MY DEAR SIR, — You are, I daresay, not a little
surprised to receive another letter still from me. My
excuses for this offence are now so stale that I shan't
any longer trouble you with repeating them ; but,
worse than all this, my epistles have been so frequent
to you that I am really at a loss to remember where
my last was addressed from, and in consequence am
in some danger of plaguing you with repetitions.
Taking it, however, for granted that you left me
under weigh or really so far from Lewis, I proceed
to inform you that the captain accuses my friend
Stuart and myself of having forced him to sea in a
storm against the opinion of every man in the vessel.
In truth we were now grown impatient enough on
every account at our various and many delays, so I
believe our remonstrances had some weight with the

TOUR IN THE WESTERN ISLES. Ill

after-cabin council — i.e.,the captain and his mates. We
then put in to the Birken [Orkney?] Isles, and failing
to make anchorage from the running of ebb tide, we
stood out again and got north of the Pentland Firth,
into the much- wish ed-f or North Sea itself. In the
dead of night we were in a storm indeed. The sailors
all expecting to see Dairt in half a shake, and the
captain (who was twenty years a North Sea smuggler
and has been twelve times and a half wrecked) cry-
ing, ' I don't know what to do ! As damned a tool
this ship as ever dipp'd her gob in salt brine since
Adam wrought at hemp-picking in Chatham dock-
yard — d n his soul ! ' So he applied to the

Doctor, as the oldest man on board, for his advice — but,
I before told you, a terrible muck (coward) ; and he
voted for instantly making nearest port. We were
still keeping to our course if possible, and if she
would not lie to it, we wished to run through the
Pentland — anything, in short, rather than turn. But
the rest were of a different opinion, and the helm was
tried. Happily she did not miss her stays, but
obeyed rudder, and with a huge grin and volley of
oaths the word was given. Thither we came, and
here we have been again at the flesh-pots and shoot-
ing and drinking. Before departing, I beg to trouble
you with this request, ' that any letters not yet sent
for me, or any which you may procure previous to
the next Baltic or Elsinore ships, may be sent in a
small parcel to Ramsay and Williamson's at Leith,
where they will be called for by a northern friend of

112 TOUR IX THE WESTERN ISLES.

ours, master of a Indtic ship, and kept ly our agent
in Elsinore for its till -we arrive. Tins you may tell
also to our friends;' and any obtained after that
opportunity sails, may be sent per post to Copenhagen,
not to Druiitheim, by the next slaps — I mean those
that sail about the 20th of September. Your favours
are so numerous, and my requests so well proportioned
to them, that I am almost ashamed to say that a re-
cr.imncndation from Sir TF. Forbes to Mr Reibercj
at Copenhagen, would be worth its weight in gold to
us all. You might, I think, procure this through the
liussells (to whom my love, as to all yours) without
letting my request be known. Again excuse brevity,
troublesomeness, &c. &c. HENRY BROUGHAM."

The voyage to Iceland being thus abandoned,
Stuart and I left the rest of our party in Scotland,
and crossed over to the east coast, arriving there in
time for the Baltic autumn fleet.

After a week's voyage- with fine weather, except a
gale in the Cattegat, on a bad lee-shore, when the
wind, contrary to all expectation, shifted and saved
us, we arrived at Elsinore on the I>0th of September.
AVe passed about a week at Copenhagen, where we
saw a good deal of Mr Merry, the Charge d 'Affaires in
Lord Jlobcrt Fitzgerald's absence, and spent the early
part of the winter at Stockholm. I kept a journal of
this lour, which is as follows.

CHAPTER III.
Ftsit to Jienmarfe atft Scanfcina&ia*

JOURNAL OF VISIT TO DENMARK AND SCANDINAVIA — LANDING AT
ELSINORE — TRAVELLING IN DENMARK — COPENHAGEN — OBJECTS
OF INTEREST — COLLEGE LIBRARY — PALACE — THE TOWN AND
THE PEOPLE THE THEATRE — THE EXCHANGE — THE CONSTI-
TUTION OF DENMARK — SOCIAL CONVENTIONALISM — ADMINIS-
TRATION OF JUSTICE — KING CHRISTIAN AND HIS COURT

JOURNEY TO HELSINGBORG TRAVELLING IN SWEDEN — DANISH

AND SWEDISH PEASANTRY COMPARED — SCENERY — ADVENTURES

STOCKHOLM — ARCHITECTURE — PUBLIC PLACES — JEALOUSY OF

FOREIGNERS — SCIENCE AND LETTERS — SITTING OF THE ACADEMY
OF SCIENCES — SWEDISH ARTISTS AND THEIR WORKS — SOCIAL

CONDITION — IMMORALITY AND CRIME GUSTAVUS III. AND GUS-

TAVUS IV. — PERSONAL ANECDOTES OF ROYALTY — RUSSIAN AND
FRENCH INFLUENCE, AND JEALOUSY OF BRITAIN — THE ARMY —
REVENUE — TRADE AND CURRENCY LANGUAGE — POLICE — RE-
LIGION— A CLAIRVOYANT — DEPARTURE FROM STOCKHOLM TO
UPSALA — COUNTRY PALACE OF GUSTAVUS III. — RURAL AFFAIRS

— REINDEER — WILD ANIMALS RUNIC ANTIQUITIES — UPSALA

CATHEDRAL — UNIVERSITY — CASTLE — JOURNEY CONTINUED TO-
WARDS NORWAY — VISIT BY LANTERN-LIGHT TO THE FALLS OF

TROLLHATTEN — GOTEBORG OR GOTTENBORG SCOTS RESIDENTS

— A GHOST STORY — WINTER TRAVELLING THE FROZEN FIORDS

— SLEDGING GLIMPSES OF SOCIAL LIFE IN FREDERIKSHALD

PRIVATE THEATRICALS — VOYAGE HOME — NARROW ESCAPE FROM
SHIPWRECK.

VOL. I. H

114 VISIT TO DENMARK |>799-

JOUEXAL.

1799. — Sej)t. 24?/i to the 30th. — We had a slow,
Imt agreeable enough passage of a week. The
weather was bad, particularly in the Cattegat, where
we were very near a bad lee-shore with a gale : the
wind shifting, almost contrary to expectation, saved
us ; and after beating off and on, we made the straits
of the Sound early on Monday the 30th.

At 9 o'clock A.M. we saw the coasts on both sides
of the Sound — the Danish seemed finely wooded to
the very shore, on which several houses were scattered.
At some distance we saw the town and castle of
Helsingor, Elsingor, or Elsingoer, or Elsinore, or
ELsineur, or Elsinoor — for it is spelt in each of these
different ways. On the opposite side is Helsingborg,
a Swedish town ; and in sailing up to anchorage we
observed on the Danish coast a neat white house,
well situated among the woods, and surrounded by
gardens and terraces, apparently in the English taste.
The captain called it Matilda's Palace, and at Elsinore
we found it was called by Englishmen Hamlet's
Palace. It is said that the murder happened in the
garden. It is now occupied by a ranger of the parks.

Sept. 30. — After having a salute for our convoy
from the fort, we anchored, and dressed to go ashore.
In the roads there were a vast number of ships, and
several Danish men-of-war; yet we were told that
the anchorage is often infinitely more crowded. No
less than five boats came off to us, each asking less

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 115

than the former one ; so that from nine dollars their
demands sunk to three. We remarked also the sin-
gular similarity that seemed to prevail among the
natives. I don't think that I could easily have dis-
tinguished one face from another. No sooner had
we landed than we found ourselves surrounded by a
mob of merchants' clerks, who lay in wait for the ship,
and tried to entrap each with the cry of " My dear
friend, do you clear with us ? " Our captain went to
Howden's, and we accompanied him, delivering our
letters from Hutchins. We then went to a toler-
ably good inn, kept by a man who was educated at
Musslebro! After an indifferent dinner, but good
claret, we paid our captain the enormous sum of
twenty guineas for our passage, to which we added
one for the men.

Mr Howden called before dinner and behaved very
civilly. We drank tea with him, and went to the
subscription rooms, which are large and commodious.
A hundred gentlemen, chiefly merchants, pay ten
dollars per annum, and have the liberty of introduc-
ing strangers. After lounging in these rooms, seeing
the gardens by candle-light, and looking at some
billiard-play performed by English sea-officers, we
were taken by Howden and his nephew, nicknamed
" Caliban," to the subscription news-rooms, where we
met a company of British worthies, and had a slang-
ish conversation, adapted to the humour of the
society. Howden then turned to us, and presented a
dreadful account of Paul's customs about dress, pass-

Il6 VISIT TO DENMARK [i799-

ports, and the knout. Everything showed us that
this brute of a tyrant and tyrant of brutes wishes to
keep his savage empire in a state of closeness and
insularity as inaccessible as that of China.

Oct. 1. — -After sleeping comfortably on English
beds, we had coffee in our rooms, and went out to
HowdenX whose civilities in procuring us letters to
Copenhagen, and letting us draw for fifty pounds,
and introducing us to Fenwick, the English consul,
a gentlemanly and obliging young man, pleased us
much. We found all the merchants croaking over
the hardness of the times — the failures in Hamburg
—the impossibility of selling their bills — sugars sell-
ing with difficulty at sixty per cent under prime
cost, and the other consequences of the Dutch expedi-
tion. Mr Howden had to lament £700 worth of
bills lying dead at Hamburg, besides being obliged
to pay specie to Government from clearances.

After giving orders to a Scotch tailor, we set off at
twelve for Copenhagen in a stulil wagen, or oblong
cart, with a couple of seats across, on springs, and
one for the driver in front. The horses are lar^e

o

and strong : two easily drew us and our lu^o-a^e all

O J OO o

the way. The road is indeed excellent — well raised,
even, and smooth. We also took with us for half
the way a ship's captain, at Howden's recommenda-
tion ; and for the rest of it, a younij man, who be^o'ed

' •/ O OO

our permission. The day was damp, and rainy at
intervals. The face of the country is delightful —
disposed in ridges and flats, with clumps of fine trees,

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. II/

and some very thick woods. The cottages are
situated in the most romantic spots imaginable ; and
were it not for the appearance of the houses, whose
roofs are very upright and in several planes, and
whose walls are studded with windows, one might
suppose himself in the southern parts of England.
The dress of the peasants is grotesque, and varies
every league. It consists in general of a long wide
doublet, usually red and laced ; a waistcoat down to
the knees, and leather breeches. The coat and vest
are covered with a profusion of silver buttons, which
constitute, in some measure, the peasant's wealth.
We saw some ploughing in very broad ridges — the
plough like the common English ones, only that
some had two large wheels in front. The ground
seemed rich and soft, and we saw some fields of grass,
heavily manured, which in England would not be
touched.

The milestones are large stone obelisks at every
quarter of a mile — that is, at every English mile.
On the top part is a large crown, with the cipher
of the king in whose reign it was raised, and with
several ornaments. The business part of it — namely,
the number, seems scarce attended to. We passed
several gentlemen's houses, not remarkable, and also
some manufactories, particularly a cotton-mill three
stories high, with seven windows in a row, and a
reservoir behind. We saw no river, few streams, and,
of course, many windmills. The road, which scarcely
makes any turn, runs beautifully through thick woods,

llS VISIT TO DENMARK [>799-

and sometimes through a variety of moorish and wild
ground, in which, we saw one or two deer. The
game-laws are very strict, and almost all the country
is monopolised by the Crown. We arrived at Hir-
scholm at three o'clock, and as we were past the hour
of dinner, we could only get cold things to eat. We
had very good light Khenish, which only cost three
marks and a half. The landlord talked good French,
and the inn was really a very good one. The village
is neatly scattered among trees and water. Near it
we passed the palace — a fine building, with coppice
and gardens laid out by Queen Matilda, in the Eng-
lish taste. Near this lives Count Horn, the accom-
plice of Ankers troem : he is quite cut at Copenhagen,
and tried in vain to get into society at Elsinore.

As we approached Copenhagen, the country got
more open. About four miles from it, we passed the
palace and fine gardens of Prince Carl. After a
heavy rain, came in sight of the town. Saw the
palace on the right ; at the gates underwent a most
strict examination of our ba^o-ao-e. The road comes

Oo O

to a point before arriving at the gate, where the
different avenues break off, each planted with rows of
trees. The ramparts are large, but out of repair.
Coming to Roach's Hotel, in the Great Place, were
refused admittance. Same at Lubell's and Mil-
ler's ; with a laquais de place s assistance got into
Leoft's. All the people here ignorant of every lan-
guage but their own, except a child who had been
born in London. The landlady being at the play,

,ET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 119

we could get no supper till she came home ; and then
it was very bad.

Get* 2. — Walked with our laquais de place to pay
visits, having sent our letters. Only found Brown at
home, but overwhelmed with business. Dined at
Kouch's. Mr Merry, the Charge d' Affaires, in Lord
Eobert Fitzgerald's absence, called in the evening,
also Howden, who was croaking like an old frog, and
read more Hamburg failures from his note-book ; but
he joined in Merry's tune of its being 30 much the
better, as it must hurt the enemy.

Oct. 3. — Dined at LubelTs. Mitchell, the English
consul in Norway, was there — a violent Ministerialist,
and great advocate for the late King of Sweden, of
whom he talked much. Said he was in a coffee-
house in Stockholm at the time of the revolution.

Oct. 4. — Saw Thorkelin, who behaved in a very
easy and agreeable manner to us, and showed us
every civility, taking us about to the college and
library. He is keeper of the archives, which he
showed us all over, and told me, at the same time, to
conceal it, as I was the first foreigner who had seen
them/"" There is a vast collection of treaties, well
arranged and preserved : the principal ones which I
looked over were those with Cromwell in 1651—
Elizabeth — Joseph II. — Peter the Great ; the Dan-

* Grim Jonnson Thorkelin, a celebrated Scandinavian archaeologist,
a native of Iceland. At the period of the visit he was well known in
society in Britain, having spent several years in this country pursuing
researches into the connection between the Scandinavian nations and
the British Islands.

120 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

ish Corpus Juris, beautifully written in 1681 ; the
Danish Magna Charta in forty articles, and on ten
folio pages, dated 4th November 1665 ; the famous
Act of Cession, dated January same year, carefully
wrapt up, wrote on two pages folio, with signatures
on above twelve — sixty names and seals on each page,
being the tiers 6tat. To the charter is fixed a superb
gold seal. Thorkelin, on our putting several ques-
tions to him, told me that we must not mention what
he said, if we published our journals, and added that
Coxe's imprudence had made every one cautious of
speaking to strangers, and even of receiving them.*

Oct. 4. — The town stands on a flat upon the sea,
which intersects it in several places, and has almost
everywhere a stagnant and dirty appearance. The
streets are in general narrow but even, and the
houses high. The roofs being perpendicular, and in
several planes, give them an ugly look. The single
buildings, such as inns, offices, and chateaus, are very
large and handsome, though built without any form
except the oblong, and abounding too much in win-
dows. The best part of the town is the Great Place,
or market, in which is the theatre, opera-house,
guard-house, and two very fine inns. But the finest
building of course is the palace, which stands in
another part of the city on a port of the sea. This,
however, like the rest of the town, has suffered from
the fire of 1795, of which one finds traces in every

* In allusion to « Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark/
by Archdeacon Coxe.

'JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 121

part. The streets are filled with rubbish. Every
other house is building, and scaffolding is as common
as walls. The consequence of this has been that few
have sufficient capital to build. Lodging is extremely
scarce. Mr Merry could find none at first by any
means, and even yet has got very miserable rooms in
which he is not settled. There are several table
d'hdtes, but only two of any reputation. Bouch's
we found to be a mere scramble, and frequented by
indifferent people. Lubell's is more select and regular,
being in the nature of a private dinner, at which the
landlord and his family appear ; but the eating was
bad. There is also a club, or private society of
merchants and others, which we were not present at.
The palace is a noble building, though at present
nothing but the walls remain in the quadrangle ; the
inside is burnt or pulled down in consequence of the
fire, which seemed to have attacked one side chiefly,
as there the freestone facing is completely torn off
from the brick of which the walls are built. The
great quadrangle is five stories high (including the
small ones between), and twenty-five windows in
front. On each side is a circular sweep, and each
sweep terminates in a circular wing, the whole ending
in a noble gateway to which an elegant bridge and
street leads. The wings or sweeps have ninety
windows in the row ! The ornaments, which in
general remain entire, are handsome. The style of
architecture mixed — chiefly Ionic. In the rooms of
the quadrangle poor families live, having built huts

122 VISIT TO DENMARK [>799-

against the walls, and two of the front windows of
the palace are filled up with the casement windows
of these houses. In the front is a Latin inscription,
bearing that the palace was built by Christian VI.,
in seven years, ending 1740.

The climate of Copenhagen is unhealthy. No one
is to be seen with a decent set of teeth or good eyes, —
either quite rotten or " sesquipedales." The people
are fair and watery-looking. The streets uncommonly
dirty; the mud has a putrid smell. The winters are
so severe sometimes that Lord R Fitzgerald told Mr
Merry he has heard them firing at deserters running
across the ice to Sweden. The stoves in the rooms
are iron, and not only look gloomy, but exhale a most
odious smell, and are besides unwholesome. The dis-
eases most frequent are gout and rheumatism, owing
to the extreme dampness which prevails, except
during frost.

The only public amusement here is a play three
times a- week. The theatre is about the size of old
Drury — heavy, but rather grand. The ornaments are
gilt upon an olive ground, which is the prevailing
colour. The house is dark, the light being all thrown
upon the stage during the performance. There are
only twenty lamps ; eight more are let down from the
roof over the pit between the acts. The band is
good — about thirty performers. The acting appeared
good and chaste. The people seemed critically in-
clined. They were in morning dresses, and sat as
stiff as pokers: no flirtation nor gallantry. The play

/ET. .22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 123

was, " She Stoops to Conquer ; " and Tony Lumpkin
was well done, though the song was omitted. The
scenery was bad, but a ballet was given at the end,
with some good dancing, and the dresses would have
put the Bishop of Durham into fits.

The Exchange is an old building in the mixed
Gothic style. The inside is filled with shops, through
which are walks, and a reservoir at one end. Auctions
are held in the corners. It was always crowded, and
we saw in it several Polish Jews.

The University is an old and shabby quadrangle.
We were present at an examination of the students,
who were very mean-looking, and seemed to be ques-
tioned by the master, who sat in his chair, like boys
at school. There are eighteen professors, the richest
of whom have from 1500 to 3000 rix-dollars a-year.
The Royal Library is a noble institution. It con-
tains about 25,000 volumes, and is unlimited for
new purchases : it is kept in a fine suite of apart-
ments in a wing of the palace. Two of these are
called " Bibliotheca Septentrionalis." There is a
public reading - room, and every one may take
home books with him. We looked over several of
these, and found all sorts of works, some remarkably
splendid. There is also a Eoyal Museum, but this
we did not see.

The style of society was pronounced by Merry to
be insufferable; and though we found reason to believe
that he had exaggerated a little (from the nature
of his situation), yet so dull is the place that the

124 VISIT TO DENMARK 0799-

Russian General, Knox, who passed through lately on
his way to Holland, stayed only three days in Copen-
hagen, and a month at Elsinore. The visiting is
confined to \vintcr : in summer the merchants go to
the country houses and boxes, and even in winter the
parties are said to be dull : the Court is uncommonly
so. At present the only Ministers are the Russian,
French, Dutch, and Swedish, all of whom live ex-
ceedingly private.

The government of Denmark is absolute, as every
one knows. The Act of 1645, which made the Crown
elective, was abolished, and in 1665 the Crown was
made hereditary, and unlimited in power. The former
Act being abolished, Dr Thorkelin mentioned to me
that no mention is made in it of the comparison with
the government of our State ; but I suspect he mis-
understood my question. It has, indeed, every ap-
pearance of a despotic government. There are no
states acknowledged, no control on the king's power.
He names the privy council, who do all in his name.
He levies taxes, makes peace and war, publishes
edicts, alters, annuls, and makes laws. The titles are
Graf, or Count, and Baron. But Court employments
or other great offices conferred by the Crown consti-
tute the great and almost the only difference of rank
and station. These offices, it is true, are only given
to such as are noble ; but then letters of nobility are
easily obtained. Thus the merchants who have made
money become noble, and hold places. Mr Selby is
in this way a Baron, and Mr de Konig is besides a

*ST. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 125

Councillor of State. The mercantile influence is very
extensive, though Merry seemed to attribute a good
deal more to it than was due. Certainly a Govern-
ment so much in want of money must depend much
on the moneyed men ; but how far these have a direct
influence is another matter. However, Mr Merry
mentioned a circumstance which, if true, must prove
that influence to be very great indeed. He said " that
he was astonished at finding so many people em-
ployed secretly in trade ; that every day he made dis-
coveries of this kind ; and he scrupled not to affirm
that almost everybody in Copenhagen was more or
less concerned in commerce. The ostensible mer-
chants who have the trade in their hands are few in
number, and have the ear of the Court/' Mr Otto, on
the other hand, seemed to laugh at Mr Merry for
ascribing by his behaviour so much to his (Mr Otto's)
brethren : he said that Merry was constantly running
up and down, and crying, " Why don't you join the
coalition ? " All these merchants are enemies to the
present war — talk without scruple against England —
and are peculiarly irritated by the Dutch expedition.
Nothing can make them join but our success in Hol-
land : while matters are doubtful, they keep on the
safe side, and remain as they are. The Government
is very poor. Last spring, when Hamburg was
threatened, four frigates were equipped for the de-
fence of Altona and Holstein. A fuss was made about
a tax for this. The impost on land had been raised
formerly, and was changed. Merry did not know

126 VISIT TO DENMARK [i799-

exactly how it was raised; but, after all, it did not pro-
duce £200,000. This lie finds from documents among
the ambassador's papers. Notwithstanding the long
peace which the country has enjoyed, yet there is
little specie in it ; what one sees is miserably adul-
terated with copper ; but, except some small money,
nearly all the currency is paper.

The want of states and other causes must render
the Crown, in case of war, utterly dependent either on
the rich merchants or foreign subsidies. The adminis-
tration of this Government, execrable as is its theory,
is in practice mild and gentle. Every liberty of
speech and writing is practised, to a degree of licen-
tiousness unknown in England, or known only to be
severely punished. Of this the natives seem perfectly
conscious, and laugh at English liberty, which they
call a mere name. Two days before we were there,
an instance of the Crown's power occurred. The press
had grown so scandalously licentious, and even libel-
lous, that an edict was published September 28th.
This was, however, occasioned (in reality) by an
advertisement appearing from a set of Jacobins, rather
of the lower kind, who used to frequent Grouvelle's
(the French Minister's) house. It proposed that a
literary society was to be formed, which was known
to have politics in view. Paul instantly withdrew
his envoy, and forbade in the strictest way all com-
munication between the two countries. The edict was
instantly drawn up and hurried through the Council,
then sent off by Baron Blum to St Petersburg.
It sets forth in a long preamble the evils of licen-

4LT. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 127

tiousness, prohibits under the highest penalties expres-
sion against government or monarchy in general, and
in fact destroys at once the liberty of speech and writ-
ing ; but as every one knows that it is done to serve
an end, people openly turn up their noses at it. Mean-
time a prosecution has been entered into against the
editor of an obnoxious journal, but he is expected to
get off, or at most to pay a trifling fine.

The criminal jurisprudence is mild in the extreme.
There are, indeed, no juries, but the judges proceed
with the greatest caution and inquire into the circum-
stances in the minutest manner possible. The sentence
is not valid till ratified by the king, who cannot make
it more severe. Sedition is punished by imprison-
ment or a gentle fine. Murder and treason only are
capital: the former happens not once in two years; the
latter not since the time of Struensee, who was uni-
versally esteemed the victim of a party, and all the
world sided with Matilda. For other offences, the
punishment is confinement with labour, and wearing
chains. One sees several of these half-prisoners walk-
ing about in Copenhagen. The Danes think it does
good in the way of example, a thing which admits of
doubt in this case.

There are two courts of justice: one civil, called
the Under Court, which is private, and does all busi-
ness in writing; the other is open, and takes cog-
nisance of criminals. The taxes are well levied, and
easily for the people ; they amount to 1 J million a-
year, which does not come to more than Is. in £20
at a medium, chiefly on consumption.

128 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

The army is beyond proportion : they call it about
70,000, but I believe the Government would find it
difficult to produce a disposable force of 30,000. The
pay is two skellings and a half per day, but the
soldiers work for themselves, and have two reviews
a-year. They are no terror to the people, who indeed
seem to care little either for the army or noblesse.

The fleet consists of about 40 sail of the line, which
lie in a very convenient dock in Copenhagen; but we
did not go to see them.

The King of Denmark is an idiot. Dr Thorkelin,
however, talked mysteriously on the subject, and
seemed to think that the ruling party kept his Ma-
jesty down by this accusation. Mr Merry said that
ambassadors, etc., have to be drilled, as it were, before-
hand, when they go into his presence, in case of his
exposing himself. Lord Eobert Fitzgerald used fre-
quently to play at cards with him, arid said he used
to run out of the room suddenly and without cause.
If any one answered him he was apt to be outrageous,
sometimes spit in people's faces and boxed their ears.
His own family never answered him. Mr Otto told
me an odd anecdote of him. A favourite of his had
been removed by the influence of the Court, on which
there was sent him, to light his fire, a common porter ;
him lie created a Lord of the Bedchamber, and the
man had to get a considerable pension to induce him
to retire ! Mrs Howden saw him one day come to the
garden wall, near the palace. He leaped over ; but
being told there was a gate near, he leaped back again

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 129

and entered by it ! In short, he is humoured in every-
thing, and appears to be in truth an idiot.

In the mean time the Queen-Dowager and Crown
Prince manage everything. Count Schonneny, the
Finance Minister, is said to be the most powerful of
the Ministry ; but Selby (at Stockholm) told me that
BernstofF (the son of the great Minister), who is only
thirty, and a very able man, is in great influence. I
rather believe, however, that he is only the organ of
the Council. Indeed it matters not what he is at
present, as the Crown Prince is to all intents and pur-
poses Prime Minister. The King signs his name and
appears at Court ; he is, however, a mere puppet. The
Prince's brother is not in favour, and, I understand,
does not appear at Court.

The ambassador Grouvelle (who read the sentence
to Louis XVI.) lives very retired."* I see, however,
that he is popular among the prevailing powers, the
merchants. I have heard young Selby excuse him
by making him say that "if people knew all the
circumstances they would not blame him so much."
The Dutch Minister also is popular. Lord Eobert
Fitzgerald is violent against both, and withdrew his
name from the society at Kouch's. "When Grouvelle
came he handsomely retired ; but as the others did not,
the matter remains. Both the French and Dutch
Ministers were received at the society with open arms.

* Grouvelle, frequently mentioned in the ' Moniteur* as " litterateur
et diplomate," was sent as ambassador from the Eepublic to Denmark
in 1713.

VOL. I. I

I3Q VISIT TO DENMARK [i799-

"We were told at Elsinore that people were of late
grown much less violent on politics, merely from
being tired of talking so much on the subject.

Lord Eobert Fitzgerald is apparently on conge;
but his house and effects being sold, and Mr Merry
being settled here as Consul - General and Charge
d' Affaires, he is now known to have retired for good
till elsewhere provided for. He had been three years
here, and his departure was supposed to be owing to
a publication in the English papers relative to the
Danish East India Company. It is evident that he
was not used in the best manner possible at Copen-
hagen. Mr Merry calls the literary men here " a
set of the greatest Jacobins on the face of the earth."

Upon the whole, it appears that the mercantile
government of Denmark is afraid of joining the
coalition on two accounts : first, because its com-
merce is sure of suffering in the first instance ; and,
secondly, because the consequence must be an imme-
diate increase of expense, which in its present situa-
tion it could not meet. What service it could render
the common cause, even though it could be induced
to take a side, I cannot conceive. It must be sub-
sidised by England for very indifferent troops, and
for any assistance, which, in the present state of men's
minds in Denmark, could not be hearty. At the
same time the country seems quite in the hands of
Eussia and of England, so that the strictest neutrality

is necessary.*

* See Appendix XIV.

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 131

Oct. 5. — After writing letters and cursing the
fleecing habits of this place, we set off to Elsinore
in a decent covered carriage. Saw nothing worth
notice on our way, except the corpse of a woman who
had been drowned ; it lay on the roadside, without
attracting the least attention. After stopping for
coffee at Hirschholm, got to Elsinore at ten, the
night being very fine and starry, and went to the
club, where we found the natives uncommon civil.
Received more attention from Mr Howden.

Oct. 6. — Early in the morning we got ready —
by docking (of course) our tailor's bill — breakfasted
with Mrs Howden, who resembles much the Queen of
Sweden. The quay as usual, for the Elsinorers
keep no Sabbath. Had a pleasant passage to Helsing-
borg, a Danish mile over. It is a neat enough town,
airily situated and built wide. The inn is very bad :
a villanous landlord, who had been two years at
Sunderland. He has waggons of all sorts for sale, as
people on leaving Sweden generally sell their travel-
ling carriage : for these he asks the most extravagant
prices, and I believe is generally sure of selling you,
as people are not a little in his hands. For a very
shabby uncovered one we paid thirty rix-dollars, and
after having it covered, could only sell it at Stock-
holm for ten ! Our stay here was spent in running
up and down after carriages and horses, arid specie —
for which we paid a premium of nearly five per cent.
Near Helsingborg are the springs of mineral water to
which the Swedes resort every summer from Stock-

132 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

holm, and the town is said at this time to be very
gay. After a bad dinner and much imposition, we
set out. The road was good and smooth, so we drove
pleasantly enough with one horse, — the country gene-
rally flat, though rising here and there ; a little cul-
tivated. Saw some hay in stacks, but it seemed very
indifferent. Some wood, however, was well scattered
over the country ; the rest appeared very marshy and
damp. We met many carts of the peasants in differ-
ent forms, all as simple as can be imagined, carrying
casks, tubs, and boxes of wood and iron, made up the
country. They were driven by peasants who put us
in mind of gypsies. Many of the carts were drawn
by oxen, and some by cows.

We got to Astorp after a chilly drive. It is a
small hamlet of wood, pleasantly enough situated;
indeed all the Swedish hamlets are romantic in the
extreme. We were struck by the great difference
between the peasantry here and in the places near to
Denmark. We had tea, and despatched the forebote,
or courrier en avant, carrying our baggage, to travel
all night, after having the sedel, a paper of instruc-
tions, written by a learned peasant, the only one in
the parish. Had Swedish beds — that is, lay between
two.

Oct. 7. — Got off between five and six to follow the
forebote. The country as before — the roads also good.
Met scores of natives, and cars of iron, wood boxes,
&c. Saw some parties at breakfast on the road.
Crossed a shallow lake, as all in this place are : the car

MT. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 133

drove into a large flat boat without our dismounting.
Came to a more wild and rough country — also more
woody — all natural. The houses are all wooden, the
fires also. They are open, and set in a wide chimney
at the corner of the room ; a damper is let down as
soon as the room is sufficiently warm. They use pine
laths for candles, holding the light downwards.
Candles they also have, but exceeding small, and
very bad.

We went pleasantly on, sometimes taking two horses.
The road winds through a variety of woods, some of
them very thick. The trees are of different sorts,
some firs ; but the finest and most plentiful are oaks
and beech, besides birch, aspen, nut, and alder. "We
saw also many heathberries, some cranberries, and a
vast abundance of sloes ; also Osmunda regalis. The
cattle were chiefly pigs, running in the woods, and
very lean, of course : cows and horses small, but fleet.
We went on very quick, only stopping at the inns to
get a crust of bread or an apple. At Markavid met
a student of Lund (in Scania) who spoke German and
French. After Markavid, saw many lakes among
thick woods : these were universally very shallow,
from the gentle slope of their sides and their general
appearance. They had many islands, also wooded.
We met several travellers. They rode, wrapped in
surtouts, in open carriages holding one (sometimes
two), driven by servant or self, and always smoking.
At Travyd we got late. The driver had stopped to
tie his spare horse to a tree before getting in sight of

134 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

the next inn, a trick often played to save taking
another spare horse next stage. Found the people
here very civil, and got some sour milk and cold
potatoes. The night cold and a little rainy. Rode
by a pretty large river to Hamnade, where by mistake
the forebote had stopped, so we had to stop here. A
miserable place. Coffee got, after much surprise at
first, and honey for sweeting. Slept in one wretched
bed, taking the precaution of showing pistols, and
we afterwards found this was not unnecessary. On
paying next morning the man made a charge for
water !

Oct. 8. — A very wet day, at times raining very
hard. The road lay over an open green turf all the
first stage, and near the river. At Lingby found a
Swedish servant who spoke good English. We break-
fasted on blood-puddings, eggs, and milk. Next
stage, two miles (Swedish), at a foot's pace, owing to
the sulkiness of the driver : pouring the whole time,
and no wood to shelter us, so got completely wet.
Coasted a very large lake for two miles and a half
without coming to the end of it. In the middle
several islets ; one large, with wood and houses on it.
The houses in this part of the country are very neat
both outside and inside, and intermixed every now and
then with church spires, constructed in a most fan-
tastical manner of wooden billets representing tiles,
which gave the landscape a very singular and romantic
appearance. Passed what appeared to be a large
shallow lake, with several houses scattered over it;

JET.. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 135

but it proved to be only the overflowing of a river
which runs through this valley. At Waramow found
a good enough inn, compared to what we had been
used to of late. Though it was now late, yet we
resolved to go on. The road lay through impenetrable
forests, and was so bad we could scarcely crawl along :
it was perfectly dark, and we got shook to pieces, yet
I slept through the greater part. From the next post
we took the way by a shorter cut through a wood
into the great road, which also lay the whole of the
way through forests of pine, broken only here and
there by an acre of land cleared, with a cottage on
it. At midnight we came to a green break in the,
wood where the inn of Skylingaryd stands. It was
snug and most agreeable to us : we had some potatoes,
milk, and ham, with our own tea, a couple of good
beds, and a fire, so that I feel myself rather comfort-
able while writing this, though I have more than half
the journey before me ; and so I shall proceed to note
down a few observations on the country through which
we have passed, the wildest and most unfrequented in
the south of Sweden. The manners of the natives are
the same nearly through this quarter — I mean through
Skamaand and the greater part of Smaland, towards
Jonkopyichage.

1. The difference is striking between Elsinore and
Helsingborg, the opposite side of the Sound. The
peasantry, from the moment you enter Sweden, have
a much finer appearance than the Danes. Their
countenances more healthy, and without that watery

136 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

white look which is so disgusting in Denmark.
Neither have they that uniformity so remarkable
among the Danes. They are much more agreeable
in their manners, and, with the exception of the inn-
keepers and people concerned on the roads, more
honest.

2. Their dress is plain ; none of those absurd or-
naments before described are to be seen here. Their
clothes are large and comfortable — of a warm wool-
len in summer, and sheepskin in winter. In Scania
(province on the southern coast) we observed they
were chiefly white ; after that we came among blue :
the poorest boys who drove us had good clothing, and
stockings and shoes. At work they use wooden shoes,
but we saw them always with leather when unem-
ployed.

3. Their houses are all good and clean — magnificent
compared to those of the English peasantry, and much
better than the Danish. They are built of logs, with
white plastered chimneys and windows. They are
generally painted red, and either thatched or covered
with timber planks ; and to preserve them from wet,
they are raised on four small pillars of stone, some-
times of wood; sometimes, in the better sort, a dwarf
wall is built a few feet up.

Almost every house, if it has offices, has a large
maypole; in many places parts of the flowers remain,
and often a weather-index is placed at the top. The
fires (of wood) are lit in a large stone chimney, open-
ing into the room, in the corner. The damper is

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 137

generally a movable plank, tied to a string which is
pulled and fixed to a nail by the chimney, and as
soon as the fire is half burnt out it is let down.
In many houses the damper is fixed on a pole, which
moves round on a prop between two uprights, and is
pulled up or let down by another pole. All this is
on the outside, and has a singular appearance enough.
The consequences of letting down the damper too
soon are often dangerous, both in these houses and

O '

the ones heated by stoves.

4. The food of the peasants is chiefly a soup of
gruel made of meal, beans, peas, and turnips chopped
small ; to this meat is sometimes added. But oftener
their food is hog puddings, either made of the blood
or of meat and the inside, like a haggis. They don't
seem to feed so much on the flesh, at least the pea-
sants and servants ; they eat a great deal of cold
boiled potatoes and boiled milk. Their bread is of rye
and barley, made either in hard cakes or in thin flat
loaves, with a hole in the middle for hanging them
up. They are baked twice a-year, but keep quite well,
and the beams in the roof of the houses are studded
with them ; they have them also thick, but not for
keeping. They preserve blueberries and cranberries
for sauce, and stew apples and pears. Their meal is
very good, and they use it for porridge. They make
a drink of warm milk, of which they are very fond ;
and the better people use beer and eggs. Their brand-
wein is extremely fiery, and resembles gin or whisky ;
but they can make it very good, and season it with

138 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

seeds ; this the better sort of people drink in Stock-
holm. On the whole, the peasantry live more com-
fortably in every respect than in England.

5. They all work in iron and wood ; in the former
clumsily enough, in the latter very neatly : they use
the adze for everything. They make neat boxes, and
vats of a large size, hooped and tipped with iron.
These we met in whole caravans on the road, and the
boxes often filled with cheeses, all going to fair and
market.

6. The number of lakes is very striking, but still
more so farther to the north. We saw few rocks
the first two days, but the third we found great
blocks here and there among the woods. The coun-
try was in general flat during all these days, and
seems favourable to inland navigation.

7. The roads are excellent ; they are made of gravel,
and kept up by the proprietors through whose ground
they run. Everywhere we saw stuck up by the road-
side something written, which we afterwards found
to be the name of the peasants or proprietors who
were bound to keep that part of the road in repair ;
so that the governor or road-surveyor can challenge
the faulty person at any time. The consequence of
the goodness of the roads is, that the least roughness
or steepness, which in England would be disregarded,
is here deemed impassable, and the least rising of
ground is laboured up as if it were a steep hill. The
horses are very tractable and easily driven : the pea-
sants drive very skilfully, but crawl up the least

&r. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 139

rising, and then go down at full gallop as soon as they
reach the top.

8. The peasants are obliged to find horses, and both
they and the innkeepers are under the strictest nom-
inal discipline. If a holcar (man who gives the horses)
asks drink-money, he is to receive so many lashes ; if
an innkeeper imposes on the journey, he is to get
lashes ; more for the next, and, for the third offence,
he is to be sent a slave to a fortress. Like all severe
regulations, these are never enforced. Yet there is a
book printed which has these regulations at the be-
ginning, and is distributed to every inn, with blanks
for the name of the passenger, the date, hour of his
arrival and departure, number of horses, where from
and whither going, also for his complaints against the
people, and theirs against him. Once a-month the
surveyor examines this ; but we observed that, except
in the remote provinces, the people did not seem to
care about it. The price is 8 skellings (8 pence) a
Swedish mile per horse, of which ten make a degree,
or near seven English. They drive, and seldom ride,
their horses.

9. In these southern parts we saw chiefly growing
rye, barley, beans, and a few peas and oats. They
dry these grains in three ways. That which we saw
in the south was simple enough : it consisted in pil-
ing up the sheaves loose upon long poles stuck
through them ; these are scattered round the house
or barn, and have a singular enough appearance.
Another method is that of placing three sheaves tri-

140 VISIT TO DENMARK [i?99-

angularly, leaning against each other at the top ; on
this they placed a fourth, tied tight at its upper end,
diverging over on the others like a beehive, so that
the rain runs off as if it had been thatched. The
third is chiefly used in Finland : a barn is built of
three floors, with a division in the middle for thrash-
ing and laying out the grain ; on the ground floor, on
each side, is built a large oven of stone, reaching up
a few feet into the second ; it is lighted and made
quite hot, whilst the wet grain is laid loosely on the
floors. Nobody can enter it for some time after it
has cooled, but it dries effectively. All this we heard
afterwards.

10. The agriculture of the south, where we have
passed, seems backward. The fields slope often to the
very middle, and the furrows are so broad that they
seem in most cases merely intended for footways or
divisions : when they are meant for drains, they are
often laid in the most injudicious way possible, slop-
ing and slanting across the rising. The plough had
one handle, and was in some respects good enough :
they chiefly use oxen.

11. The fences of the first kind in Scania are very
good, and indeed peculiar to the country. They are
composed of every sort of wood easily raised ; turn a
corner, or mount and descend again with equal facil-
ity. They appear so frail that no beast will attempt
climbing over, and are too high to be leaped. They
are easily repaired.

12. The milestones are more simple and useful than

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 141

the Danish, and quite conspicuous : a pile of stone
roughly hewn and neatly put up, on the top a flat iron
plate or stone with the number of miles; but these are
confused in one respect, that they don't all count from
town to town, but often from mile to mile.

Oct. 9. — Our journey had been through forests, only
interrupted here and there by pieces of cultivated
plain, and occasionally great masses of rock, the inns
being generally bad. At one of them we had our
pistols broken, and one of them stolen. The excuse
was that they had been left out, and that there were
many passengers beside ourselves. But as our writ-
ing-desks and the rest of our luggage had been in our
bedrooms, and we never absent except for half an
hour while our supper was getting ready, and while
we were in the kitchen to hurry them with it,
we therefore never thought of examining desks or
luggage, and only found next day (October 10), on our
arrival at Jonkoping (a singular-looking town half
fortified on the "Wettern Sea), that our desks had been
opened and the greater part of the money taken.
October 10 was spent in going to the judge to have
a proclamation published, offering a reward through
all the churches, and in our writing to Copenhagen
to have the bills which had been taken stopped ; so
we did not leave Jonkoping till eleven at night, Our
carriage having now got a canvas covering on it, we
resolved to travel all night as soon as a driver could
be found ; and in the state of our broken arms, we
were comforted by being told that a Jew had been

142 VISIT TO DENMARK [I799-

robbed and murdered not far from the town. We
concluded it would not be very cold, from having
killed a viper on the road as we came. Nevertheless,
after a little travelling, it grew bitter cold, and we
could only go at a foot-pace, the horses being knocked
up. I, of course, fell asleep, and my dreams experi-
enced a singular change as soon as the cold and the
breeze began. I first thought I was on board a ship
in a piercing wind, and tried in vain to get into the
cabin below. I awoke for a minute or two, and again
was asleep. But now I was walking on the pier of
Leith in a cold day. Then I was in rooms where
there was no fire, and all the windows open, so that
the wind blew through one's very body. I again
woke, but soon slumbered again, and then I was near
a blacksmith's forge, and going in for the warmth of
the fire. The bellows were turned against me and blew
cold wind, and then, unable to struggle longer against
the elements, I gave up all further attempts to sleep.
Oct. 11. — Arrived at the end of the stage, we
had to wait till half-past eight, and then proceeded
pleasantly enough, the day fine, and the road showing
a charming view of the lake — the banks woody, and
also very rocky. On this day the country was well
cultivated, often indeed very rich ; barley, oats, rye,
flax, and young wheat. Some places had been thickly
wooded, but cleared now ; the roads remarkably bad.
On the road to Uncta met great crowds of market
people, some well-dressed, substantial-looking farmers.
At Uncta found a crowd all drunken and smoking;

/ET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 143

the scene was odd enough. We then rode on, in a
charming moonlight, through a cultivated country to
Esta, where we had to wait till half-past twelve, and
then to Molby. During the intervals of sleep, consoled
ourselves with the idea of comfort there, as it is the
best inn on the road. At three we arrived, after the
variety of a horse restive and running away, but met
with grievous disappointment, owing to the people
absolutely refusing us any grog whatever. The kitchen
had a fiery furnace lit for baking. In about an hour
and a half a dozen damsels turned out of one bed in
the corner. "We found that the house was brimful of
a General Quilfelt and suite from Stralsund. After
much waiting, got some of our own tea made. The
suite were soon all astir to set out about four.
Stuart went to one of their beds, while I bullied, and
made tea by main force ; then had a long conversation
with the General, whom I found very gentlemanly.

We despatched a forebote, and ordered our horses
at nine to Shrobick, where 'we expected to meet the
General again to-morrow night — I ought to say to-
night, as I am writing between four and five, just
going to bed in one of the aide-de-camp's nests.

Oct. 12. — After napping in the nest, scarce cold
from the aide-de-camp's carcass, got up at eight, and
breakfast being discussed, remarked the odiousness
of the hogs here : they perform the office of scaven-
gers orally. Stuart was literally hunted by them.
Molby is situated on a quick-running river of con-
siderable size, on which are a great number of mills ;

144 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799-

indeed no room is wasted, the rocks in the river being
joined to the bridge over it by a small lateral passage,
all of wood, and mills constructed on the same : from
this number of mills the town receives its name. We
set out to follow our forebote, and travelled slowly
(the roads being very heavy) through a flat, cleared,
and cultivated country : the remarkable feature of
rocks continued in the flattest ground. All this day
it struck us much that instead of being abrupt and
high masses as before, these had gradually become
low and smooth, appearing in single patches in the
middle of the fields.

Here and. there were seen also some more abrupt
and rugged blocks, chiefly among clumps of trees. At
the first inn we came to, were kept two hours for
horses. Drove on very quick, through fine woods.
Passed a plain where a feAV works were thrown up.
Supped at a place for exercising artillery and review-
ing. Came to Lynkoping, a pretty large town with
some good houses in it, and one or two large public
buildings. By the merest chance in the world found
our luggage, the forebote having stopped. Met a very
civil young man (Mr Wenman), who was stopping
here in his way to England. He had been there for
two years, and spoke English ; was very civil indeed
in getting rooms. We set off, leaving Ned to follow
with the baggage when horses should be got. The
country again fertile. The roads this stage were
under repair. Every twenty or thirty yards we saw
the country carts unloading, which they do by taking

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 145

off one side. They don't put any bottom, so that the
roads are very soft in damp weather. When the road
is much broke in woody country they throw in
pieces of wood, and sometimes we saw ledges of plank
at the side for the water. At Thumble we arrived
by moonlight, and had a bad supper of eels, and pig,
and milk. Such a devil of a landlady I never saw.
Were joined by some travellers to Carlscrona, who
rode on with us to our next stage. Ned comiDg up,
we continued — I driving for pleasure as the night was
charming and mild. Every half English mile, a lake
— woods now and then — several gentlemen's seats— -a
village or two — passed also a few rivers. At Brink
got cattle immediately ; indeed we afterwards learnt
that General L. had ordered horses for us all the way
as he passed. Continued to Nordkdping. The scenery
much the same, though more woody. Passed two
very fine chateaux : one, of freestone, with two wings
and large offices, belongs to Count Fersen. No gar-
dens nor pleasure-grounds apparently ; all rocks, wood,
and water.

Oct. 13. — At one o'clock in the morning arrived
at Nordkdping, the largest town we saw between
Copenhagen and Stockholm; indeed it is the third
in Sweden in point of importance, and the Gotten-
borgers say it is larger than Gottenborg. It stands
on both sides of a very rapid and noisy river of con-
siderable breadth, over which is a good wooden bridge.
The houses are chiefly of wood, and well built, many
of them covered with copper. There are a vast number

VOL. i. K

146 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

of streets, some of them very long and not very nar-
row : a great number of mills on the islands, as at
Molby. The horses not being ready we sported the
courier, and got on with the last ones to Aby. It
began to grow foggy and disagreeable. My drowsi-
ness got the better of my driving, which became
rather ticklish, and frequently had near played the
devil ; however, got safe to Aby about half-past two,
but with the loss of our whip in an unlucky nap.
I slept on to Shrobek, giving up the whip. Found we
had missed the Koll by one hour, he having set off at
five. In our way on from the next inn we met the
provost-clerk with several funerals, the first we had
seen here. The coffin and mortcloth was laid in a
peasant's cart, like the gravel, and as we saw two or
three coffins at the same funeral, supposed every club
to bury on a Sunday in preference. The country is
of the same kind to Nykoping, where we arrived at
two, hungry — nay, ravenous, having gone all night,
since six o'clock in the evening of yesterday, without
food. Ate a hearty dinner in a large and good inn,
where the rooms were indeed handsome. This town
is large and handsome, the streets are wide, and there
is a fine exchange or town-house. The country round
is very well cultivated. Indeed this is the best pro-
vince in Sweden in point of fertility.

The agriculture from Molby, or even Jonkoping,
improves vastly, though the furrows are still too
wide, and not always raised enough. Great quantities
of cervises were growing wild these two days, the

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA.

first I ever saw. Continued to where we

stopped to refresh ourselves with milk and the first
good beer we had seen.

The baron forebotised for us, and was very civil, as
indeed we found everybody except the road people.
Stuart had a very rough ride from hence in a post-
waggon. I went thus too, after trying to get on in
the gig. The night was very fine, and the woods and
lakes thick as usual. Found the people growing
more imposing and insolent as we approached the
capital.

Oct. 14. — At the two next stations there were no
houses inhabited, so we had to wait in the cold for
the horses. Sodertelge, the most rascally kennel we
ever saw : all accounts agree in this. Left Ned to
follow, and went on slowly to Fitja, where we had
coffee, and were obliged to wait till eleven for bed.
Met with a clergyman and some officers who talked
bad French. Were much surprised at the demands
of the Sodertelgean for additional hire, but afterwards
found the case not peculiar to south Sweden. At
Fitja is a very fine piece of water on both sides the
road. It is finely wooded down to the very brink,
and has islands also wooded : we saw several sails on
it. It grows very wide in view, but is still quite
land-locked. All the stage between Fitja and Stock-
holm is absolutely barren — nothing but woods and
rocks ; a house now and then looks like nothing less
than the approach to a capital. Stockholm appeared
at first like a village scattered among rocks and rising

148 VISIT TO DENMARK [i?99-

grounds, but grew somewhat better as we approached.
Crossed a bridge to the gate, where we underwent a
very close examination of every article. More rocks,
only enclosed, and a few oaks scattered. Again thought
the town abominable ; but were much struck with
the fine show of iron, chiefly bar, at the depot. At
two we arrived at our inn, to our infinite joy. This
inn is very indifferent, in a bad part of the town, and
has a very large table d'hote, where we dined for two
or three days till we were introduced to the society.

As we went to the play this evening (though we
were too late), we saw enough of the quay, palace,
buildings, &c., to raise our opinion of Stockholm.

It is a large, well-built city, and contains above
80,000 inhabitants. Its situation is strikingly ro-
mantic— more so, indeed, than that of any other capital
in Europe. It stands upon barren rocks intersected
in every quarter by the sea or the Malar Lake, which
here runs into an arm of the Baltic with considerable
rapidity. The heights around are all rocks covered
with firs ; and two sheets of water, part of the Malar
above, and part of sea below, are remarkable features
in the view. The city of Stockholm, properly so
called, stands on an island. The streets in it are for
the most part ill built and narrow ; but it contains
the chief public buildings, and a very noble quay of
hewn stone (granite) of great length, and in such deep
water that vessels of any burden may lie touching it.
The custom-house stands here, and is a large building
of hewn stone, with pillars at the door rather heavy,

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 149

and an inscription purporting that it was built
by Gustavus III. The quay continues in this di-
rection the whole length of the island ; and then,
interrupted by the bridges, it is again continued on
both sides in another direction. The Exchange is also
in Stockholm. It is an older building ; but large,
and with a handsome front. The business place is
a spacious room with a wooden floor, and a small
apartment off it. There are two busts in the large
room — one of the architect, the other of a remarkable
citizen. Above-stairs are rooms where subscription
balls and public dinners are held.

Near the palace is a large old church, with an in-
scription bearing it to have been erected where a very
high tower formerly stood (Turris stupendae altitu-
dinis). It has a very fine organ, and one or two
large pieces of sculpture on the monuments. The
desk and pulpit are also very handsome. The palace
is a superb structure, much larger than the Copen-
hagen one. It consists of a quadrangle with wings,
and a bow behind. In the empty space, or between
the wings to the quay, there has been a sort of
garden, forced upon bare rock. It was the work of
the regency. Under the stair which leads from the
quadrangle out to the gardens is a marble statue of
Venus (de Medicis), a good deal damaged, particularly
in the fingers of the right hand. There are four
staircases, all very splendid, formed of Swedish
granite, polished, and in vast massive pillars, ban-
nisters, and porticoes. In the interior of the staircase

150 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

there is also porphyry. On the balustrades along
the garden, between the wings of the quadrangle,
there are some china vases, belonging to Charles XII. ,
with his cipher on them.

There is a court for the parades of the Guards. It
was here that the late king addressed them on the
morning of the Revolution.'* They are paraded here
every morning, and the king frequently attends him-
self/

There is in the palace a very fine collection. After
two or three rooms full of pictures, chiefly by Flemish
masters, and several by Swedes, thrown together in
confusion — but some of them very good — you are led
into the long room where the drawings are kept.
These are indeed extremely valuable. They arc in
ten large volumes — in the whole, between three and
four thousand — by the first masters of all the schools.
There are also several fine pictures in this room — as
Venus blinding Cupid, after which the common
print (Strange's)t is engraved. There are two gal-
leries of statues, brought from Italy by the late king,
disposed with great taste and effect. The most
remarkable of these is a Sleeping Fawn, placed at the
bottom of one of the galleries, and the principal figure
in it. It is of very great value. The remark which
struck us all on viewing it was the masterly repre-

* The Revolution accomplished by Gustavus III. in 1772, when he
overthrew the constitution and became absolute. He charmed the
soldiers and people by addressing them in their own language.

f Sir Robert Strange, a distinguished engraver, born in one of the
Orkney Islands in 17^1.

/ET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 151

sentation of sleep, without any appearance of death.
This gallery itself is very fine, having two rows of
pillars, between which are statues of the Muses. The
Fawn is the only one that fronts in the area. An
inscription bears that the building was finished in
1796 by the regent.

The library is a spacious room, lined altogether
with white wood. It is, however, a contemptible
collection, only 35,000 volumes, which were a present
from the king, though, from the privacy of the estab-
lishment, it appears that he gave very little away in
making the gift. In a separate gallery on one side is
a collection of manuscripts, and another of classics.
Here, too, are the only remarkable books in the whole
— viz., the Great Bible, called The Devil's, from a
book on magic being affixed to it; the exercises of
the late king when a boy — one of these is a little
singular, being an ode of Kousseau's violently in
praise of freedom, and abusing tyrants in a very
pointed way ; and lastly, a beautiful manuscript copy
of the evangelists. The rooms of the palace are large
and elegantly furnished, containing a variety of superb
mirrors, the floors of wood curiously inlaid, the pre-
vailing furniture blue velvet and satin with gold, and
above all, many fine pictures, chiefly Flemish, though
there is a vast crowd of inferior ones. We remarked
particularly Venus and Adonis by Vandyke, Mercy
by Rubens, and the Judgment by ditto, an old
Hermit by Rembrandt, also his mother.

In the king's sitting-room there are two statues

152 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

(small), one a Venus, representing a lady actually
living at Stockholm ; the other a male statue, both by
Sergell. There are also several busts, particularly
one of the queen-dowager, by the same. We regretted
not having seen the large room called " La Salle des
Chevaliers" where the States assemble, and also the
private chapel, as both of these are said to be very
fine. On the north side of the palace there are two
bronze statues of lions, but this part is not finished.
In the Place des Nobles stands the Salle des Nobles
— a very singular-looking old building, oblong, with
a light coach-roof, a statue at each corner, and plain
pilasters. There is a title on it, "Palatium equestris
ordinis," and a Latin inscription in a line running
along the top of the front, . . . Majorum con-
siliis atque Sapient ia virtute etfelicibus armis. The
staircase in the inside is very broad, above 12 feet,
with massive rails and lamps. The large room is
about 60 feet by 30, with a waggon-roof, on which is
a large painting, seemingly laid on and not projected.
The walls are completely covered with coats of arms,
every head of a noble family having his arms here.
I reckoned above 2000, but there are not half the
number at present. This building, as may easily be
imagined, is now of very little use since the dissolu-
tion of the Senate. Indeed we were present at a
concert held in the large room.

Close to the Salle des Nobles are two other public
buildings, also old ; one is the town-house, where the
courts are held.

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 153

The mint is a large and rather heavy building, with
four fluted pillars of great bulk.

In the place before the Salle des Nobles there is a
pedestrian statue of Gustaf Vasa, with an inscription
purporting that it was erected by the Order of Nobles
soon after the Eevolution. From Stockholm west to
Eytterholm a bridge leads, handsome though not large,
built of hewn stone by Gustaf III.; the balustrades
of polished granite, of which and of the porphyry there
are some fine slabs, particularly the one which has
the inscription. The only building of consequence in
Eytterholm is the Cathedral Church, which is very
old, and by no means fine, though the best in Stock-
holm. It is only remarkable for the bodies which it
contains. Gustavus Adolphus is below ground, as are
the greater number, but the coffin of Charles XII. is
above. It is of black marble, and has no inscrip-
tion— only a crown and a lion's skin. Once when we
saw it, the king had very lately been inspecting the
body in an inquiry concerning the manner of his
death, and the workmen were repairing the lid which
had been broken, so that we saw the small coffin of
red velvet and gold lace. In the same aisle (which is a
handsome circular building on the outside, with pillars
and a crown and cushion of stone on the top) there
are two other coffins above ground — I believe those of
Queen Ulrica and Frederic Adolphus. Gustaf III.
is in the vault. Marshal Torstensen is buried in his
family aisle in the same church, and several other
men of fame. In the island north of Stockholm is

154 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

the manege and stables, which hold 100 horses ; some
of these, particularly the Spanish, are very fine ; but
we were much surprised at the very rough and bloody
way in which they are trained.

The communication between the island and the
city is at present by two wooden bridges ; but that
one which leads to the palace is to be taken away,
and the handsome stone bridge that leads from the
north island to the north suburb is to be continued
to the palace. This bridge was built by Gustaf III.

The Nortmalins Torg (or market-place) is a large
open area, in the middle of which there stands an
equestrian silvered bronze of Gustavus Adolphus,
erected by Gustavus III. On the right of it is the
palace of the late king's sister, the Abbess of Quidlen-
berg, who does not reside much here ; and opposite
is the opera-house. These are exactly alike, and
form the east and west sides of the place. They are
large handsome buildings, though plain, of white free-
stone, with pillars of an oblong form..

The opera-house was built by Gustavus III., and
has the inscription — " Gustavus III. Patriis Musis!'

In the inside it is very large and splendid ; has a
pit, amphitheatre, and four tiers of boxes. The band
is numerous, but at present there are few good singers
and no remarkable one. The figurantes are far su-
perior to those in London, but there is no very first-
rate dancer. However, as several of these are ex-
ceedingly good, and as the scenery, decorations, and,
above all, the number of performers, surpasses any-

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 155

thing of the kind to be found elsewhere, it may be
reckoned one of the first institutions of the kind in
Europe, if not the first. The expense is beyond all
proportion to the other establishments, being 80,000
rix-dollars per annum.

It is now altogether in Swedish ; but the late king
had a French opera also. He was himself the man-
ager ; and was so imprudent as to say " that it cost him
more trouble to govern his opera than his kingdom."

We had an opportunity of seeing the opera to great
advantage at the queen's lying-in ; indeed the operas
given on this occasion were the only solemnity which
accompanied it, except above a thousand guns which
were fired the very moment she was delivered. She
was brought to bed about two in the morning ; and the
king and Court repaired immediately to the Ryder-
holm Church, where a Te Deum was sung. The
baptism was a very fine show, in the private chapel
of the palace, every one attending in Court dress.

Dido was the opera given at the lying-in ; Panurge,
at the reception, which happened a few days after we
left Stockholm. At the former we were present,
though privately (owing to the particular circum-
stances). The spectacle was truly grand; the pit and
amphitheatre being joined by boarding, benches were
placed there for the Court, the king and queen-
dowager sitting in the middle. They were superbly
dressed, particularly the king, in cloth-of-gold. Next
to him the Duke of Sudermania, and next to the
queen, the duchess. Behind, the officers and the

156 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

knights aiid nobles in gala dresses. On the right side,
behind, sat the foreign ministers : in the boxes, the
ladies and gentlemen, all in Court dresses. The duke
had a helmet, and a vast plume of feathers ; so had the
king, but his was borne for him. There was a garde
d'honneur&lso with these large plumes, which resemble
opera dresses, and have a very singular effect. It was
only in the upper gallery that any middling people
appeared, and even these dressed. The splendour of
the whole, the quietness and politeness of the behav-
iour, were very striking indeed. The opera was ex-
ceedingly splendid, but the singers were indifferent, and
the singing itself is a patchwork ; the music in general
psalmodic, though there are some very pretty airs.

The arsenal is now removed to some distance, and
is a large, old, and plain building, more remarkable
for the antiquities it contains than for anything else.
In the first room are several exquisite figures of ar-
mour, which had been really worn ; among which was
that of Gustavus Vasa and Gustavus Adolphus. There
is also a wax figure, in a glass case, of the late king,
very disagreeable and mean-looking ; also the dresses
worn by him and the duke at Sacuthend and Wibog,
with the duke's sword, and both having several shots
through ; also the dress worn by the king when he
was shot. The wound was through the back, a little
above the rump, and went into the bladder. In a
little adjoining room arc various sorts of old armour,
chiefly rude cannon and pistols, those which the late
king and diaries XII. had to play with when cliil-

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 157

dren. In the next and last rooms are a vast number
of colours, particularly all those taken by Gustavus
Adolphus and his generals, by Charles XII. — one
taken by his own hand — and by the late King of
Sweden. Here is also the boat which Peter I. built
in Holland, and which was taken coming to Eussia.
In a suite of rooms leading off to the left are a num-
ber of articles, horse-furniture for Queen Christina,
£c. &c. ; a vast number of rich vests from Turkey
and Algiers, particularly a fine large piece of gold
cloth, with many diamonds and rubies, &c., and a vast
multitude of pearls, quite covering it; and a very
handsome gilt traineau of blue satin, a present to
Gustavus III. from the Empress of Eussia. But the
most remarkable things here are the dresses; the
clothes worn by Charles XII. when he was killed. It
is a very plain blue doublet, with large round brass
buttons ; waistcoat and breeches of the same ; also
his shirt, belt, and sword-handle. The small cocked
hat has also the mark of the ball on each side. We
saw also one of the daggers made to assassinate Gus-
tavus Adolphus ; also his dress in which he was
killed, almost hacked to pieces, the shirt all cut and
bloody ; also his horse stuffed.

Near the opera-house is the theatre, an old build-
ing, formerly the arsenal, square, with four turrets.
The performers are neither numerous nor good — un-
equal— though there are two or three very excellent
ones, particularly one who has the faculty of making
himself so like the great King of Prussia that an

158 VISIT TO DENMARK [r799-

officer who had served under him cried when he saw
him, as Seton told us, who was with him at the time.
The piece where he appears in this character is called
"Kaminar Page." The theatre is very small and ill
lighted ; all the light is thrown on the stage, as at
Copenhagen. There is very little variety of scenes ;
but the house is elegantly fitted up.

On the quay above the bridge stands the club-
house : it belonged to one of the oldest of the Swedish
nobles, Count Bonde, and is the best and largest
private house in Stockholm. The upper floor is
let to the club ; and this is the best institution for
strangers, and even for natives, which the town offers.
It is indeed reckoned without its match in Europe.
The club was originally composed of the foreign
ministers and such as they introduced ; but it has
become now much enlarged, and the number of mem-
bers fixed at 300, each of whom can introduce a
stranger, who has then the run of the rooms for two

o ;

months. The regulations are very good, and the
scheme excellently managed. The rooms are very
large and handsome, consisting of a reading-room,
where the Swedish and foreign papers are received,
with maps and periodical publications ; a drawing-
room, with sofas and tables; a large ball-room, where
cards are played on common occasions; billiard-room,
card-room, and dining-room ; besides dressing-rooms
and apartments belonging to the maUre d'hotel, who
is a Frenchman, and keeps six or seven servants.
There is a most excellent table in the French style,

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 159

where you dine for thirty-two skellings, or about two
shillings — or forty-four skellings with claret. The
thirty-two was late]y raised from twenty-four. At
this society all the most fashionable men in Stock-
holm attend. Some of the first merchants subscribe,
but seldom or never go there. Those who go seem
to spend their whole time chiefly in billiards and
card-playing. The bulk of the company are officers.
Sometimes as many as sixty dine. They play very
well at billiards, almost always Carolina ; and a good
deal of gambling goes on at this as well as at cards,
the favourite games at which are Ombre and Dummy.

When we first came to Stockholm the club was
not so well attended as afterwards, owing to families
being out of town, and no visiting taking place.
Indeed at best there is very little of it here, and none
for strangers, except among the foreign ministers,
your banker, or any other citizen to whom you have
an introduction, and who gives you one formal feed.

The Swedes are a very polite people, the officers
particularly, at least as far as bowing and etiquette ;
but of real politeness we saw very little, owing to
their extreme rudeness to strangers. The Court's
fear of being thought dependent upon any foreign
power, descends to individuals ; and at the time we
were there every stranger complained. The only way
to avoid this state of coupee, is to cut all the diplo-
matic people ; for, with one exception (the Spanish
secretary, who had been here fourteen years), not a
soul among them is associated with.

160 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

MEN OF LETTERS, ETC.

There are three learned societies here — the Swedish
Academy, the Royal Academy of Sciences, and the
Academy of Belles Lettres. The first is wholly for the
improvement of the Swedish tongue. It was founded
l>y Gustavus III., and is at present engaged in a dic-
tionary; but the members have been rather remiss,
and only a few of them have finished their letters.
The other two publish their memoirs in Swedish.

I was present at a sitting of the Academy of
Sciences. They have a large house in the city,
where the office-bearers have also apartments. Their
museum of natural history is far from rich. There
are, however, a considerable number of snakes, and a
room full of South Sea dresses, &c., brought by Mr
Sparman, who went with Cook. The Hortus Siccus,
too, is well filled. The library is very small, being of
very late date. The Academy met, when I saw it, in
a plain, good room, hung round with pictures of its
most eminent members and cncouragers. There were
twenty present, who sat all round a long table ; and
the unfortunate visitor was obliged to sit solo beyond
the circle, at the wall. A number of the members
(indeed the greater part) had orders, and were noble-
men. The chair was filled by an old gentleman who
had been minister for foreign affairs. The subject of
conversation was, " The propriety of extending the
knowledge of Lapland;" and the plan for the purpose
was carried by a ballot almost unanimously. A paper

XT. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. l6l

was also read giving an account of a new steam-
engine, invented by a gentleman who resided many
years in Eussia and Sweden, and is now counsellor of
mines. The talking was carried on rather too quickly,
and without much distinctness or any order. I was
made acquainted (by Mr Sparman) with Mr Swanberg,
the professor of astronomy; he lives at the Observa-
tory, and was very obliging in assisting me with
letters for Torneo, of which place he is a native, though
I was surprised to find he knew little or nothing of
Lapland. He was up last summer at Torneo exam-
ining the measurements of the French Academy, as
the Academy here means to repeat these on a great
scale, taking in two degrees. This work they are
already preparing, and think to begin the summer
after next, though want of money is a great obstacle.
Mr Sparman is a very worthy creature, and, I believe,
skilful enough in his profession, but his scientific
knowledge seems confined altogether to natural his-
tory. He complains that Vaillant (whom he calls
charlatan) has copied his map, and says that Lieu-
tenant Paterson used him much better. He is a
Swedenborgian. Mr Sjostrom is one of the secre-
taries, and a great electrician. He lectures in the
Academy's great hall, where they meet in summer : it
is very handsome, and he has a good apparatus. He
has translated 'Cavallo's Electricity' into Swedish;
and is busy with a discovery he has made lately, and
which he explained to us. He finds that all parts of
the body which do not perspire sensibly, will show

VOL. I. L

1 62 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

evident signs of electricity by being pressed hard and
the electricity suddenly raised.

To Mr Melanderhjelm I was introduced by Mr
D'Asp ;* he is an old man of about eighty, but with
his faculties entire. His delight is mathematics, and
he has published various works and papers on this
subject, particularly a treatise of astronomy. There
is no university at Stockholm, but several lectures
are given. The learned men are not on the whole
much esteemed or well known, and are stigmatised
as peculiarly Jacobinical ; indeed the number is not
considerable. There are two sets, one belonging to
the Academy, the other (perhaps those of most merit)
are private. There is a review written by one of
these, said to be very severe and much dreaded by
the Academy ; also a periodical miscellany, called
1 Lavingegen Blandade.' It is a collection of transla-
tions and original pieces, some of them very exact.
"We particularly admired a Swedish translation of
'Alonso and Imogene/ There are a great number
of pieces translated from the 'Wealth of Nations/
All that class of men are freethinkers.

The fine arts are in a flourishing state here con-
sidering how few amateurs there are among the rich.
There is an Academy of Painting and Sculpture found-
ed by the late king. Mr Fredenheim is at the head,
a gentleman of taste, who has travelled much and has

* Daniel Melander, incremented to Melanderhjelm on his being en-
nobled in 1778, born at Stockholm 1726, died 1810. A list of his works
and a reference to biographical notices of him in Swedish works will
be found in the '^Nouvelle Biographic Ge*nerale.'

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 163

several good things, particularly a fine collection of
coins chiefly Koman, inter alia a Niger. He is son
of Melander, the late Archbishop of Upsal. The
Academy has produced a set of young artists of great
merit in drawing and modelling. The terms are very
reasonable.

The first artist here is Mr Sergei, a statuary/"" He
was some time at Borne, and was obliged to leave it
owing to the jealousy of the artists, and to one (sup-
posed to be Canova) of whom only he was inferior.
His last work, not yet finished, is the bronze statue of
Gustavus III., which the citizens of Stockholm have
caused to be made, and it is to be placed upon the
quay, before the palace, on a pedestal of Swedish por-
phyry. This is a most superb statue, 14 feet high,
weighing 30 tons with, and 24 without, the knobs.
The attitude is that of the Apollo Belvidere. His
left hand is leaning on a rudder, round the top of
which is a laurel wreath. In his right is an olive-
branch, rather too small. He is supposed to be re-
turning from the Finland war with the peace, and
stepping from his boat to the palace. We could not
help remarking the extreme dissimilarity of the two
sides of his face. The left has more slope and less
angle than the right, in the cheek ; and the left brow
falls away flat and hollow, the skull becoming round

* Johan Tobias Sergei, born at Stockholm in 1744, died 1814. He
endeared himself to his countrymen by declining munificent offers
from Catherine of Russia, that he might spend his days and exercise his
art among them. The most easily accessible account of him is perhaps
that in the * Biographie Universelle.'

164 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

and large on the opposite side, to which it looks
twisted ; the forehead large, and the expression of the
face fine. It resembles the bust of Mr Fox between
the eyebrows, and the nose is somewhat aquiline. It
is strikingly like (as D'Asp told us, who was con-
stantly with the late king) ; only Sergei said the twist
in the face was rather greater in the original. This
is the first thing of the kind that has been done at
Stockholm, and succeeded perfectly well. It took a
fortnight to cool. In return for this statue there is an
obelisk erecting in the space between the palace and
Exchange, commemorating the loyalty of the inhabi-
tants of Stockholm during the Finland war.

Mr Sergei has several good statues, two particu-
larly at the end of the room, besides vases, a dying
Octriades, and a fawn : after that in the palace, are
the best of his own above-stairs. Below is his theatre,
where we saw his two masterpieces — Mars holding
Venus, wounded by Diomede, and Love raising
Psyche. The body of Venus is finely expressed.
There are also medallions of Gustavus III. and IV.
extremely like, and casts of Trajan's column of the
real size, executed by Sergei at Kome, by order of the
late king, for whose temple at Haga most of these
things are intended.

The best painter here is Mr Breda, a pupil of Sir
Joshua Eeynolds, and one whose works are known in
London. He painted the Turkish ambassador, which
was exhibited in London, and then engraved. It is
now here ; but he has several others better.

en. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 165

Mr Martin is an E.A. of London ; his forte seems
to be caricature-painting, for his landscapes are daubs.
One of his pupils is a most wonderful drawer of figures,
but nothing in landscape. * Mr Belanger is a most ex-
cellent landscape-painter, both in oil and water colour.

The manners of the people in this capital are ex-
tremely dissolute, particularly of the people of fashion.
The instances of profligacy about Court almost exceed
belief in so northerly a situation. The women of
fashion carry on their amours in the most scandalous
and public manner. Madame de L , whose hus-
band is minister at the Hague, lives openly with
Baron d'E . Her sons, two of the most fashion-
able young men in Stockholm, are very intimate with
the baron, and with the minister too. She is daugh-
ter of the late Count J . On her husband com-
plaining to him soon after his marriage, he asked
him, " Have you any paper, any writing, any title-
deed, by which to plead exemption from the common
lot of husbands " ? This kind of instance might be
multiplied to an endless extent. This profligacy
seems to descend to the lower orders. Their manners
are growing corrupted too. While we were at Stock-
holm several instances happened : a man killed his
wife because she would not assist him in corrupt-
ing his own daughter. Three men were hanged for

* This Martin cannot be David Martin, the portrait-painter, cele-
brated for the picture of Lord Mansfield, which he afterwards engraved,
as he died in 1797. Nor can it be John Martin, celebrated as the
author of ' Belshazzar's Feast,' and others of the like character, for he
was only ten years old at the period.

166 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

forgery (one of them a nobleman). They continued
forging notes even whilst in prison. A gang of
thieves robbed a noble's house with the assistance of
his servants. Another gang formed a plan to rob and
murder indiscriminately, throwing the bodies into the
sea ; and this they actually perpetrated on several. The
causes of this profligacy among the lower classes may
be partly owing to the state of the currency and dear-
ness of provisions. The conduct of the late king gave
rise to the profligacy of the Court/''*

Gustavus III. endeavoured by every means in his
power to render Stockholm a second Paris. He
increased the splendour of the Court, invented the
Court dresses, and encouraged the arts, besides erect-
ing a number of public buildings. He introduced
and encouraged effeminate habits, and pursued a
system of favouritism that led to his own destruction ;
for we were told that the real cause of Count Horn's
joining in the conspiracy to assassinate him — nay, of
his originating the conspiracy itself — was his loading
with honours and making governor of Stockholm a
young man who, from some cause, had made Horn
his implacable enemy.t The highest office under the

* It must be held as corroborative of the accuracy of the account here
given of the amount of social immorality and of criminality in Sweden,
that a like picture is given of the country by an acute traveller there
nearly forty years later — see ' A Tour in Sweden in 1 838, comprising
Observations on the Moral, Political, and Economical State of the
Swedish Nation,' by Samuel Laing, Esq. The popular Swedish novels
of Miss Bremer let their reader into the secret of social life by her re-
ference to those sins which prove sore temptations to the heroines whose
virtue overcomes them.

t Gustavus III. was shot dead at a masked ball on 10th March 1792.

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 167

Crown is Governor of Stockholm ; but this has been
kept vacant since the death of Gustavus.

The consequence of the present king's utter want of
economy has been that the country is quite drained of
money, and from this the greatest inconveniences arise,
besides the real loss. They have notes down to 12
skellings ; each skelling at par is above one penny
sterling, there being 6 rix-dollars to the pound; but
when we were there the medium of the exchange
might be reckoned 6 rix-dollars 32 skellings to the
pound sterling, or a plate equal to one shilling, and
a rix-dollar to three shillings. It is perhaps a con-
sequence of the fluctuating state of the money that
there is the most surprising uncertainty in the prices
of articles. There is no sort of level or standard. In
the same part of the town you find in different shops
the same article different by half the price almost.
This remark Mr Hailes made in the most positive
manner. There is no such thing as tracing a lost
note, for the numbers are not always changed in the
new yearly issue. To get specie you must pay a
heavy agio, which at that time was about 50 per cent,
so much was the paper depreciated. The states of the
kingdom are the security for this rix-gelt, and the
bank for the banco-gelt, which is of the same value
with specie. The king is allowed to issue a certain
number of notes ; but as he issues to supply the waste,
there is no check upon him in this respect. It was
for the purpose of obtaining the diet's sanction to the
last issue that the meeting at Gefle was held: the

1 68 VISIT TO DENMARK [i799-

king, also, wished to have the Lank into his own
hands, but this he could not accomplish. The late
king made specie somewhat plenty by borrowing
from Holland near a million specie, which he circu-
lated ; but this is now drained off also. The old plates
(of copper) went to Denmark chiefly.

At this diet bribery was exercised in a very open
way, though on a small scale. Thus pensions were
given of a rix-dollar per day. Indeed the late king
ruled very much by corruption, which, from the
poverty of the nobility, he found no very difficult
thing. One of the engines of bribery was orders: of
these there are four.

1. The Seraphim or Blue Ribbon, which is held by
a few only.

2. The Sword, a military order of merit — a yellow
ribbon, distributed with immense profusion to almost
all the army above captains. It is this which Sir
Sidney Smith has.

3. The Polar Star, a black ribbon given to civil
officers, learned men, &c.

4. Vasa or the Wheatsheaf, a green ribbon given to
eminent merchants, agriculturists, &c.

The Sword and Vasa were invented by the late
king, and distributed in great profusion, as well as
the Polar Star and letters of nobility in the way of
douceurs. Indeed this continues, as we saw at the
queen's lying-in, when three columns of the news-
paper were rilled with a list of creations.

The dissimulation of the late king was consummate.

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 169

He retired to Upsal for two winters, and cultivated
the acquaintance of the learned men, attended lectures,
&c., whilst in fact he was busy planning the Finland
war, which surprised not only Eussia, but all Europe.

He came to dine at Ekolsund, and seemed quite
degagS. Walked about with Seton, and pointed out
the improvements required about his place. That
afternoon he set off, and travelling with his usual
despatch two Swedish miles an hour, arrived at Hed-
mora in the morning, where he harangued the Dale-
carlians, and raised them for the relief of Gottenborg.
This rapid mode of travelling he always used. He
had his bed in his coach, and undressed regularly at
night. He used, if going too slow, to put down the
window, and ask the coachman (Molman) " whether
he was carrying eggs to market." That evening Seton
asked one of the lords who was wTith him where they
were going; but he told him, " we know nothing more
about it than you do." He laughed much at English
liberty, and hated the English, admiring and copying
the French in all things. When setting off from
Ekolsund, happening to talk of the safety of travelling
in Sweden, he said : " By the way, Seton, how can the
King of England possibly allow highway robberies \
Were I there I'd order three or four regiments of horse
to patrol the roads ; but oh ! that would be reckoned
an infringement upon liberty:" with a sneer and laugh.

De Lisle, the French consul, saw him at Gotten-
borg (in 1788), just as the accounts had come of the
order for assembling the States -General in France.

170 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

He said in a very sad way to him, that it would not
end there — that a revolution dreadful to all Europe
was at hand— and spoke as if he knew it otherwise
than by mere conjecture : he added, " I must hasten to
finish my revolution before this begins, and before it
becomes dangerous to call together the States/'

The most extravagant accounts are given of his
eloquence — of his uncommon powers of persuading
and talking people over, and his irresistible faculty of
producing tears in his audience. Yet he did not
understand Swedish as well as French, and used to
write his speeches in the latter, and then have them
translated. He contrived by his address and eloquence
to ingratiate himself wonderfully with the people,
whose power he wished to balance against that of the
nobles.

"Whilst he was in Finland he was himself outwitted
by the Danes. General Mansback (whom we saw and
conversed a great deal with at Friedric's Hald) was
sent over on a message of compliment to him, and
stayed a week entire with him, but in fact to be a spy
on his intentions ; and the king's constant tone was,
" I am sure Denmark will do nothing against a peace
so necessary," &c. &c. But all of a sudden the General
(Mansback) and the Prince Eoyal broke into Sweden,
and had wellnigh taken Gottenborg, had not the
English minister (Elliot) threatened to bombard
Copenhagen. The present king is totally unlike him
both in person and character. He is wholly managed
by a junto, who direct everything, to the great dis-

/ET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. I/I

content of the rest of the nobility. Of this junto the
chief are Count Uglas, governor of the province of
Stockholm ; Count Fersen, who commanded the regi-
ment of the Swedes (Sweders Eonol) in France, and
made a very narrow escape from the guillotine for
his zeal in assisting the royal family's flight in 1791 ;
and Admiral Eosenstein.

Some are, however, of opinion that the king's abil-
ities will break forth, and indeed there is some reason
to think that he will endeavour to imitate his sup-
posed father; at least he recalled all those whom the
regent had displaced, and has lately appointed the
wife of Armfelt governess to the young Crown Prince,
which makes people expect that he himself is to be
recalled. The regent by his conduct displeased
everybody, particularly by his choice of Eeuterholm
for his minister. He is a man of very inferior abili-
ties ; and instead of his brother's determined spirit, his
government was marked by timidity and indecision.
He was never popular even before, and his loss of the
Swedish fleet at Wiborg had greatly incensed the
people against him. He displaced the chief favour-
ites of his brothers, some of them openly, others more
indirectly. Thus D'Essen threw up his offices, and
quitted the Court on some economical regulations
being proposed in his department.

The dismissal of Munk was another act of his, and
has been much misrepresented. In the course of
Gustaf III.'s extravagance and constant want of
money, he had borrowed a considerable sum from

1 72 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

Munk, who was a particular friend of his. Munk
wanted his money very much ; and the king, to pay
him, ordered him to get a sum nearly the double of
what he owed. Munk got this done openly in the
king's name by an artist in town, and being paid out
of the sum, the king got the surplus. The notes were
sent to Finland by a Jew, and drained that country
of money. Munk, having got no order under the
king's hand, on his death was ordered to leave the
country, and the estate in Finland, bought with his
money, was confiscated. He went to Italy and bought
an estate in the Cisalpine Republic, whence, of course,
he is now driven, and lives at Hamburg on a small
annuity, which he still has. The lenity with which
all Gustaf's murderers (except Ankerstrom) were
treated, and the duke's connection with the masons
of higher orders, of which he was master, has given
rise to a report, doubtless unjust, that he was privy to
his brother's murder. I read a book in Stockholm
where this is roundly asserted (' Assassinat de Gustave
III., par un officier Polonais').

Mansback(who is a great mason) told a story of
the duke and himself having met in a church in
Stockholm^ and being about ghost-raising, when the
duke approached the wall, seeing a spirit, as he
thought, on it. When going to address her she
a:sked an indecent question, to the extreme confusion
of the party, who did not recover it for a long time.
It was, in fact, a woman of the town who had got into
the church.

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 173

The assassins are now much scattered. Horn is in
Iceland, Eibbing is said to be in Paris, and Lilienhorn
is a schoolmaster in an obscure town in Poland. It
is thought to have been very lucky for the peace of
the country that the king lived some weeks after his
brother, as, had he died without making the proper
arrangements, there is little doubt that the discon-
tented party would have taken the opportunity of
attempting a revolution. The power of Kussia, of
course, keeps them in awe. The antipathy of the
people is very violent; in playing at cards (for in-
stance) they call in joke your adversary "the
Russian." This antipathy swallows up any pique
against the Danes, with whom they would willingly
join against Russia. The Court, however, must bend
to their power. Accordingly the late proclamation
was written to please it. This absurd piece was
written with the king's own hand.

The present politics of Sweden are very singular :
^ fear of dependence seems the great spring of all
the Court's motions; yet the favour shown to the
Eussian ambassador, who is treated on every occasion
with peculiar distinction, seems inconsistent with this
principle. He alone is allowed to sit at table with
the royal family; and at the opera-house he was
placed in a place quite separate from the other
ministers. It must, however, be observed, that he is
the only full ambassador now in Stockholm. The
king was to have been married to one of our prin-
cesses (Mary), but the match was broken off, for fear

1/4 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

of dependence on England. Then lie went in person
to Mecklenburg, where everything was ready for his
marriage with one of the princesses there ; and when
all was arranged and publicly notified, he suddenly
broke off, for fear of English influence. He went to
Petersburg (forced to break off the other, it is said,
by the emperor) and was waiting there in expecta-
tion of being married to one of the grand -duchesses,
but he seized the opportunity of the empress's death
and returned home. He then married the Princess
of Baden (who at first disliked him and the country),
and with whom (except her beauty) he got nothing,
neither friends nor money ; but then her insignifi-
cance secured his apparent independence.

The people, especially the merchants, are violent
against the English; laugh at our liberty, which they
call gilded slavery ; talk of Pitt as a monster, and
the war as the greatest of all curses. They indeed
smart from it, and declare that their trade is ruined.
The successes of France always increase the public
prejudice in her favour ; and on these depend also
the motions of the Government. It is supposed that
the king has a mind to follow out some of his father's
plans, especially with respect to a Eussian alliance.

The governors of provinces have the whole district
also almost completely under their power; the different
chancellories, or the parliaments, being wholly under
their direction, while the bishop governs the Church.

Finland and Pomerania are distinct and separate
governments. The raising of taxes is left to the

;ET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 175

governors of the provinces, and is done as follows :
Every province is divided into hundreds ; and formerly
there were subdivisions of tithings, a distinction now
lost. In each hundred the governor selects a jury
of nine — three nobles, three ecclesiastics, and three
peasants. These meet in the chief town of the
hundred and fix the sum to be paid annually by the
district. When a general tax is to be laid on the
nobles, it is by an assessment laid on the ploughs of
land, into eighty thousand of which the whole country
is divided, as England formerly was into Hydes and
Knights' fees, and as many parts of Germany now are,
into " whole-farmers " and " half-farmers."

The people in office are in general very poor, and
their influence in no way formidable. It is a great
deal if they can support a trifling household upon
their appointments, and offices (at Court) are so poor
and yet so eagerly sought for ; yet scarcely an officer
of State has sufficient influence to give away a place
of a hundred rix-dollars a-year. The same poverty
extends through every department of State, though
magnificence is aped by having a multitude of officers
with small salaries in order to oblige many dependants.
Thus there are four secretaries of State with £200
per annum salary, though quite in want of employ-
ment. The minister for foreign affairs has £400 ; the
postmaster-general, £150. The judges have £100;
but this is so taxed that they do not get above £80 :
the consequence is bribery. The diplomatic men are
well paid ; indeed beyond all proportion. Thus the

176 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

Swedish minister in London has £1500 per annum.
The nobles, whose fortunes are extremely unequal,
but in general very small, are reduced to the necessity
of oppressing their peasantry, of which we saw the
effects in our journey to Stockholm ; though in the
north, we are told, where the peasantry hold of the
Crown — in Bothnia, Jutland, Angermanland, and
Helsingland — the contrary is observed, for there the
peasantry are rich and independent. The Court itself
shows a curious mixture of poverty and state. For
while they pay 80,000 rix-dollars for the opera, they
and the town were afraid to have an illumination at
the queen's delivery, for fear there would not remain
enough of candles. The queen's state-coach is an
old one formerly belonging to an English minister.
There are so seldom Court days that strangers are
presented in a private way after the parade, other-
wise they must wait eight months ; and a regiment
of two hundred and fifty uncommonly tall men
(Swedes) were obliged to be disbanded very lately,
literally because the expense of feeding, &c., was too
great. Though there is scarcely a party given in a
whole year by any individual nobleman, yet they
have piques-niques, at the expense and profusion of
which a stranger is surprised ; and occasionally great
fetes are given by the society, most remarkably
splendid, — for instance, one (while we were gone to
Upsal) where five hundred people were present, and
a most magnificent entertainment ; but not above £200
were allowed them monthly for expenses.

/ET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 177

The partiality for a French alliance exists yet ; all
the men of property and consequence wish that, what-
ever government is established in France. The old
alliance may be established between France, Poland,
Prussia, Spain, Turkey, and Sweden, as a bar to
Eussia on the one hand, and England and the Em-
peror on the other. For England they do not conceal
their hatred ; and though their ships have been seized
by both sides, they are silent as to the one, and load
the other with abuse. When the fleet (said to be
worth half a million sterling) was lately seized and
condemned, to the great loss of the mercantile in-
terest in general, and the utter ruin of one, the
commander of the convoy who gave them up
was tried and condemned to be shot, and though
pardoned on the place of execution, yet sent for six
months to the fortress of Sveaborg. The King of
Sweden, too, wrote a letter with his own hand to our
king, who (some accounts say) left it all with his
ministers and judges ; others, that he gave no answer
at all. One of the accusations against Mr Hailes was,
his having appeared on Change the very day the news
of the capture came. D'Asp was recalled from Lon-
don, it is said, because our king turned his back on
him, which the King of Sweden pointedly did to
Hailes, and treated him with every mark of disrespect.
The people were furious, crying that he deserved to
lose his crown if he did not take vengeance.

Buonaparte's return occasioned a dinner of a large
company, composed of some respectable people, and

VOL. I. M

178 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

others, as clerks, &c., to drink his health ; Suwarow's
was drunk in cold water ; and the French consul,
who presided, gave the fraternal embrace once round,
and then again ; and being asked a third time (as the
story goes), was so fatigued he could not. A singer
(Dupuis) was immediately sent out of the country
for having sung there, but was to have been pardoned ;
but coming on the stage one night when the king
was there, the first sentence of his part happening to
be — " I don't go, but stay here " — was prodigiously
applauded as being apropos. The king said to the
officer who sat with him, " But he shall go." Accord-
ingly the man was sent off, but a great subscription
made for him, and loaded with presents, and impos-
tures were practised to get more from the king. The
French consul, too, sent to make his apology to the
minister of foreign affairs.

The wives of ministers are not received at Court
unless they wear the Swedish Court dress. The only
one who has submitted to this is the Portuguese min-
ister's lady, Madame de Correa, who does not find
herself a whit better received than before. This dis-
pute about the dress originated with a minister of the
emperor, whose wife was literally turned out of a
ball-room by order of the late king.

The population of Sweden does not exceed three
millions, of which one must be allowed to Finland
and Lapland. The last has now only 10,000 in-
habitants.

The army nominally amounts to 80,000 men, in-

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA, 179

eluding militia : they support in time of peace only
enough to garrison the forts, and for the guards. The
greater part of these standing troops, including two
yeomen regiments, are divided between Stockholm,
and Pomerania, and Finland. The most important
garrisons are those of Sveaborg and Marstrand the
former in Finland, the latter on the frontiers of Nor-
way. These are esteemed the keeps of the empire,
being both built on inaccessible rocks, at the distance
of three or four miles from the coast, and Sveaborg
commands a fine harbour.

The rest of the army is rather a militia, but upon
a singular footing, and, I believe, unparalleled in
Europe. Each province furnishes a regiment, which
is called after its name. The men, who are all peasants
of the place, have no pay, except at stated times when
called out. Besides this, they are obliged to parade
every Sunday at the church-door of the parish. They
are found in a house, and a small portion of ground,
which the proprietor is obliged to take care of when
the holder is in the field or at exercise.

In this way each estate is burdened with a certain
number of men. Their houses are marked by a square
board, with a number inscribed on. it. The children
of soldiers in general become soldiers too, and, being
trained to the musket from their youth, do not differ
from the soldiers of other armies. The officers have
farms in the same provinces with their regiments —
the captain in the midst of his company, and the
colonel in the middle of the province. The same

l8o VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

plan is extended to sailors who are quartered along
the coasts ; but this does not answer so well, and it
makes the navy full of old men, as the young take
care to get employed among the merchants, who are
obliged, however, in time of war to furnish a certain
quota of men to the navy. The army in Sweden is
thus extremely economical. The king's guards them-
selves are only paid twopence per day when on duty;
and at other times have to work for themselves.
However, the soldiers are often supported by the
public works, in some of which they are the chief
labourers, as at Trollhatta. The officers are for the
most part very poor, though men of family. Thus, a
lieutenant has only 120 rix-dollars per annum. The
chief officers at present in the Swedish service are
Count Fersen; Flatten, the governor of Pomerania; and
Shlimpston, the commander-in-chief in Finland. The
navy is powerful in proportion to the other establish-
ments : 40 sail, chiefly frigates, of which the greater
part are at Carlscrona, one of the finest harbours in the
world, though some are laid up in ordinary at Stock-
holm. Many of them are old and ill-built ; but those
which have been laid down of late are on the most
beautiful models made by Admiral Chapman, who lives
at Carlscrona, and is one of the first naval architects
in Europe. The last time the king was at Carlscrona,
a frigate was launched, and the keel of an 80-gun
ship laid down. Though beaten at Wiborg by the
Eussians, they perfectly retrieved their credit by a
victory at Suensksund.

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. l8l

The revenues of Sweden amount to about two
millions sterling, but are rather on the decrease, from
the expension of the mines ; and they are burdened
with about eight millions national debt, the interest
of which they find it difficult to pay. The commerce,
particularly up the gulf, is greatly increasing : several
ports have been opened of late.

Stockholm is situated very advantageously for ship-
ping, not only from the excellence of the harbour, but
its distance (six or eight miles) from the sea, so that
ships have to be warped up between narrow channels
almost all this way. The staple articles are flax,
hemp, iron, and deals ; and chiefly flax and iron, of
which last particularly there is a magnificent depot
at Stockholm.

Gefle is a large trading town up the gulf, and is
reckoned the fourth in Sweden ; it fits out ships of
seven or eight hundred tons burden. Sundsvall,
Hudiksvall, Havosund, Lulea, and Tornea, and se-
veral large places up the gulf, have lately been
made free towns, and have added very considerably
to the commerce of the country. In the West
Indies, Sweden has some small trade from the posses-
sion of St Bartholomew, ceded by France. It is a
barren rock, and now literally a depot for smuggling.
The governor had behaved so ill to the inhabitants,
that deputies were arrived in Stockholm, while we
were there, to complain of his conduct.

Their trade in the East Indies used to be very con-
siderable, and Gottenborg the headquarters, though

182 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

at present it is in a bad way, the India house being
actually shut up, as we heard then, and the people
complaining most dismally that their trade is ruined.
The consequence of all this is, that coffee has been for-
bid in order to encourage tea, to the great annoyance
of the people. Indeed, while Lord Henry Spencer
was our minister at Stockholm, so violent an alterca-
tion arose on this subject among the ministers, that
several are said to have been obliged to quit the Court,
and Lord Henry sent on the subject a courier-extra-
ordinary to England. French brandy was also for-
bidden ; but (from some instances of discontent which
occurred) it was found better to take off this pro-
hibition.

The great obstacle to commercial improvement is
the depreciation of the rix-dollar, which introduces
endless confusion, as well as loss. Thus, in retailing,
if a person wishes to buy an article whose price is not
expressed by any note, he must either pay more than
the price or give specie, by which he loses ; for if you
give away specie in common dealings the agio is not
allowed, which you paid to get it. Thus, too, all officers
under Government are paid in the rix-dollar, so that,
since its immense fall, the value of the salaries has
fallen in proportion, whilst the price of provisions
rises. Besides rix-dollars and banco, they have lately
issued a note of very singular kind — viz., a piece
of copper intrinsically worth one-sixth of a skelling,
which is made worth a half-skelling, and is called a
pallet. It is singular enough that a number of prices

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 183

remain so much the same. Thus, that of posting was
not different in 1736, as we see by Duther's voyage
—and how long before I know not.

It seems not improbable that some violent convul-
sion will take place from the state of events.

The language of Sweden is evidently sprung from
the Teutonic, and that it is a very pure remnant of that
stock may be inferred from a curious circumstance.

Almost everywhere else we find in names of persons
and places remnants of dead language, and not to be
understood by the present natives, though easily
understood by knowing the roots of the ancient local
tongue. But in Sweden the case is quite different;
all the names are modern Swedish, and any one
moderately acquainted with that language as it is at
present spoken there, can easily discover the meaning
of each appellation. For instance, one can form a
very good guess at the situation, &c., of a place before
seeing it. Names of persons can almost all be traced
as easily ; and this is connected with another pecu-
liarity. No one but a noble can properly have any
surname, though merchants, &c., do take them. Then
in courts of law these names are not acknowledged—
they are called in deeds and citations, James, James's
son, and Anne, James's daughter.

The lower classes, as peasants, have actually no
surnames at all, being constantly called by their
Christian names. Thus a parish register is an unin-
telligible list of Christian names with the fathers'
a-ffixed. When a gentleman hires a servant, he often

184 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

wishes to distinguish him ; this he does according to
his fancy : thus Seton calls his coachman always
"Preston," after his Scotch estate. This prevails also
in Iceland and Norway. The people have thus de-
rived their names from circumstances; thus one of
the oldest families is called Bonde (a peasant), and
Vasa is a wheat - sheaf . When the clergy take a
name, or continue their father's, if he had one, they
add the termination " us " to it : thus the Archbishop
of Upsal's father was called Trail, he himself Troilus,
and when ennobled became Von Troil. Almost all
the names ending in "ander," as Dryander, Polander.
&c., come from the province of SmSland. There are,
of course, various dialects in Sweden. That spoken
by the common people in Stockholm is by no means
good ; and I perceived the greatest change in the

dialect of Western Gothland, where could not

always make himself understood. I believe it softens
down more and more as you get into the Danish pro-
vinces. The purest Swedish is spoken in Wermeland,
in Dalecarlia : the natives speak a dialect quite differ-
ent from the rest of the Swedes, who cannot under-
stand them; but they also speak Swedish, and are
shy of using their own tongue except among them-
selves. It very strongly resembled Anglo-Saxon, and
many words which we heard repeated in Dalecarlia
are quite good English. Besides, they retain the ih
and w, which none of the other languages except the
English do. The manners of these people are as
different from the other Swedes as the language.

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 185

They are by much the best of them, and the bravest,
as well as simplest. Gustavus III. was peculiarly
anxious about cultivating their good opinions, but he
never succeeded well. The Swedish language has
been much cultivated by the natives, at least they
have many more authors than the Danes or other
northern nations, perhaps from their being more in-
sulated and having less intercourse with foreigners.
The history of their own country has been written by
their two best authors, Dahlin and Lagobring. The
latter being written according to a clear method, and
without the tedious prolixity of the former, is esteemed
the best. The Chevalier Ihre, famous for his know-
ledge of northern antiquities, has published a work of
great labour and information, ' Dictionarium Suedo-
Gothicum/'* Their chief poet is Kelgren, who, besides
several poems and imitations, is celebrated for his
opera of ' Gustaf Yasa/ in the composition of which
the late king is said to have had a share. The poetry
is said to be extremely fine ; and the decorations, &c.,
are splendid in the performance, beyond conception.
But probably much of its merit consists in its being
a grand national subject. Besides, I am told, it is a
good deal imitated from Eichard III. Their other
chief authors are Leopold, who has written some small
poetical things ; and Silvertalp, a satirist and author of
the ' Ser Review/ There are, besides, a multitude of

* Johan Ihre, born at Lund 1707, died 1780. The Dictionary re-
ferred to was published at Upsala in 1769, in two volumes folio. A list
of his works will be found under his name in Adelung's Supplement to
the ' Allgemeines Gelehrten Lexicon ' of Jocher.

186 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

translations from English, French, and German, and
many authors of political pamphlets, which they are at
incredible pains to get transported into Eussia, as the
difficulty of procuring such publications there makes
them sure of a ready sale.

The law of Sweden is founded partly on the civil
law, partly on the old Gothic constitutions. The
code is small and very distinctly drawn up, occupy-
ing only one small volume. The criminal code is
extremely mild, and (except Ankerstrom's) no execu-
tion had taken place at Stockholm for twenty years.
One happened while we were there, that for forgery
(vide suprci), and was performed in a cruel manner.
The culprits were hung up by the middle, their head
and heels almost touching ; then the executioner gave
each a kick on the neck, so that the numerous spec-
tators actually heard it break. They were so shocked
at the spectacle that it was feared for some time after
a tumult might take place.

The police of Stockholm is very bad indeed. The
Lieutenant de Police was turned out of town by the
late king for infamous practices. The rogues about
town are chiefly soldiers, and it is extremely unsafe
to walk at night in any but the most frequented parts
of the town. Thieving is universal.

The religion of Sweden is Lutheran, though they
admit bishops who are for the most part ennobled,
and prelates of orders. Von Troil was created Arch-
bishop of Upsala — the only Lutheran archbishop in
the world — by Gustavus III., rather as one whom he

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. l8/

could make sure of in his political intrigues, than for
any shining talents. In 1789, when the Act of Secu-
rity was to be signed, Troil was so much intimidated
by the nobles, that he durst not consent — on which
the king desired him to have & fit of the gout, which
he complied with, and the Bishop of Lynkoping (the
next) signed. He has since had the gout in earnest,
and was confined with it when we saw him at Stock-
holm. His revenue is £1500 per annum, and some
patronage of small livings, a great thing in Sweden,
where there exists literally scarcely any such thing as
patronage at all.

The inferior clergy are for the most part selected
at Upsala, Lind, and Abo, the three universities, from
the poor students. The livings are small and the
parishes very extensive.

In order to have an opportunity of seeing the rural
economy of this country, and also of visiting Upsal,
we accepted the invitation of Baron Seton, a Scots-
man, and spent several days with him, both in going
to Upsala and in returning. Seton had been well
acquainted with Gustavus III., and ennobled, some
said from the king's love of a joke, his name being
Baron, which he changed for an estate left him by his
uncle, called Seton. I remember seeing on one of
his window-shutters a few words written by Gus-
tavus, importing that on such a day he had come
there from the revolution : of course the date was
1772. There was then at Stockholm a great sculptor,
Sergei, whose works were well worth seeing, and who

1 88 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

had many anecdotes to relate of former times.* It
must be added that nothing we heard of Gustavus
III. tended to raise our opinion of him in any respect,
but for his talents. His public conduct is well known;
but he had left a very indifferent impression in soci-
ety of his private and personal character.

This was the opinion of others, as well as ours, of
whom he mentioned Edward Daniel Clarke, and his
pupil Cripps. They came to Stockholm while we were
there on their Scandinavian tour, which they extended
to Greece ; and Clarke has published a full account
of it.t We became acquainted with one who proved
another author of ' Travels ' some years after — Acerbi
—who with his friend Beletti had come from the Mi-
lanese, and was afterwards in Marescalchi's mission
to Paris. He amused us with an account of a famous
clairvoyante who had operated upon his friend and
him with different results. When the question was
put to Beletti, " Doit - on aimer sa patrie ? " he
answered, " Quand on en a une," — which Acerbi said
was clairvoyante' s power, not only in getting an
answer from one in a trance, but such an answer was
above his friend's capacity in his natural state. Lom-
bardy at that time was neither Austrian nor French.
Napoleon only two years after made Melzi vice-pre-
fect before he assumed the iron crown himself.

The country between Stockholm and Ekolsund is
rocky and woody — some lakes; and the road lies

* See above.

t To be found in the six volumes of ' Travels in various Countries of
Europe, Asia, and Africa,' well known as Clarke's Travels.

/ET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 189

chiefly along branches of the Malar. After the first
stage, however, you get into cultivated country ; in-
deed, the whole province of Uppland is plain and
fertile. The house and estate belonged to Gustavus
III., having been given to him by the States as a
provision when prince. It consists of two large
wings joined by a low colonnade of offices. The
house is very elegant, and well furnished; but so
much too large that Seton is wishing to sell it.

The estate is one of the largest, perhaps the largest,
in Sweden. The grounds are laid out in the old
French style, of straight avenues, mazes, &c. We
saw the rooms which Gustavus's Court occupied. He
was very fond of the place ; and on the windows are
some inscriptions written with his own hand. One
in particular, dated September 1772 — "Jag komt hit
ifran Kevolutionen."

The ground is uneven where the house stands, and
high, well wooded, with a very extensive avenue. On
one side it stretches down to the Malar, which gives
an easy communication with Stockholm ; on the
other side it overlooks an extensive and cultivated
plain, in which the chief part of the estate lies. On
the lake he has a large brick and tile work. A great
part of the land is let out to tenants on long leases,
which he has introduced here from Britain. Some is
let out for life on quit-rent, and a third portion re-
mains in his own hands — no tenants at will. The
part in his own hands he cultivates to the best ad-
vantage, and on a very extensive scale. The land is

190 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799-

pretty equally divided in the cultivation of wheat,
barley, peas. £c., nearly as in England. But it is
remarkable that the plough which they use, and have
used for two hundred years — called the Helsingland
plough — is the very same which the Agricultural
Society lately introduced into England. They chiefly
used yoked oxen, which work through land lately
cleared of wood and studded with large stones and
roots, in a surprising manner. They raise their fur-
rows very imperfectly in the middle, making cross
cuts and sweeps to carry off the moisture, which docs
it very imperfectly. The climate is well adapted for
reindeer. One of these we saw at Ekolsund, where
he has been kept some time, being bought from
some Laps, who sometimes come as far south as
Stockholm. It is a dark brownish -grey, the horns
pointed, two fiat lying back, and two forward ; he is
the size of a fallow-deer, and stretches up his head
when he runs in a singular manner. His pace is a
rough trot, and his hoofs almost as large as those of
an ox, with dew-claws, spreading when he runs, to
prevent him from sinking in the snow. The accounts
of his speed are much exaggerated. He can go
seATcnty miles a-day for three or four days, but is
sure to be killed by it. After three or four hours
they tire; the least weight annoys them. The sledge
is more properly a boat in every respect, and the
common rate is about/or/?/ miles. In the woods here,
besides game of all sorts, except wild boar, there are
bears and abundance of wolves. While we were

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 191

tli ere a flock of six or eight came so close to the house
that the watch shot at them; and they constantly
destroy the dogs, &c., if they go any distance from
home. The elk is sometimes met with, a creature of
great size, though harmless. In the king's menagerie
they have one, twenty hands high to the back.
There are also lynxes of two sorts, both beasts of
prey, and valuable for their furs. Of game-birds we
have here cocdubois, a large and excellent bird ; the
snoripa, moor-game, and, above all (from the north),
the xerpar, a small bird about the size of a chicken,
quite white, and exceedingly delicate, sometimes car-
ried as far as Paris, and sold for two guineas apiece.

At Ekolsund there is a runic stone with an inscrip-
tion, bearing that it had been erected by Gotho,
widow of an ancient hero, to his memory ; also that
the same hero had been the founder of Ekolsund, by
its old name of Harvista. Besides several runic re-
mains scattered up and down the country, they still
make in Norlad the runic sticks or almanacs, which
were formerly used, and which represent the proper-
ties, &c., of the months by hieroglyphics.

Ekolsund was built by Count Jott, one of Gustavus
Adolphus's generals.

From Ekolsund we went to Upsala in a carriage
lent us by Seton, and accompanied by Mr Halsted,
who was educated there, and knew everybody. After
travelling through a flat country, we arrived at Up-
sala, and sent our letters, waiting for that night in a
snug though poor inn enough, called the Cellar or

IQ2 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

Skellar. In the next room, where a great number of
the students have an ordinary, they sung the whole
time almost — some of them extremely well, but in
general without words. The " Marseillaise " was the
most conspicuous tune, and oftenest repeated.

The town stands in the middle of a very fine plain,
on a river small but bright, the hill on which the
castle is situated standing almost alone. The town
counts about 5000 inhabitants, is built chiefly of
wood, and interspersed with gardens. The four
principal streets meet in a great square. The cathe-
dral is a very large pile of building, though of brick ;
it has two towers of copper, which make a fine appear-
ance. It contains the tomb of Gustavus Vasa (whom
the king lately exhumed, and found well preserved),
St Eric, the families of Geer and Stuve ; Archbishop
Menandi, a very elegant one, erected by his son, M.
de Fredenheim ; and Linneus, lately put up. It is
composed of one block of Swedish porphyry and a me-
dallioD of the great man. The altar-piece is very fine.

We then saw the public hall or theatre, where an
oration was holding, by Professor Gotling, on the
birth of the prince, in Latin, written by a professor.
Then the library, which is a large collection, but dis-
appoints one in point of rare old books, when one
considers that Gustavus Adolphus pillaged from the
German libraries, and all the treasures of these
were lodged here. We saw, however, the celebrated
Silver Book (Codex argenteus) or Gothic Testament,
which has made so much noise. It is the only Gothic

<ET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 193

book extant, except the Codex at Wolfenbuttel, to
which, however, it is infinitely superior. It is written
in silver -letters on purple vellum ; and the boards are
silver. The letters, however, in many places have
eaten through the vellum on which they were written.
We saw a remarkable manuscript of the Edda, which
has been the subject of a controversy between Pro-
fessor Schlozer, in Germany, and the late Chevalier
Ihre.*

In the same room with these manuscripts is placed
a very large and valuable chest, carefully locked
with several locks, chained and sealed, containing all
the private papers of the late king, which he ordered
here before his death, and left to be opened fifty
years after his death.

We then dined with the family of M. Wetterstedt,
the governor of Uppland, he himself being at present
at Stockholm. After dinner, went to see the collec-
tion of Professor Thunberg, the Japanese traveller.
He is in bad health, and very old, so we did not see
him : he lives in the house that formerly belonged to
Linneus.t We saw also the garden and greenhouses,
where there is a small collection, not in bad order,
formerly arranged by that great man. The green-
house and garden are to be transferred to the chateau,
where handsome buildings are already erected ; but
as only a certain sum yearly is allotted, the work goes

* See above, p. 185.

t Carl -Peter Thunberg, the great Swedish botanist, born at Jon-
koping in 1743 ; died at Upsala in 1828. A list of his works will be
found under his name in the ' Nouvelle Biographic Generale.'

VOL I. N

194 VISIT TO DENMARK [i/99-

slowly on. In tlie evening we went to see a literary
curiosity — a traveller, M. Oilman : lie lias not stirred
out of his room for sixteen years. His sole occupa-
tion is abridging voyages, of which he has published
above one hundred volumes in Swedish. He talked
French so ill, that it was difficult to converse with
him. He lies lounging on a bed, from which he
seldom stirs. He has a family, and tolerably good
appointments. "We then went to the reading-room,
where the students go : it is uncommonly well stocked
with foreign newspapers, and Swedish, of course.

Next morning we went to see the collection, chiefly
mineralogical, of the Eoyal Society of Upsala : this we
found in a neat small house well filled up : in one
of the rooms the Society meets. Among other speci-
mens are some very good native silver ores from
Sala, and in general a complete collection of Swedish
mineralogy.

The shells are also numerous, and there is a large
flora. Professor Lilieblad, who showed us the place,
lias published a 'Flora Suecica/

We then went a second time to the chateau, a long
and inelegant red building not finished, having a
round tower at one end and not the other. We called
on M. Adam Afzelius, lately returned from London,
where he resided some time under D'Asp in a diplo-
matic capacity. D'Asp introduced us to him by
letter, lie was a long time in Sierra Leone, and
has brought home a large collection of rarities from
thence : he has not arranged them, but means to

O 7

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA.

publish an account of his voyage. The castle is built
on the site of the old fortress, of which the ruins still
surround it. We saw the cell where Steen Sture
was murdered by Eric II. The king stabbed him in
the arm ; he drew out the dagger and kissed it, then
returned it to Eric, who in a fury of rage despatched
him.

From the castle there is a fine and very extensive
view. Gamla (or old) Upsala is distinctly seen half
a Swedish mile off. This is only remarkable for the
Mora Stein on which the ancient kings of Sweden
were crowned; besides a number of barrows, under
the most remarkable of which it is thought that
Kjalman, one of these, "is buried. I visited also the
professor of chemistry, who lives in the house and
laboratory of Bergman, who arranged his mineral
collection. The laboratory seems very excellent, but
I did not see the collection.

The university is not in so flourishing a state as
formerly. There are 600 students, who are divided
according to their provinces or nations of Sweden
from which they come : each nation is under the care
or inspection of one professor. The morning after we
arrived, each nation received a private reprimand
from its professor for having showed indecent violence
in politics; and particularly for having composed
indecent songs ridiculing the birth of the prince.
Two weeks after this, the king came to Upsala himself,
resigned the chancellorship after a violent speech to
the professors, &c., accusing them all of Jacobinism,

196 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

and ordered them to choose another. They pitched on
Count Fersen, with which the king was well pleased.

The students here are for the most part extremely
poor : very many of them are farmers' sons. The
professors here seem of a rank superior to the common
run of those on the Continent. There are several
travelling pensions or bursaries, and we saw many
who had been in Lapland with these, even the length
of Enaratraok.

The Society publishes the Upsala e Acta Erudi-
torum;' and corresponds with the Societies of Abo,
Stockholm, Gottenborg, and the Physiographical So-
ciety of Lund. They have many leading members,
Thunberg, Lilieblad, Afzelius, Gotling, Moravius.

The university is much split into parties, the pro-
fessors always quarrelling. Ihre was much annoyed
by some of them. His retorts are much talked of, for
he was a man of wit. One of them meeting him on
the bridge said, " I never go out of my way for a
knave." "But I always do," said he, stepping aside.
The students, instead of fighting as in German uni-
versities, are rather given to drinking and singing,
but not to great excess. They seldom have strangers,
and are extremely civil and kind to you ; this we
experienced from the professors and the governor's
people very universally.

After taking another view of the theatre, where
a Swedish oration was this day held (ladies being
admitted) on the same subject, we set off for Ekol-
sund, where we arrived at ten o'clock at night, after

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 197

a very cold and slow ride, the roads being exceedingly
heavy. At Seton's we found Baron Schwerin, a poor
nobleman.

Dec. 16. — Drove rapidly through woods, our path
good ; waited at Hofve near two hours, then through
one of the most extensive and thickest forests I have
seen to Hasleror. "Whilst sitting waiting for horses I
amused the people by an involuntary feat, the carriage
running back about a dozen yards down a slope, but-
received no hurt.

The horses are not changed at Mairiestadt, as towns
are always avoided if possible, from the difficulty
of finding horses. However, as I wished to see the
quarters of the man who had committed a recent
murder, I stopped a little ; was told, however, that
he was still whole in prison, as a robber, murderer,
and incendiary. Went to the inn, and seeing a small
table d'hdte laid, had the curiosity to wait to sup at it.

However, I had to eat alone, as the company kept
walking up and down to the number of eleven whilst
I fed. Their staring amused me a little ; but I met
with the utmost civility. Some herrings which I ate
here, from Wencon, tasted exactly like those of Loch
Lomond.*

This town stands on the Wennern Sea, and is a pretty
large place. I saw several genteel people enough.

In passing on, one of the horses fell at his length.
The driver, swearing he was dead, would stop us.
After getting it round, found the cause of the fellow's

* Probably Loch Fine.

198 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

noise was my Kussian brute's having threatened him
with his sword if he did not drive quick. After
satisfying the one and terrifying the other of our
cattle, got on.

Dec. 17. — Got on through the next three stations,
Biorsater, Enebaken (good), and Kollanger, without
dismounting, sleeping chiefly. Passed through Lidkop-
ing without stopping. It is a good-looking town on
a bay of the Wennern, with a stream running past it,
and vessels. There is a large neat square in it, with
some good buildings.

At Molby, stopped to get some refreshment from
the soup, &c., being sadly galled and torn, and con-
tinued to Tang. This forenoon the road went through
a country where wood was not to be seen. The road,
striking off to Trollhatta, becomes execrably rough,
and now from the frost peculiarly so ; and near that
place it is even dangerous. On the right is a fine
rocky hill, with columnar top, much wood behind.

Arrived at Tang at four, and before horses and guide
could be got it was quite dark. Dined in a very
snug inn, and then went out by the light of a lantern
to see the works and hear the falls. The view, though
obscure, was quite satisfactory, and even sublime.
The road of scaffolding being all a sheet of ice, the
ladders and planks also, by which we had to crawl up
the sluices, we had a very difficult business to keep
ourselves safe. After crawling up and down for
above an hour, we returned to our inn, highly pleased,
though much fatigued.

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 199

After coffee, and looking over the traveller's book
at the inn, and adding a note, set off at ten, and had
a very slow and hazardous drive along the rocks which
form the road. It was bright moonlight and the
night agreeable. At the first station had to wait an
hour and a ha]f for horses. In going to the next
were overtaken by a storm of snow, and had to crawl;
were stopped at the next also.

Dec. 18. — At the second had coffee, and as it was
morning, proceeded through the most rocky part of
Sweden I had yet seen. Eemarked particularly a val-
ley and a vast plain, with a river running through it
(almost frozen), and all surrounded by masses of ab-
solutely bare rocks, some of them of very considerable
size. The valley turns and continues apparently well
cultivated ; the rocks ranged on each side, with a few
trees scattered over them, and several clumps up and
down the valley, and some neat gentlemen's seats and
boxes. There is a good wooden drawbridge over the
Gotha, which is here very broad, and at the end appears
Gottenborg. The day being now fine, the prospect
was very pleasant. Several streams and one consid-
erable river cross the road and fall into the Gotha.
Entered Gottenborg at two o'clock, along a canal with
trees planted on the sides, and the boxes of the
merchants.

Gottenborg. — The merchants who compose the body
of this place are all croaking at the times, the effect
which the wTar has had on the country. The India
house is actually shut up, and the Exchange almost

200 VISIT TO DENMARK AND SCANDINAVIA. [1799.

deserted. A few houses engross all the trade, while
there is a multitude of small merchants and traders
almost starving.

The principal merchants arc British, chiefly Scotch,
who unite the English style of living with the
Swedish way of drinking. The town is large and
chiefly of brick — some pretty good buildings. It was
built by the Dutch, in the style of Rotterdam, with
canals and trees. The inhabitants are in great dis-
content with the present state of their trade, and
have lately shown marks of it. The use of French
brandy having been forbidden, the distilling of
Swedish spirits became extremely unpopular, particu-
larly at Gottenborg, from the quantity of grain con-
sumed in it. The mob rose and destroyed the works,
warehouses, &c. The governor employed conciliatory
measures, and the mob was appeased. The king
was furious, and severely reprimanded the governor
by letter for not having made the soldiers fire, for
which there was no pretext. The popularity of the
governor is excessive among all ranks.

Dec. 19. — We set out from Gottenborg at nine,
determining to make for Norway, in the almost cer-
tain expectation of finding a vessel there for some
port in Scotland. After driving up the valley, and
crossing the river by the drawbridge, we came
to a ferry under the Castle of Bohus, now in ruins,
but which must have been a place of no small strength.

1 O

Its ramparts are of stone, and very high. It is built
on a rock, and surrounded wholly by the river's

JEX. 22.] A GHOST STORY. 201

branches. The view from it extremely romantic;
everywhere around are huge rocky masses, with a
few trees scattered about. The valley on one side, on
the other the river's branches meeting under the neat
town of Kongelf, and disappearing among the rocks.
The wooden bridge here was destroyed by the Danes
in 1787, the stumps only remaining, so that a ferry
is now established ; and we were stopped for about
two hours, in the most intense cold, till the ice could
be broken. At Kongelf we stopped to eat some of
our cold provisions, and then continued our journey
in the dark. The carriage being shut we were not
actually frozen, but the road was execrably rough,
and we went at a foot's pace ; besides, it was more
hilly than is usual in Sweden. At one in the morn-
ing, arriving at a decent inn, we decided to stop for
the night, and found a couple of comfortable rooms.

Tired with the cold of yesterday, I was glad to take
advantage of a hot bath before I turned in. And here
a most remarkable thing happened to me — so remark-
able that I must tell the story from the beginning.

After I left the High School, I went with G , my

most intimate friend, to attend the classes in the univer-
sity. There was no divinity class, but we frequently in
our walks discussed and speculated upon many grave
subjects — among others, on the immortality of the soul,
and on a future state. This question, and the possibil-
ity, I will not say of ghosts walking, but of the dead
appearing to the living, were subjects of much specu-
lation ; and we actually committed the folly of draw-

202 VISIT TO DENMARK AND SCANDINAVIA. [1799.

ing up an agreement, icrittcn with our blood, to the
effect, that whichever of us died the first should
appear to the other, and thus solve any doubts we
had entertained of the " life after death." After we

had finished our classes at the college, G went to

India, having got an appointment there in the civil
service. Pie seldom wrote to me, arid after the lapse
of a few years I had almost forgotten him ; moreover,
his family having little connection with Edinburgh, I
seldom saw or heard anything of them, or of him
through them, so that all the old schoolboy intimacy
had died out, and I had nearly forgotten his existence.
I had taken, as I have said, a warm bath ; arid while
lying in it and enjoying the comfort of the heat, after
the late freezing I had undergone, I turned my head
round, looking towards the chair on which I had
deposited my clothes, as I was about to get up out of
the bath. On the chair sat G— — , looking calmly at
me. How I got out of the bath I know not, but on
recovering my senses I found myself sprawling on
the floor. The apparition, or whatever it was, that
had taken the likeness of G— — , had disappeared.
This vision produced such a shock that I had no in-
clination to talk about it, or to speak about it even
to Stuart; but the impression it made upon me was
too vivid to be easily forgotten ; and so strongly was
I affected by it, that I have here written down the
whole history, with the date, 19th December, and all
the particulars, as they are now fresh before me. No
doubt I had fallen asleep ; and that the appearance

JET. 22.] A GHOST STORY. 203

presented so distinctly to my eyes was a dream, I
cannot for a moment doubt; yet for years I had had

no communication with G , nor had there been

anything to recall him to my recollection ; nothing
had taken place during our Swedish travels either
connected with G or with India, or with any-
thing relating to him, or to any member of his family.
I recollected quickly enough our old discussion, and
the bargain we had made. I could not discharge

from my mind the impression that G must have

died, and that his appearance to me was to be received
by me as proof of a future state ; yet all the while I
felt convinced that the whole was a dream ; and so
painfully vivid, and so unfading was the impression,
that I could not bring myself to talk of it, or to make
the slightest allusion to it. I finished dressing ; and
as we had agreed to make an early start, I was ready
by six o'clock, the hour of our early breakfast.

[Brougham, Oct. 16, 1862. — I have just been copy-
ing out from my journal the account of this strange
dream : Certissima mortis imago ! And now to finish
the story, begun above sixty years since. Soon after
my return to Edinburgh, there arrived a letter from

India, announcing G 's death ! and stating that

he had died on the 1 9th of December ! ! Singular
coincidence ! yet when one reflects on the vast num-
ber of dreams which night after night pass through
our brains, the number of "coincidences between the
vision and the event are perhaps fewer and less
remarkable than a fair calculation of chances would

204 VISIT TO DENMARK AND SCANDINAVIA. [1799.

warrant us to expect. Nor is it surprising, consider-
ing the variety of our thoughts in sleep, and* that they
all bear some analogy to the affairs of life, that a
dream should sometimes coincide with a cotempor-
aneous or even with a future event. This is not much
more wonderful than that a person, whom we had no
reason to expect, should appear to us at the very
moment we had been thinking or speaking of him.
So common is this, that it has for ages grown into the
proverb, " Speak of the devil."

I believe every such seeming miracle is, like every
ghost story, capable of explanation.

There never was, to all appearance, a better authen-
ticated fact than Lord Lyt tie ton's ghost. I have heard
my father tell the story ; but coupled with his entire
conviction that it was either a pure invention, or the
accidental coincidence of a dream with the event.

He had heard the particulars from a lady — a Mrs
Affleck, or some such name — during a visit he made
to London about the year 1780, not very long after
the death. The substance of what he heard was, that
Lord Lyttleton had for some time been in failing
health ; that he was suffering from a heart complaint;
that a few days before his death he related to some
female friends who were living in his house in London
an extraordinary dream, in which a figure appeared
to him and told him he should shortly die ; that his
death, which really took "place a few days after the
dream, had been very sudden, owing no doubt to the
heart disease. My father was convinced that the female

*:T. 22.] A GHOST STORY. 205

tendency to believe in the marvellous naturally pro-
duced the statement that the moment of the death
had exactly corresponded with the time as predicted
in the dream. The story was told with corroborating
circumstances — one of which was, the attempt to
cheat the ghost by altering the hour on the clock ;
and the tale obtained a surprising degree of credit,
considering the unsubstantial foundation on which it
really rested.

On all such subjects my father was very sceptical.
He was very fond of telling a story in which he had
been an actor, and, as he used to say, in which his
unbelieving obstinacy had been the means of demol-
ishing what would have made a very pretty ghost
story.

He had dined one day in Dean's Yard, Westminster,
with a party of young men, one of whom was his
intimate friend, Mr Calmel. There was some talk
about the death of a Mrs Nightingale, who had re-
cently died under some melancholy circumstances,
and had been that day buried in the Abbey. Some
one of the party offered to bet that no one of those
present would go down into the grave and drive a
nail into the coffin.

Calmel accepted the wager, only stipulating that
he might have a lanthorn. He was accordingly let
into the cathedral by a door out of the cloisters, and
then left to himself. The dinner-party, after waiting
an hour or more for Calmel, began to think something
must have happened to him, and that he ought to be

206 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

looked after ; so my father and two or three more got
a light and went to the grave, at the bottom of which
lay the apparently dead body of Mr Calmel. He was
quickly transported to the prebend's dining-room, and
recovered out of his fainting-fit. As soon as he could
find his tongue, he said, " Well, I have won my wager,
and you'll find the nail in the coffin ; but, by Jove !
the lady rose up, laid hold of me, and pulled me down
before I could scramble out of the grave." Calmel
stuck to his story in spite of all the scoffing of his
friends ; and the ghost of Mrs Nightingale would have
been all over the town, but for my father's obstinate
incredulity. Nothing would satisfy him but an
ocular inspection of the grave and coffin ; and so,
getting a light, he and some of the party returned to
the grave. There, sure enough, was the nail, well
driven into the coffin ; but hard fixed by it was a bit
of Mr Calmel's coat-tail ! So there was an end of Mrs
Nightingale's ghost. This grave afterwards became
remarkable for a very beautiful piece of sculpture, by
some celebrated artist, representing Mr Nightingale
vainly attempting to ward from his dying wife the
dart of death. My father always instanced this as
the best piece of monumental sculpture in the Abbey.*
After this long digression, it is time to return to my
journal.]

Dec. 20. — Up at six ; and after coffee — which, as
usual, was served as tea and eg gold, a sort of caudle

* The celebrated monument to Mrs Nightingale in Westminster
Abbey is understood to be the work of Roubilliac.

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 2O/

of eggs, sugar, ale, and milk, much used by travellers
in Sweden, and excellent for keeping one warm, we
set out slowly, the road being bad, and a good deal
of snow having fallen. The country similar to that
which we had of late been in — namely, more hilly by
a great deal than the rest of Sweden. The natives
quite different in their appearance from the other
Swedes we had seen — very ugly, and dressed differ-
ently ; loose jackets, boots, with trousers ; apparently
all having to do with the sea, as fishermen or sailors.
The inns were better ; but the people of all kinds
more insolent, and very greedy. In short, I never
saw so strongly marked a difference in so short a
space.

The road wound up and down some very steep hills,
overhung by high rocks covered with snow ; but
much varied by firs perfectly green, and sometimes
by purple birch, which had a very pleasing effect.
We went extremely slow, and arrived at Qvistrum
about eight. The landlady is the woman mentioned
by Mrs Wollstonecraft, but we could not discover her
wondrous beauty.

This day we passed Uddevalla, situated on a firth of
the sea, which was quite frozen, and had people skat-
ing on it. It is a neat town ; the houses tiled, and
built in a way quite different from the usual Swedish
houses. There are some good shops and houses ; and
the shipping is considerable, though now laid up.
All this day very mild indeed ; I suppose from the
neighbourhood of the sea.

208 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

Dec. 21. — Beady at six ; pass the bridge where the
battle was fought, or rather was said to have been
fought. Mrs Wollstonecraft tells a lie upon the subject.
We heard from Mansback, how Armfelt, a cavalry
officer, was posted at the pass beyond the bridge, to
defend it, with about 700 Swedes. Mansback offered
a deserter of his own, who knew the country, his life,
if he would carry him by another road through the
hill, which he did ; and then he surrounded Armfelt,
and took him. For this Armfelt was broke. Mans-
back thinks this very harsh, and says he was not at
all to blame. As for the bridge, he said he could
have passed the river easily, half a mile above, in
twenty places.*

Dec. 21. — The bridge and pass are very romantic,
the rocks, trees, &c. ; indeed all the day the road went
through a great variety of the finest rock-scenery,
often through flat cultivated country, and sometimes
in sight of bays of the sea, all frozen, but chiefly among
vast masses of rock quite bare, rising abruptly, and
whole hills, perhaps 300 feet high of, not an inch but
these masses, some of them as flat as a wall, others
rough, and in general each is one undivided block rising
out of a plain, or the sea. We proceeded with little
refreshment. Once I tried the brandwein with water,
and found to my cost that what I had heard was true

* A good English account will be found of this eventful period of
Swedish history in a Life of Armfelt by the late Thomas Watts of the
British Museum, in the fragment of a General Biographical Dictionary
issued by the Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge.

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 2OQ

(of its being impossible to take it diluted from its
emetic tendency) ; for though I only sipped a little, I
was really sick and ill the whole night.

Dec. 22. — All the night the road was over very
steep and dangerous hills, so that we were obliged to
get out every now and then to walk. This we did
not regret, as the scenery was always interesting.
Once we were overturned, though luckily on level
ground, and not hurt ; the carriage, however, was much
damaged, so that we could not descend or climb a hill
with it safely. At the custom-house at Svinesund we
were stopped for examination of passport, dues, &c.
&c. It stood at the bottom of a tremendous descent.
The scenery around is inexpressibly grand, the river
or firth being on each side surrounded by high rocky
masses, with a few trees scattered. Got over the ferry
(at twice) which separates the two countries ; on the
other side stopped only to get a little milk, the land-
lord speaking good English. Had another hill to
climb equal to what we descended before ; and after
being considerably fatigued with the long and heavy
walks, slept on to Helle, where we breakfasted, and
by the charges, &c., found we were really in Norway.

Hence to Frederikshald, our bags on sledges, the
scenery growing more and more mountainous : arrived
at ten.

Frederikshald is a considerable town : it stands
pleasantly on a firth, with a river. It is very neatly
built, chiefly of wood. Some of the houses are very
large and elegant, and the rest comfortable. The sea

VOL. T. o

210 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

was all frozen, and the shipping laid up, hut the com-
merce is very considerable, — almost wholly with Eng-
land in deals and iron. The castle commands the
town completely, stands very high upon huge rocks,
and is formed of fine stone works, absolutely im-
pregnable on the side of the town, and commanding
the neighbouring hills, which are indeed inconsider-
able heights. The inn was wretched, and the charge
most exorbitant, being 6 rix-dollars for two nights —
breakfast and bed. It has a good view of the water
among rocky heights ; on these people were skating
and driving traineaux to a great distance. Mr Nils
Anker calling, we after dressing returned his visit,
and were taken by him to Mr Dank, junior's, where
we dined with a very large and elegant party, among
whom the Governor-General Mansback, some officers,
and all the principal natives — no ladies except the
mistress of the house. "We were amused with the
custom of drinking thanks after dinner, which runs
round the table. " Tank, tank," " tank for mit "
(thanks for meat). After coffee went to a private
play, where all the ladies and gentlemen of the place
were assembled. The theatre was very small, and a
sort of makeshift — the play a Danish translation of
Kotzebue's ( Brothers/ and acted in general ill ; but
one actor played very decently, and the company
seemed much pleased. After the play some of the
men retired to billiards and smoking, and the theatre
was immediately cleared into a ball and sandwich
room, where waltzing and eating went on till four in

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 211

the morning, without fiddling, however, as it was the
regimental band. We remarked that not one of the
officers belonging to the place were there. Indeed
there exists, as is but too common, a complete division
between the natives and soldiers. The women struck
us as very pretty.

Dec. 23. — Having last night met with Mr Paulus,
the late French consul at Christiansand, I went to
breakfast (by invitation) with him and his daughter,
in the same inn with ourselves, and was kept so long
there in conversation that we could not go to the
castle. Dined at Anker's with a large party, chiefly
of the same class as yesterday, but much more select.
Afterwards the men smoked in a room per se, then
cards (with chasse cafe on the table), then sandwiches
— a visit of ten hours. Were much disgusted with
the barbarous way in which the master and mistress
seem the whole time the very slaves of the company,
running up and down, &c. The mercantile gentle-
men talk English for the most part.

Dec. 24. — -At nine o'clock went up to see the fort,
and the spot where Charles XII. was killed, having
had an order from the governor. However, we were
detained some time at the gate.

He was standing near a stone looking over a small
rail, and a cross two feet high is upon the spot instead
of a low pyramid formerly placed there. On the cross
is cut a rude inscription—" C. XII. fell. Dec. 1718."

It is about 400 yards from the part of the castle
whence the shot is said to have been fired. There are

212 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

two rising grounds, one on the side of the cross, and
within pistol-shot of it ; and if he was assassinated it
must have been from one of these. The mask taken
from his head after death (a cast of which is at
Brougham), represents the wound in a different place
from the one supposed to have been inflicted by the
shot from the fort.

Frederikshald , Dec. 24. — The inhabitants of Fred-
erikshald enjoy great immunities from their patriotism
on this occasion, when they burned their houses to
prevent them from falling into the hands of the
Swedes. The example was set by the family of Col-
bionzel, whose antipathy to the Swedes is noted. The
story of Anna Maria Colbionzel is well known. She
detained a regiment of Charles's (up the country), by
giving notice to the Norwegian troops, and detaining
the enemy in her house. We met with the only lineal
descendant of this celebrated woman at Mr Dank's, at
Frederikshald.

The Norwegians, in their poems and conversation,
talk of Charles XII. as a victim to their liberties
sacrificed on the altar of Frederikshald, and say that
there was no prospect of his succeeding in his attack
on Frederikshald, or in his expedition, even if he had
taken it. This, however, is assuredly not a just view
of this case.

Dec. 24. — Set off, after breakfast, at eleven o'clock,
and travelled all day on the snow, the trainage being
completely established. Passed the river frozen, but
had to unharness the horses and leave our carriage, as

^ET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 213

the ice was not sufficiently strong. Had to regret
not seeing the celebrated cascade.*"" Passed an inn
kept by one Alexander, a Scotsman — miserable in-
deed. Came through some woods, in which we re-
marked that there was much more underwood than in
Sweden. The day was very dark and bad, snowing
copiously. Had to wait at one station two hours for
horses in this disagreeable evening, and came on very
heavily, owing to our wheels. At Moss we arrived at
eleven, and found a very good inn, kept by a French-
man, with supper and beds all ready, thanks to the
forebote.

Dec. 25. — Moss is a considerable town, the houses
neatly built of wood. There are a vast number of
saw-mills, the water of which, being almost all frozen,
had a very singular effect — the icicles, iced cascades,
&c., being innumerable. The magazines of timber are
immense, and there is also a great iron-work belong-
ing to General Anker. As a great quantity of snow
had fallen during the night, we were obliged to put
our carriage upon a sledge and pack up the wheels.
The natives were driving about very finely in their
small traineaux to church, it being Christmas. We
passed through an extensive forest on very high
ground, then came to cultivated country, which lasted
most part of the way. The inns which we saw were
all uncommonly good, and we were everywhere invited
to eat, according to custom. The last stage being very
hilly and bad, we did not arrive till twelve at Chris-

* Of the Glommen.

214 VISIT TO DENMARK [*799.

tiania. During this day we did not feel it very cold.
Found good beds, a very good inn, and comforted
ourselves with wine, as we could only get a sandwich
for supper.

Dec. 26. — Called on Squire Haygerup the mayor,
Mr Lee the English vice-consul, and Mr Matheson a
merchant. The governor and Mr Anker and all else
being out of town, as is the custom at Christmas,
experienced much hospitality. Dined en famille
with Mr Haygerup, and heard the Norwegian song.
Supped at Mr Lee's.

Dec. 27. — -Went to buy books and maps, and found
the town miserably provided in these — very few and
enormously dear. The furs we found equally scarce,
but saw some uncommon fine lynxes. The town is
very regularly built. A considerable part of the
houses are of brick, and some very large and hand-
some. So regularly are the streets built that one
cannot easily find his way. At the meetings of the
streets are placed large square cisterns or reservoirs
of water, supplied by copious streams. These were
smoking to-day like boiling caldrons. The streets
are spacious and even ; the houses built chiefly of
timber, though many of them are of brick and stone,
covered with a rough coat of stucco. Aniong the
public buildings we noticed the school or university,
the prison, and the fortress — which is separate from
the town, called Aggershuus— the old name of the city,
and the name of the province to this day. The town
stands on an arm of the sea, far indeed from the ocean,

JET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 215

and so retired as never to feel its storms. At this
time all was frozen, and sledges with any burdens
could pass over the bays ; but the ice in these firths
is extremely treacherous, for a sudden change of wind
or weather carries off in a few hours every flake of ice
from masses which appeared before immovable.

The valley of Christiania is extremely beautiful;
but we quite agreed with Mrs Wollstonecraft in won-
dering how Mr Coxe could discover glaciers, as the
flat is surrounded by rising grounds so gently sloping
and so trifling in height, as hardly to deserve the
name of hills. Among the houses which we remarked
as splendid were those of Mr Anker and Mr Collet.
Mr Anker's is a large building, disposed in a quad-
rangle, with every convenience of outhouses and
offices, and with all sorts of sumptuous and luxurious
accommodation — as we afterwards experienced. After
dining on tolerable venison, we received an invita-
tion in the most polite terms, by express, from Mr
Anker, who was then spending the Christmas holi-
days (according to the custom of the place) at the
country seat of Mr Collet, fifty miles up the country.
Our letters of introduction had been sent off from the
town that morning, and we received the letter of
invitation at five in the evening — no bad example of
expeditious travelling.

Dec. 28. — At seven o'clock in the morning a couple
of single sledges, with most excellent horses, were ready
at our door. After fortifying ourselves with coffee,
we set off, each sledge having a servant to stand be-

2l6 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

hind and drive. We flew rather than drove through
the town, my sledge soon breaking down from the
rapidity of the motion ; but we soon mended the
broken parts, and got on as swiftly as before. The
trainage was most excellent ; and I reckoned, by
comparing our pace at this time with the slower rate
of travelling we afterwards went at, that we did not
take more than three minutes to the mile — indeed
the motion was disagreeably rapid, the horse sweat-
ing, and myself obliged to shut my eyes, and, even
then, complaining of pain and oppression. The hill
ground to the west of the town relieved us ; but we
were surprised to find that it did not retard our pace
more than we wished. Without attending at all to
the road, our guides sprang up the sides of the knolls,
and kept the sledges from stones, hollows, and stumps,
by dismounting and balancing with their feet and
hands.

Admired the fine situation of Christiania from these
heights ; changed horses without stopping ; and then
at the next station came out to warm ourselves, as is
usual every now and then in this mode of travelling.
We had come hither chiefly through woods. Now
we went on the ice the other two stages. The river
Glommen being well frozen and smooth, we whisked
along quickly, though now and then the ice broke —
i.e., the surface-ice without water. Passed immense
timber magazines belonging to Mr Anker ; came to
the lake, a mile broad and three long ; and soon were
at Mr Collet's at Fladebije. The house is a large one,

MT. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 2I/

roughly built on an eminence, and bitter cold, but
only used twice a -year — now and in the hunting
season. We here met with every civility, kindness,
and hospitality that can be imagined, and so much of
the style of living and manners of the natives. The
party was quite on the frolic and " vive la bagatelle."
The most unbounded liberty was allowed — the young
people constantly mingling in all sorts of innocent
freedoms ; indeed the quantity of kissing grew quite
tiresome, every game ending in a kissing-match. The
party consisted of twenty-nine, without us two ; and
was afterwards increased to thirty-one, but afterwards
amounted to thirty-five in all. The host and hostess
(obervert and obervertina) never seemed at all different
from the rest of the company, except that their healths
were drunk at dinner. A couple was appointed to
the office of host and hostess for each night, the
order being arranged at first, and each couple with
a few others performed a small dramatic piece con-
trived or imitated by themselves. The theatre is the
end of the sitting-room, loosely and roughly fitted
up, as nothing but paper is allowed to be brought
from town. The parts are studied, but the words
are left to the occasion, except in one instance where
there was a French drama from the " Taming of the
Shrew " by De la Toenaye, a French traveller, one of
the company. At the end of the play, the couple
invite the company to spend the next day with
them ; and accordingly, during the whole of it they
act as host and hostess, sitting at the head of the

2l8 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

table, ordering and arranging everything, &c. &c.
The day is chiefly spent as follows, but every one
enjoyed the most perfect freedom of doing exactly as
he pleased, without any one so much as asking where
he was :—

After breakfast (which is not a formal meal, but
continues two or three hours as the company drops
in), we walked out, conversed, read, rode in sledges,
called at each other's rooms, and some took the amount
of the slee, others (chiefly the old gentlemen) played
at Ombre and Boston, and smoked. After luncheon,
as a whet before, dined at two, and sang constantly,
drinking toasts at the same time — such as Halletel-
skop, " the whole company"; BensMp's skaal, " friend-
ship's health"; Piger's skaal, "girls' health"; Norges
skaal* &c. In the middle of the table was placed an
emblematical figure of some kind, having a reference
to the subject of the last play. Eound the dining-
room and in the ceiling are hung a vast number of
these figures, collected for thirty years past, during
which time this custom has continued in the family.
After dining and drinking a claret and burgundy
Bishop (Bischoff), retired to the next room, each gen-
tleman leading his own lady ; and after the ceremony
of kissing hands, coffee and pipes, then tea, some
game of romps, or a dance, cards and pipes, supper,
play, dance, and cards, and the evening ended with
the last host and hostess (vert and vertina) sitting in
the middle of the room and being kissed — he by all

* Norway's health — a toast.

AND SCANDINAVIA. 219

the ladies, she by all the men. The last night, a
rude masquerade instead of the play; and some of
the servants danced the Haling dance, a very curious
wild dance from the interior of the country, of im-
mense difficulty, requiring great strength and agility,
on the heels and toes chiefly, round the room, whirl-
ing the partner round, and leaping and twisting over
her. This one of the ladies danced with a footman !

In autumn Mr Collet has the same sort of party
for the chase, which may be carried on here, as there
is a great deal of flat ground. There are not many
bears in this quarter, but Mr Bank's (of Frederiks-
hald) father killed eleven during his life. There is a
considerable number of wolves. The game is hares,
of which we saw one or two, as white as the snow ;
ceders (the coryctu verus, our capercailzie), rupo (par-
tridge), and hierpati. We eat reindeer-venison also,
exceedingly fine, and far superior to our other deer-
flesh. Mr Collet's house here stands above the lake ;
around it are woods and cultivated grounds, but no
pleasure-grounds, of course. We went to see his
saw-mills and brick and tile works — both on a very
large scale. Drove on sledges — very cold, indeed,
and believe it was from this that I got a boil on my
cheek, which proved exceedingly troublesome.

The following is a list of the company who were at
Fladebije: — Mr and Mrs Collet — [illegible] — and

Lady Anker ; Miss Collet ; Miss Klaason ; and

- Kaas ; Mr and Mrs Julstoup; Mr and Mrs Julin ;
Miss Talma (sister of the great actor); (the governor

220 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799.

of the province) ; Miss Kaas ; Miss (Young Ankers) ;

Captain Nilson; Lieutenant Carlson; ( );

- (— — ) ; Cadet Keaason ; Mr de la Toenaye ;
General Anker ; Mr Gram ; Mr Collet ; Mr Anker ;
Mr Maribeau ; among other chance visitors Mr
B-ozencraz.

The arrival of Buonaparte in France, and his pro-
ceedings at Paris, had been known at Stockholm be-
fore we left it, and the expectation of a revolution
entertained. But the event of 18th Brumaire (9th
Nov. 1799) had not been known, and the first account
we had of it was at Fladebije. De la Toenaye was
determined to return to France if the emigrants were
allowed ; and instead of the promenade autour de
Scandinavie which he meant to add to his former
travels in Great Britain, he had to be content with a
promenade autour de mes Foyers. He even doubted
whether the return of the emigrants would be allowed.

The sleigh is much used here. The skates are
above six feet long and turned up at the ends, requir-
ing the balance to be thrown before by bending the
knees forward. A pole with a round plate at the end
is also held in the hand to balance by. Accidents
often happen either from falls, or splitting up, by the
feet running off separately. They go in this way very
quick down any steep, and take great leaps off emin-
ences. They have a regiment of (I believe) seven
hundred men on these snow-shoes, of which they are
very proud. This troop once drew a Swedish force
of cavalry down a steep where it was either cut to

^T. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 221

pieces or destroyed by the fall. The people are all
extravagantly fond of sledging. The common people
enjoy it in a great degree, and seem to feel the greatest
pleasure in the motion and driving. Children and
boys either skate or go upon a small double patten of
two pieces of wood shod with iron, on which they sit
and run down hills or descents, &c.

We set out for Laurvig late in January, at which
port a vessel to England was expected to sail. We
were kept a week or ten days there, and embarked on
a timber-laden ship, happily for us, as to this cargo
we owed our safety. The weather being very good,
indeed a calm, though it was February arid in the
North Sea, when we had our pilot on board at Lowe-
stoft on the coast of Norfolk, the vessel, a few miles
from shore, struck on a sandbank, the rudder was
carried away, and such a leak sprung as kept us at
the pumps for three or four hours; but the leak defied
all our efforts, the ship became water-logged, and was
only prevented sinking by our cargo. We made
signals of all kinds, and fired guns to make them put
off boats for our assistance; but the sea had increased,
and the only one they tried was swamped ! so we had
to remain at the mercy of the only anchor we had,
the captain considering that his old and crazy vessel
would hold together unless it came to blow hard and
to drive us on shore, or the wind shifted and we were
driven out to sea, in neither of which cases could she
hold together. It was no small relief to us, therefore,
when a Newcastle collier came in sight and she

222 VISIT TO DENMARK AND SCANDINAVIA. [1800.

approached near enough to learn our condition. She
threw a rope on board and towed us into Harwich,
where we slept, and next day came to London. There
I only stopped to take the mail for Edinburgh, where
I arrived safe.

Here my journal ends.

223

CHAPTER IV.
Scotrfj Bar atft tfje ' CHfcmlmrgfj

MY OPINION OF MY FRIEND CHARLES STUART - DEATH OF MY
BROTHER PETER — I AM ADMITTED ADVOCATE - PROFESSION
DISTASTEFUL - CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR JOSEPH BANKS -
WORK AT " COLONIAL POLICY" - LEADING MEN OF THE SCOTCH
BAR - HARRY ERSKINE - BLAIR - CHARLES HOPE — MACONOCHIE
(LORD MEADOWBANK) — CRANSTOUN (LORD COREHOUSE) — JAMES
REDDIE - WALTER SCOTT - JEFFREY - THE ' EDINBURGH RE-
VIEW ' — SYDNEY SMITH'S ACCOUNT CRITICISED — JEFFREY'S AND
HORNER'S ACCOUNT — MY OWN HISTORY OF IT — THE EARLY
CONTRIBUTORS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS - PROGRESS OF
THE ' REVIEW,' AND ITS INFLUENCE ON POLITICS AND LITERA-
TURE - LIST OF CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EARLY NUMBERS, AND
NAMES OF THEIR AUTHORS - ANECDOTES OF JEFFREY AND HIS
COADJUTORS.

IT was observable that during our shipwreck, Stuart,
who was an old traveller by land and by water, and
never for a moment was disconcerted or lost his pre-
sence of mind, yet had a much worse opinion of our
chances of escape, and was much more impressed
with the dangers of our situation than I, a mere
novice in travel. I was sanguine because I was in-
experienced. During our whole intimacy for seven
months, I had constant occasion to mark, more than

224 CHARLES STUART. [1800.

I had ever done before, those great qualities which
distinguished him, and earned him to the head of his
profession in most difficult times. It is enough to say
that The Duke placed in him the most unbounded
confidence when he was our minister in the Penin-
sula, and when he afterwards succeeded him at Paris.
He is the most remarkable example I know of the
great evils attending our political system, at least in
its administration — the conferring all the important
offices in the State on persons who possess the debating
power. Stuart, but for his never having cultivated
that faculty, would have filled the highest place in
the conduct of our affairs during the many long years
that the party ruled to which he was both hereditarily
and personally attached. I speak of his great and
good qualities after constant and cordial intimacy of
much above half a century.

1800. — In this year happened the greatest misfor-
tune of my life — greater than any, save one. that has
ever yet befallen me — my brother Peter, the most
beloved, the most highly prized of all our family, was
killed in a duel by Campbell of Shawfield. Even at
this distance of time I feel it as if it were a recent
affliction. At the time I was nearly distracted ; in-
deed I verily believe my mind was for a time un-
hinged, for I left Edinburgh and wandered about I
know riot where. My prevailing idea was to avenge
his death. As the duel had taken place at St Sal-
vador, on his way to India, Campbell was far beyond
my reach ; but I vainly thought he ought to be in-

JET,

. 23.] MY BROTHER'S DEATH. 225

dieted for murder. I must have written to this effect
to my uncle, Mr Lowndes, who then lived in London ;
for I find by a letter of his that such must have been
my hallucination.

Early in 1800, Peter had got his commission as
ensign in the 85th Eegiment, and was ordered to
embark at Portsmouth with troops under the com-
mand of General St John. On the 31st of March I
had written to Stuart, then living at Whitehall, to
tell him of my grief at parting with Peter, and that
I felt more than ever disinclined to remain in Edin-
burgh and to work at my profession : —

" I still continue more and more to detest this
place, and this cursedest of cursed professions. He
(Peter) will see you as he passes through London,
and I really wish you could manage to procure some
letters for him. He does not know what station his
regiment is to go to, and has a number of recom-
mendations on chance already. One or two more in
the same way (I mean whether he knows and can tell
you where he is to go or not), will do quite well."

I have said that I was so distracted by this dread-
ful blow, that I wanted to have Mr Campbell brought
to justice. My father would not hear of any such
proceeding, and my uncle was equally against it. He
wrote to me as follows : —

" LONDON, 1st November 1800.

" MY DEAR HENRY, — No one can lament more sin-
cerely than I do, the very unfortunate event which
is the subject of our correspondence. If I had not

VOL. i. p

226 MY BROTHER'S DEATH. [1800.

known Peter, I should undoubtedly have lamented
his death, and commiserated the feelings of those
more near to him, but I should soon have thought little
of the subject ; but having known him, and, knowing
him, loved and admired him, my sorrow for his un-
timely end will be very lasting, and often will he
have a tear to his remembrance.

"With such sentiments towards him, therefore,
I am sure you will believe that the advice I am about
to give is the result of consideration and regard to
the memory of your brother.

" That advice is, to let the matter drop, and not to
bestow one thought more upon a public prosecution."

I acted upon this advice; and after a time I re-
sumed my legal studies, as it became necessary that
I should prepare myself for the examination in Scotch
Law, and also for the public examination preparatory
to my call to the bar, which took place early in the
month of June IS 00."* I went the summer circuit,
attending the assizes held in the counties of Berwick,
Roxburgh, and Selkirk ; my chief, T may say only,
business being to defend prisoners who were too poor
to pay for professional assistance. I had an invincible
repugnance to the profession I had chosen, and con-
stantly wrote to Charles Stuart, then settled in Lon-
don, expressing my desire to escape from it, and that
if any opening could have been found for me in
diplomacy how gladly I should have accepted it. It

* See Appendix XV.

JET. 23.] MY BROTHER'S DEATH. 227

had occurred to me that my father's old friend and
schoolfellow, Sir Joseph Banks, who had on several
occasions expressed an interest in my welfare, might
have it in his power to help me. I have through the
kindness of a friend been furnished with the copy of
a letter I wrote to Sir Joseph, with whom I had been
in correspondence on some matters relating to science,
and also on the subject of my future career. The
letter is as follows : —

"EDINBURGH, Dec. 10, 1800.

" SIR, — I was honor'd with the receipt of yours in
course. I beg you will believe me when I express my
satisfaction at your prospects of speedy recovery. I am
only afraid lest your goodness towards me may have led
you to exert in writing before it was quite safe, still
more before it could be convenient. It would surely be
superfluous to return my warmest thanks for the new
proofs which your letter contains of the interest you
are so kind as to take in my trivial and humble con-
cerns ; but I avail myself with pleasure of the liberty
which you give me, to trouble you once more upon
the subject.

" My resolution is still unaltered to attempt an
opening in the political line. The difficulty, however
great, is not sufficient to deprive me of some hopes
that such an opportunity may occur. I believe I
mentioned in my last, that perhaps some private con-
nections of your own might afford you a chance of
hinting something in my behalf. I did not venture
to expect that you would set about finding such op-

228 THE SCOTCH BAR.

portunities. I only begged of you to have me in
your eye should any occasion offer. More active
exertion on my behalf was beyond what I had ever
hoped. In the mean time I am endeavouring, by
cultivating as much as possible the duties of my pro-
fession, to secure a retreat for myself in case the other
plan should fail. My aversion to it as an ultimate
object continues the same, — not to mention that it
exposes one to the worst part of party politics, and
that to succeed in it requires almost as much interest
as to rise in the diplomatic line. I beg you will not
put yourself to the trouble of writing sooner than
your health and convenience permit. I should not
have answered your last, at this time, had it not ap-
peared necessary that you should be put in possession
of my resolutions, in case of chances offering, at the
present very singular crisis. — With great respect and
esteem, I have the honour to be, sir, your most obliged
humble servant, HENRY BROUGHAM, junior.

" Eight Hon. Sir JOSEPH BANKS,
" Solio Square, London."

All this, however, resulted in nothing ; and so I
continued to work at my distasteful profession, in
hopes that some day or other business might come to
me. But much of my time was occupied with liter-
ary and scientific pursuits, and chiefly by compiling
a work upon the Colonial Policy of the European
Powers. I was employed upon this during the greater
part of 1801 and 1802, relieved only by weekly dis-

JET. 23.] HARRY ERSKINE. 229

cussions at the Speculative Society, where I was a
pretty constant attender and debater ; and during a
portion of the time by arranging with Smith, Jeffrey,
and others the establishment of the ' Edinburgh
Review.'

The Scotch bar afforded the amplest occasion at
that time for profiting by the example of great talent
and professional learning. The violence of party
and exclusive spirit had considerably abated; and
although there was both in society and on the bench
still a tendency to discountenance those who were on
the wrong side of the question, there manifestly was
felt a great improvement upon those times. Harry
Erskine had been removed from his place at the
head of the profession (Dean of Faculty) for merely
attending a public meeting to petition against the
Sedition Bills (called the Pitt and Grenville Bills). I
attended that meeting, and can answer for it that he
strongly urged them to disperse quietly; and there was
nothing like violence of any kind in the proceedings.

Of professional business there was now pretty
nearly an equal distribution ; officially, all was of
course in the hands of the Tory or Dundas party.
The learning and talent were almost equal in both
parties.

Harry Erskine, both in society and in public, was
the most popular advocate — indeed the most popular
man. His education was entirely confined to Edin-
burgh, but he had none of the accent or other provin-
cialisms of the place. His taste was well cultivated,

230 THE SCOTCH BAR. [1800.

but far from severe ; and, like his brother's, his
acquaintance was confined to the English classics.
His speaking was of a very high order. The lan-
guage was admirable, expressive, wholly without
affectation, fluent, never verbose, and his manner
perfect both in action and delivery. It was impos-
sible to have more variety, or to suit the style more
perfectly to the subject and the occasion. In state-
ment and explanation he excelled, and his illustra-
tions were copious.

His wit was renowned, and as it made him the life
of society, placed him as the first favourite of the
Courts ; but it also was used in excess, partly owing
to the audience whom he addressed, the fifteen judges,
who required to be relieved in their dull work, and as
soon as he began, expected to be made gay. Hence a
very great mistake was committed by bystanders, or
generally by those who either heard, or heard of, his
speeches, and fancied they were all joke, all to amuse
the Court, or at best to turn his adversary and his
arguments into ridicule. He was a most argumen-
tative speaker; and if he sometimes did more than
was necessary, he never for an instant lost sight of
the point to be pressed on his audience by all the
means he could employ, and which really were every
weapon of eloquence except declamation and appeals
to the tender feelings. Of course a great cause placed
him more under restraint, and more called forth his
exertions; yet it was singular how much he would-
sometimes labour even the most ordinary matters.

JET. 23.] LORD GILLIES. 231

However, if I were to name the most consummate
exhibition of forensic talent that I ever witnessed,
whether in the skilful conduct of the argument, the
felicity of the copious illustrations, the cogency of the
reasoning, or the dexterous appeal to the prejudices
of the Court, I should without hesitation at once
point to his address (hearing in presence) on Hait-
ian d's case ; and were my friend Lauderdale alive, to
him I should appeal, for he heard it with me, and
came away declaring that his brother Thomas (Lord
Erskine) never surpassed — nay, he thought, never
equalled it.

Gillies was a speaker of a different cast, but of great
excellence. He reasoned clearly and powerfully, but
he also had great resources of declamation and of
sarcasm. I heard his speech on the great case of Sir
John Henderson, the first occasion on which he dis-
tinguished himself for mere oratory, and which drew
from Hope and others the expression that they had
been taken by surprise. The cause was remarkable :
Sir John taking occasion to throw out a challenge
to Hope, who said he trusted he had the courage
to refuse as well as accept such a defiance. Indeed
he had fought a few years before a duel with Wylde
(afterwards professor of civil law), for whom Burke
had conceived the greatest admiration in consequence
of his book on the French Eevolution, cried up as a
triumphant answer to Mackintosh's ' Vindicise Gal-
licse.' It was one great drawback upon Gillies that
he saw all things with the eyes of the Edinburgh

232 THE SCOTCH BAR. [1800.

"Whig party, a thraldom from which Harry Erskine
(as well as his brother, in the southern sphere of that
party) had emancipated himself. I have never ob-
served so great capacity as a speaker, generally so
much cramped and enfeebled, as in G-illies's case.*

William Tait was one of the most accomplished
lawyers of his time. John Clerk had as profound a
knowledge of law, especially the feudal, in all its
branches, and not merely in its theory, but in its
most minute details of practical application; and
would argue points of the greatest difficulty, and pro-
pound original views which sometimes at first startled
himself, but by degrees won his assent and were ob-
stinately persevered in. But he had not that acute-
ness which distinguished Tait, nor that marvellous
fertility of resources, nor that singular clearness of
concise statement, when his legal points were urged
one after another, which I recollect led Moncrieff to
describe his argument as a bundle of the best-polished
and sharpest-pointed spears ; nor that manner, which
was a model of graceful delivery. With all his mer-
its, Clerk was in manner and language singularly
defective.

Of Matthew Eoss, the subtlety and extensive ingen-
uity with extraordinary learning could not be ex-
ceeded ; but he seldom gave oral arguments ; and the
display of his unrivalled acuteness and rich stores of

* Adam Gillies, brother of the historian of Greece, raised to the
bench as Lord Gillies in 1811. A notice of him will be found in
' Peter's Letters.'

JET. 23.] PRESIDENT BLAIR. 233

legal fancy was confined to the papers which, under
the old system of the Court, contained almost all the
arguments of counsel ; while Tait's penetrating acute-
ness, almost preternatural — and quickness, of which
he was sometimes himself the dupe — were, in spoken
argument, constantly remarked with wonder. *

Blair was a speaker of a very high order, without
those qualifications which distinguished Tait. Of a
bold and masculine understanding, extreme sagacity,
and profound reflection, with little fancy in invent-
ing topics, and no great nimbleness in meeting or
escaping objections, he yet always brought to bear
upon his subject a plain and homely vigour, to which
almost all difficulties yielded, and before which almost
all antagonists gave way. His style, too, both of rea-
soning and diction, bore the impress of his nature ;
they were plainly suited to the man ; they were racy
and they were apposite. The hearer never for a mo-
ment doubted that the speaker thoroughly understood
the whole matter in hand, and was perfect master of
it. Despising the vulgar arts of ordinary advocates,
he unfolded the subject to all exactly as he saw it
himself; and his comments had so much force, were
so plain, yet so strong, and clothed with so much
dignity of expression, as well as presented with so
much gravity and yet earnestness of manner, that his
discourse seemed rather judicial than forensic, and he

* William Tait, admitted a member of the Speculative Society in
1776, died in 1800. Was Sheriff of Stirlingshire, and in Parliament
for the Kinghorn burghs in Fifeshire. — History of the Speculative
Society, p. 131. Of Clerk, see above.

234 THE SCOTCH BAR. [1800.

appeared to decide the cause lie was pleading. So
earnest a manner is generally an abatement of dig-
nity, yet in this speaker it proved not so. His vehe-
mence, even though not sustained by fluency and set
off by less felicity of diction, never for an instant led
the hearers or the spectators to undervalue him and
withhold respect, as is wont to happen when, in the
fervour of declamation, the orator, seeming to lose
command of himself, is nearly sure to lose the sway
over his audience. We have spoken of his fluency as
inconsiderable — but this had no bad effect; for, as you
saw a mind struggling with the topic, you perceived
that the ideas were too many to find easy utterance.
There was none of the unpleasant anxiety attending a
hesitating speaker, and which is unpleasing because
it gives alarm. The thoughts were there and strug-
gling for birth, and, in one way or another, were sure
to reach the audience. Occasionally he rose to a
higher pitch than merely the height of argumenta-
tion, if indeed any higher pitch there be. No one
who had the advantage of hearing his noble speech in
the case of Heriot, the descendant of the founder of the
hospital, will easily forget the fine burst of impassioned
and indignant eloquence with which he denounced
the cruel injustice of disputing the founder's wish
for his kindred : " What avails it, my lords, that
a great benefactor of his species should generously
devote the hard earnings of a long life to the sacred
uses of charity, if no sooner laid in the grave than
all he most fondly favoured are repudiated, all his

JET. 23.] -CHARLES HOPE. 235

cherished objects cast into oblivion, all his darling
plans scorned \ " '*

The person who made the greatest impression on
my mind of all these eminent advocates was Charles
Hope, from whom my first idea of eloquence was
derived — that is, of oral as contradistinguished from
written eloquence. He had the advantage of an
English education, which kept his pronunciation
pure : his voice was magnificent. His professional
knowledge ; his manly and vigorous understanding,
which despised trifles, and loved to grapple with
the main body of the subject; his bold and self-
possessed manner, to some judges unpleasing but to
the best not distasteful, and his nervous eloquence —
seldom equalled, perhaps never surpassed, whether we
regard the language or the tones in which it was con-
veyed,— soon placed him in the first rank of advocates.
That I am not using too strong an expression in thus
characterising his oratory, I may venture to give two
proofs. Few men had less party or personal lean-
ing towards another than Laing (the historian) and
Gillies (afterwards the judge), and no one will ques-
tion their capacity to form a judgment of eloquence ;
the latter, indeed, was himself a first-rate speaker.
Both gave it as their opinion, and at a time when
party ran high in Edinburgh, that Charles Hope's
declamation excelled all they had ever heard ; and

* Eobert Blair, Lord President of the Court of Session in 1808,
died suddenly in 1811. Notices of him will be found in 'Peter's
Letters,' Lockhart's ' Life of Scott,' and Cockburn's < Life of Jeffrey.'

236 THE SCOTCH BAR. [1800.

they made no exception whatever, though they had
often heard all the great speakers in Parliament : and
these men were very far from prizing, as of any value,
mere declamation, unaccompanied with argument or
statement. The other fact to which I appeal, is the
admiration expressed both by Mr Pitt and Mr Fox of
his speech in defence of himself and his conduct as
Lord Advocate in 1804, when Mr Whitbread brought
it under the review of the House of Commons. Of
fche opinion expressed by these two great orators there
is no doubt ; but the circumstance to which I allude
is, that several persons present, who had heard him on
former occasions — that is, in Edinburgh — regarded his
speech in the House as a failure, so much impressed
had they been with the merits of his eloquence from
their recent recollections of it. I sat with Horner in
the gallery, and greatly prejudiced against him as he
was, owing to Edinburgh party politics, this was his
clear opinion with my own. But noble as was Hope's
oratory, and richly as any account of it might be
illustrated by examples of its success, facts are known
to me which illustrate qualities far above all excel-
lence, Parliamentary or forensic. When the party to
which he belonged came into office in 1804, he was,
as before, Lord Advocate; and when the place of Jus-
tice-Clerk, the highest judicial place but one, was as
a matter of course offered to him, he declined, insist-
ing that Henry Erskine should be appointed, and was
himself the bearer of the communication, in order that
the party feelings of that excellent man, but stanch

JET. 23.] CHARLES HOPE. 237

partisan, might be consulted. Fully sensible, as he
ever after proved, of this generous conduct, the advice
of the party made him decline, and it was not till
then that Mr Hope was raised to the bench. His
conduct made, as well it might, a deep impression on
Harry Erskine : towards Hope and his family he
ever after retained the warmest feelings, notwith-
standing the hostility, personal as well as political, in
which they had passed their lives.

Nor was this trait in the fine character of the
man confined to his riper years. I remember Dr
Adam telling me an instance of self-sacrifice and
noble feelings ; that when he was a pupil, and had
risen, in the first year of his attendance, to be first
(i.e. dux) of his class, a blind boy of the second year
being next to him, Hope yielded his place, but would
suffer no one else to pass him, and had himself the
first place the year after. The Doctor used to dwell
on this trait as marking a feeling and generous nature,
and it obliterated in his mind all recollection of the
wide difference in political principles which at the
time separated them, and the acrimony which then
prevailed. One can plainly see that the same boy
was the man who afterwards acted the like part to
Harry Erskine. The latter 's disqualification for the
highest place was certainly not natural, but still was
decisive ; it was the belonging to a party that had not
the choice, which Hope's party and himself alone
could exercise.*

* See Appendix XVI.

238 THE SCOTCH BAR. [1800.

Allan Maconochie (afterwards Lord Meadowbank)
was perhaps the most thoroughly grounded in legal
principles, and indeed had received the most general
legal education, of any man at the Scotch, perhaps at
any bar; for beside being deeply versed in Scotch and
civil law, he studied and attended court, and kept
terms, with a view of being ca]led to the English bar,
particularly studying under Lord Mansfield : he also,
for several years, attended the French courts of law,
the Parliament of Paris. His general education,
under the advice of his kinsman, Dr Eobertson, whose
ward he was, had been carefully conducted, and he
was the only private pupil that Adam ever had. He
made him a distinguished classical scholar. He had
even attended lectures on divinity and church history,
and was so familiar with medical subjects that he
lent assistance to an eminent physician (Dr Gregory)
in preparing his thesis on taking his degree. He was
professor of the law of nature and nations, and pre-
pared an elaborate course of lectures on the subject,
In business, which he had to a great extent, he was
distinguished by his great learning, his close reasoning,
and his clear, lucid statement of facts. But his great
fame is in his judicial character, having proved one
of the very best judges that ever sat on any bench ;
nor on Scotch cases is there any one whose authority
weighs to this day more in the Lords.''5"

Among those of less standing at the bar in those

* Allan Maconochie, born 1748 ; raised to the bench by the title of
Lord Meadowbank in 1796 ; died 1816.

JET. 23.] LORD COREHOUSE. 239

days, Cranstoun (afterwards Lord Corehouse) stood
highest. He was a most accomplished lawyer in
every branch of jurisprudence, and his arguments
were admirable in all the qualities most fitted to that
kind of speaking. It was strictly and purely a legal
argument of unbroken fluency ; not so devoid of
ornament, but more various in illustration than Sir
William Grant's, which had copious illustration, but
taken almost entirely from legal topics. Cranstoun's
mind was enlarged by general education, as well as
disciplined by intercourse with speculative men,
especially with Dugald Stewart, who had married his
sister, and with whom he lived in constant and
familiar intercourse. He was allowed to be not only
at the head of legal arguments after Tait had left the
bar, but to be alone in his particular line ; for his
arguments, though never departing from the subject
of Scotch law, were illustrated by appeals to general
maxims of law. Out of the profession his wit was
eminent, and it was refined ; but he hardly ever took
advantage of it even as far as a sarcasm upon, or re-
ductio ad absurdum of, an opposite argument. When
on several occasions he was heard at the bar of the
House of Lords, he created such a sensation as I never
recollect among the great English conveyancers. I
heard Preston rising into enthusiasm in his admira-
tion at what he said possessed every one merit of
argument. A lay hearer gave a less judicious testi-
mony to his merits. Peel having once heard him,
said he was the first speaker since Pitt — which was not

240 THE SCOTCH BAR. [1800.

much more happy in discrimination than if he had
said he was the finest speaker since Catalani or John
Kemble; for assuredly the two things, though each
greatest in its kind, were so absolutely different as to
admit of no comparison. They did not profess to
effect the same purpose; they were incommensurable
quantities."'"

The rare accomplishments of Meadowbank for the
profession have been mentioned. Next to him I am
not aware of any one who had so diligently prepared
himself for it as Reddie. I knew him intimately from
the time we were together at the High School, under
the same masters — Eraser and Adam.

At Eraser's class, during the four years we were in
it, he was without intermission constantly at its head,
no one ever dreaming of entering into competition
with him. In the rector's class, where he only re-
mained one year, his modest nature kept him back;
and "Wishart, whose second year it was, not he, left it
at the head, no one ever conceiving it possible for a
one-year's boy to attempt that place. Next year,
which was my second nominally (I having been de-
tained at home by illness all the first but six weeks),
he had left the school, else there can be no doubt
neither Kcay nor I would have had a chance with
him. At college he applied himself to scientific and
literary subjects diligently, and then to the civil law
and general jurisprudence. lie passed some time

* George Cranstoun, raised to the bench in 1826 ', took the title of
Lord Corehouse.

JET. 23.] JAMES REDDIE. 241

under Professor Miller at Glasgow, and very few men
ever came to the study of the Scotch or English
municipal law after so ample a preparation, by having
examined the legal principles common to all systems.
He began his professional life without any patron or
party to rely upon, or any recommendation but his
own great learning, solid, though not brilliant, talents,
and a sound judgment, which well fitted him alike
to advise a client and to conduct his cause. In the
course of two or three years his extraordinary merit
became known, notwithstanding his modest and re-
tiring nature ; and Mr Hope, then Lord Advocate,
afterwards Lord President, distinguishing him among
his contemporaries without any regard whatever to
the differences of his political opinion, contributed
greatly to his professional success. It was in some
prize causes which involved the questions of neutral
right, so much agitated towards the close of the first
Eevolutionary war, that he became first known in the
courts, and showed himself not more deeply versed in
the doctrines of public (sometimes now termed inter-
national) law, than capable of close and logical reason-
ing in their application. His argument on the right
of search, connected with the case of the Fladoyen,
was veiy long remembered at the Scotch bar, and
at once pointed him out for advancement in the pro-
fession.

Nor can any doubt be entertained that, had he con-
tinued at the bar, the highest place both in practice
and ultimately on the bench would have been within

VOL. I. Q

242 THE SCOTCH BAR. [1800.

his reach. This was held by all men (save one) of
every party as an incontestable proposition ; but his
own modest and little adventurous nature led him to
prefer an humbler path, and he listened to the sugges-
tions of some friends at Glasgow, whom he permitted
to propose him as a candidate for the respectable and
very important office of town-clerk, the assessor of
the magistrates, and presiding judge in the town-
court, the principal civil court of that great com-
mercial city. As soon as it was known that he was
willing to take the office, the other candidates, — six in
number, all professional men of eminence — one of
them sheriff of the county, another, professor of law
in the university, — retired from the contest, and he
was chosen unanimously. He entered upon the duties
of this office in 1804 ; and until 1822, when, by the
appointment of a resident sheriff, many causes were
removed into that court, the number that came be-
fore him, including the small debt jurisdiction, was
nearer six than five thousand a-year, of which many
were of great importance in principle as well as value,
the jurisdiction being unlimited in amount, and in
every kind of personal action. The satisfaction which
his judgments gave was almost unexampled ; they
were rarely appealed from — most rarely altered upon
appeal. In affirming one of those which ultimately
came before the House of Lords (1833), the Lord
Chancellor observed that it " well became even the
most eminent judges upon the bench to approach with
the greatest caution and deference a judgment upon

JET. 23.] LORD JEFFREY. 243

a point of law pronounced by so distinguished a
lawyer ;" and this remark met with the universal con-
currence of the profession.*

The great professional success of Jeffrey was owing
to extraordinary abilities carefully cultivated, and his
literary superiority was helped by the opportunities
which the Scotch bar affords of cultivating letters
without interrupting its practice. The law is not so
jealous a mistress there as with us in England : the
literary reputation which would inevitably prove
fatal in Westminster Hall, rather aids than impedes
the lawyer's progress in Edinburgh. So at least it
was in Jeffrey's time ; but I am not aware of any
other in which great eminence was attained in both
departments. Sir Walter Scott had no success at the
bar ; and the works of Monboddo and Kaimes were
rather the fruit of their leisure, when they had been
raised to the bench, than of the intervals between
session and session while struggling at the bar.
Jeffrey had studied partly at Edinburgh, partly at
Glasgow, and was for some time at Queen's College,
Oxford. He had well grounded himself in the prin-
ciples both of the civil and the Scottish law, and he
had diligently applied his great talents to the cultiva-
tion of eloquence, as well in speech as in written com-

* It is to be regretted that everything about the personal history of
Reddie is lost after his leaving the Edinburgh circle. Those who re-
member the portions of that circle remaining, between thirty and forty
years ago, will remember his name often referred to in the same tone of
high praise. He died in Calcutta, where he was First Judge of the
Court of Small Causes, 28th Nov. 1852 (obit. Gent. Mag.)

244 THE SCOTCH BAR. [1800.

position. His classical education was that of an
accomplished scholar. With all the poets especially,
whether of Greece or of Rome, he had a most familiar
acquaintance ; and his skill in these languages re-
mained unimpaired through after-life, insomuch that
to the last he read for relaxation the Greek classics
almost as easily as the Latin. It was probably from
his natural love of poetry that he somewhat under-
valued the great orators of the Attic school ; partly,
too, from a proneness to paradox, allied with the
extraordinary ingenuity of his mind and his disposi-
tion to grapple with great difficulties. In the Specula-
tive Society he bore a most distinguished part ; and
its members never can forget the brilliant display so
often made in that seminary, of his singular readiness
in debate, the subtlety of his reasoning, and the
extraordinary liveliness of his fancy — a fancy ever
under control, and used always for the purpose of
aiding the argument, or arriving by a short route at
the conclusion. I well remember a speech in which
the resources of the Russian empire having been
largely dwelt upon as proving its foreign influence,
and the mild course of criminal justice under the
Empress Elizabeth, as showing how a despotism
might be administered in mercy, he gave such a
picture of the colossal body as, without reducing its
dimensions, made it viewed without alarm ; and such
a sketch of Elizabeth's clemency as rendered the
Siberian journey more horrible to contemplate than
the passage across the Stygian ferry. The picture of

JET. 23.] ' EDINBURGH REVIEW/ 245

Russia was so full of fancy, the comparisons intro-
duced so various, so happy, each more unexpected
than the last, that we all listened in breathless silence
and wonder, until our feelings of admiration and
astonishment, reflected upon the speaker, for a while
suspended his utterance. On another occasion, the
question regarding the obligation of representatives to
obey the instructions of their constituents, his argu-
ment was the usual one, but urged with a closeness
and a force amounting to seeming demonstration, by
carefully concealing the fundamental error of assuming
the representative to be only commissioned to speak
for his constituents, and not to deliberate for them.
A most conclusive answer was given by Henry Mac-
kenzie, perfectly well reasoned, and happily turning
into ridicule the meeting of men to debate, when
fettered by the orders under which they assembled —
a meeting which was utterly absurd, if it did not at
once end in a vote without a word of discussion.

He had been eight years at the bar, and had during
the more recent of those years obtained a fair share
of practice. He married in 1801 — a bold step — for
his father was unable to assist him ; his wife (Miss
Catherine Wilson) had no fortune, and his professional
income did not exceed £100 a-year. They took a
house — or, to speak more correctly, a third floor or
flat — in Buccleuch Place; but in May 1802 they re-
moved to an upper story in Queen Street.

This brings me to a subject on which I naturally
feel deep interest — the history of the 'Edinburgh

246 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF [1802.

Review.' A somewhat inaccurate and even fanciful
account of the origin of the Review is given by
Sydney Smith as follows: —

" Towards the end of my residence in Edinburgh,
Brougham, Jeffrey, and myself happened to meet in
an eighth or ninth story or flat in Buccleuch Place,
the then elevated residence of Mr Jeffrey. I proposed
that we should set up a review : this was acceded
to with acclamation. I was appointed editor; and
remained long enough in Edinburgh to edit the first
number. The motto I proposed was, ' Tenui musam
meditamur avena' — We cultivate literature on a
little oatmeal. This was too near the truth to be
admitted, and so we took our grave motto from Pub-
lius Syrus, of whom none of us had ever read a line.
When I left Edinburgh, the Review fell into the
stronger hands of Jeffrey and Brougham, and reached
the highest point of popularity and success."

Now nothing can be more imaginary than nearly
the whole of the above account.

In the first place, there never was a house eight or
nine stories high in Buccleuch Place, or in any of
that portion of the new town of Edinburgh. No
house at that time exceeded three stories.

In the second place, Smith never was appointed
editor. He read over the articles, and so far may be
said to have edited the first number ; but regularly
constituted editor he never was, — for, with all his
other rare arid remarkable qualities, there was not a
man among us less fitted for such a position. He

/ET. 24.] THE ' EDINBURGH REVIEW/ 247

was a very moderate classic ; he had not the smallest
knowledge of mathematics or of any science. He
could no more have edited, — that is, sat in judgment
upon Play fair's article on f Mascheroni's Geometry/
No. 17, p. 161 ; or on Delambert's paper on the 'Arc
of the Meridian/ No. 18, p. 373; or on Bentley's
'Hindu Astronomy/ No. 20, p. 455, than he could
have written the 'Principia/

He was an admirable joker; he had the art of
placing ordinary things in an infinitely ludicrous
point of view. I have seen him at dinner at Foston,
(his living near York) drive the servants from the
room with the tears running down their faces, in
peals of inextinguishable laughter : but he was too
much of a jack-pudding. On one occasion he was
the high -sheriff's chaplain, and had to preach the
assize sermon. I remember the bar, who were present
in York Minster, being rather startled at hearing him
give out as his text, " And a certain lawyer stood up
and tempted him!" But I am bound to say the
sermon was excellent and much to the purpose.

Whatever faults he may have had, he had too much
good sense to be ashamed of his name ; he used jok-
ingly to say, " The Smiths have no right to crests or
coat-armour, for they always sealed their letters with
their thumbs!"*

I think we owed the motto for the Eeview to the
painstaking and solemn Horner, who, being as in-
capable of understanding a joke as Smith was of
writing the ' Principia/ discovered in Publius Syrus,

* See Appendix XVII.

248 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF [1802.

a comic writer of the time of Csesar, the motto
which we adopted, and which Horner thought better
than Smith's " oatmeal" suggestion. Smith left Edin-
burgh in 1803. He had negotiated with Manners,
one of the firm of Manners & Miller, booksellers in the
Parliament Close, Edinburgh, who at first undertook
the publication, but afterwards gave it up, on seeing
that some works were attacked, which their firm was
engaged in publishing.

Smith then made an agreement with Longman,
who was his relation, to act in conjunction with
Constable, who was fixed upon as printer and pub-
lisher in Edinburgh. The following extract from a
letter from Jeffrey to Horner will throw some light
on the subject : —

" EDINBUEGH, April 9, 1802.

" DEAR HORNER, — I have been cutting at my quill
for these five minutes, pondering with the most intense
stupidity what apology I should make for not having
written to you before. The truth is, though it is
anything but an apology, that I have written none of
my reviews yet, and that I was afraid to tell you so.
I began to Mounier, however, this morning ; and feel
the intrepidity of conscious virtue so strong in me
already, that I can sit down and confess all my
enormities to you. I must first tell you about the
Review, though, that you may be satisfied that it
holds the first place in my affection. We are in a
miserable state of backwardness, you must know, and
have been giving some symptoms of despondency;

JET. 24.] THET^EDINBURGH REVIEW/ 249

various measures have been tried, at least, against
the earliness of our intended day of publication ; and
hints have been given of a delay, that I am quite
afraid would prove fatal. Something is done, how-
ever ; and a good deal, I hope, is doing. Smith has
gone through more than half his task. So has Hamil-
ton. Allen has made some progress : and Murray
and myself, I believe, have studied our parts, and
tuned our instruments, and are almost ready to begin.
On the other hand, Thomson is sick : Brown has
engaged for nothing but Miss Baillie's plays; and
Timothy has engaged for nothing, but professed it to
be his opinion, the other day, that he would never put
pen to paper in our cause. Brougham must have a
sentence to himself; and I am afraid you will not
think it a pleasant one. You remember how cheer-
fully he approved of our plan at first, and agreed to
give us an article or two without hesitation. Three
or four days ago, I proposed two or three books that
I thought would suit him : he answered with perfect
good -humour that he had changed his view of our
plan a little, and rather thought that he should
decline to have any connection with it.

— Very faithfully yours, F. JEFFREY/'

Now, my reason at that time for declining to be of
the connection was, that no security was given me
for the sole and undivided management being in
Jeffrey's hands. It was not made clear to me, in the

250 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF [1802.

first place, that the booksellers were to be mere instru-
ments, entirely in subservience to us, and exercising
not only no control, but no influence of any kind;
for this was the fundamental object of the Eeview.
Next, all former works of this description had been
notoriously, more or less, under the influence of the
publishers of books, who were certain to shape their
course according to their interest, so far as, not merely
to suppress or make mention of their publications,
but even in many instances to distribute praise and
censure at their instigation. Lastly, it was possible
that Jeffrey's control might be interfered with by
certain of our body, in whom the same confidence
could not be reposed, either as regarded their opinions
or their discretion. In the course of the summer,
ample security being afforded on all these three points,
Horner accordingly thus wrote, early in autumn, as
follows to Allen, who was then at Paris with the
Hollands : —

" 1st September 1802.

" Our Keview goes on tolerably well. In conse-
quence of Constable's own arrangement, it is not to
appear till the 1st of November ; but more than half
the first number is already printed. I wish you
would advertise the publication in some of the Paris
newspapers or journals in the manner that you shall
judge most likely, if there is any chance to excite a
little curiosity about it. Jeffrey has written three or
four excellent articles, and Brougham is now an efli-

JET. 24.] THE 'EDINBURGH REVIEW/ 251

cient and zealous member of the party. We regret
your loss to a degree that I shall not express to you,
though we do not altogether despair of receiving a
few short critiques on such foreign publications as
you happen at any rate to read with care. I par-
ticularly wish we had from you a review of Ware's
strange paper on the blind boy restored to sight.
Brougham has selected from the same volume of the
'Philosophical Transactions/ Herschel's discovery of
the sympathy between the spots of the sun and the
prices of wheat in Eeading market.

-Yours ever, ERA. HORNER."

These preliminary difficulties being thus explained
and disposed of, I now proceed to give some account
of the establishment of the Review, of its early sup-
porters, and their contributions.

I can never forget Buccleuch Place, for it was there
one stormy night, in March 1802, that Sydney Smith
first announced to me his idea of establishing a critical
periodical or review of works of literature and science.
I believe he had already mentioned this to Jeffrey and
Horner; but on that night the project was for the first
time seriously discussed by Smith, Jeffrey, and me.
I at first entered warmly into Smith's scheme. Jeffrey,
by nature always rather timid, was full of doubts and
fears. It required all Smith's overpowering vivacity
to argue and laugh Jeffrey out of his difficulties.
There would, he said, be no lack of contributors.

252 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF [1802.

There was himself, ready to write any number of
articles, and to edit the whole ; there was Jeffrey,
facile princeps in all kinds of literature ; there was
myself, full of mathematics, and everything relating
to colonies ; there was Horner for political economy,
Murray for general subjects ; besides, might we not,
from our great and never - to - be - doubted success,
fairly hope to receive help from such leviathans as
Playfair, Dugald Stewart, Eobison, Thomas Brown,
Thomson, and others ? All this was irresistible,
and Jeffrey could not deny that he had already been
the author of many important papers in existing
periodicals.

The Review was thus fairly begun ; yet Jeffrey's
inconceivable timidity not only retarded the publica-
tion of the first number (which, although projected in
March, was not published till October), but he kept
prophesying failure in the most disheartening way,
and seemed only anxious to be freed from the engage-
ment he and the rest of us had entered into with
Constable to guarantee him four numbers as an ex-
periment. Various other minor obstacles (such as
Horner's absence in London and Allen's in Paris)
arose which for a time almost threatened the aban-
donment of the undertaking; but at length a sufficient
number of articles were prepared to be revised by
Smith, and the first number came out early in October
1802.

The success was far beyond any of our expectations.
It was so great that Jeffrey was utterly dumfounded,

4LT. 24.] THE * EDINBURGH REVIEW/ 253

for he had predicted for our journal the fate of the
original 'Edinburgh Eeview/ which, born in 1755,
died in 1756, having produced only two numbers !
The truth is, the most sanguine amongst us, even
Smith himself, could not have foreseen the greatness
of the first triumph any more than we could have
imagined the long and successful career the Eeview
was afterwards to run, or the vast reforms and im-
provements in all our institutions, social as well as
political, it was destined to effect. The tone it took
from the first was manly and independent. When it
became as much political as literary, its attitude was
upright and fearless: not a single contributor ever
hesitated between the outspoken expression of his
opinions and the consequences these might entail on
his success in life, whether at the bar, the pulpit, or
the senate.

The great importance of the Eeview can only be
judged of, by recollecting the state of things at the
time Smith's bold and sagacious idea was started.
Protection reigned triumphant — Parliamentary repre-
sentation in Scotland had scarcely an existence — the
Catholics were unemancipated — the test acts unre-
pealed — men were hung for stealing a few shillings in
a dwelling-house — no counsel allowed to a prisoner
accused of a capital offence — the horrors of the slave
trade tolerated — the prevailing tendencies of the age,
jobbery and corruption.

To the improvement of some, and the removal of
others of such evils, the ' Edinburgh Eeview ' has not

254 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF [1802.

a little contributed. To Sydney Smith much is there-
fore due. The share he had in this good work has
never been sufficiently appreciated. He was a very
remarkable man, a great lover of freedom, but a still
more fervent lover of truth. He was not led away
by the false appearance of liberty which the danger-
ous and mischievous doctrines of the French Ee volu-
tion too widely spread. He looked upon all that had
been going on in France with calm good sense ; and
in all his writings, while he was the unflinching advo-
cate of every sound principle, he earnestly protested
against the dangers to which true liberty was exposed
by the mistaken zeal of its first worshippers.

I consider that the Review owed much of its con-
tinuing success to the wise advice which Smith ad-
ministered to Constable at the conclusion of his short
reign as quasi editor, and during the discussion of the
arrangement about to be made with Jeffrey. The
substance of this advice was, that a permanent editor
should be engaged at a liberal salary, and that every
contributor should be paid ten or twelve guineas
a-sheet.

Constable, who, as I have stated, was the publisher
in Edinburgh, was more liberal-minded than any of his
craft, and he had the sagacity to see the good sense
of Smith's advice. From the great sale of the first
two numbers, he justly calculated upon a considerable
increase in future ; but he knew that this could only
be secured by inducing the best men to enrol them-
selves as contributors, and that however agreeable to

JET. 24.] THE 'EDINBURGH REVIEW.' 255

their vanity anonymous fame might be, yet the solid
gratification produced by liberal pay would be quite
as effectual. I think the editor began at £300 a-year,
and the contributors at 10 guineas a-sheet; but before
long these payments were raised. The sums paid to
the writers was left entirely to Jeffrey.

Even as late as September the progress was very
slow, although by that time part of the first number
had been printed; but articles did not come in as
quickly as Smith expected, so that, hard-worked as I
then was with my ' Colonial Policy/ I was obliged to
write several articles in addition to the two ('Olivier's
Travels ' and ' "Wood's Optics ') I had prepared as my
contribution. To these I added, ' Horneman's Travels,'
'Acerbi's Travels/ Tlayfair on the Huttonian Theory/
and an article on the ' Sugar Colonies/

In September 1855, John Murray was staying at
Brougham. We were talking one day of the selec-
tions I had recently been asked to make from my
articles in the ' Edinburgh Eeview/ for publication by
Messrs Griffin, when my brother suggested that Mur-
ray and I should sit down and put the names of their
authors to all the early numbers, he and I being the
last survivors of the first contributors. We worked
at this for ten or twelve days. Murray sent to Edin-
burgh for some contemporary notes he Had; and these,
with our own recollections, enabled us to make a very
full and correct list.

Eef erring to this I find that the writers in the early

256 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF [1802.

numbers were, Sydney Smith, Jeffrey, Homer, Mur-
ray, Thomas Brown (successor to Dugald Stewart),
Hamilton (afterwards Professor of Oriental Languages
at the East India College, Hertfordshire), John Thom-
son* (afterwards Professor of Surgery in the Univer-
sity of Edinburgh), and myself; afterwards we were
joined by John Allen* (then Professor of Physiology,
afterwards Lord Holland's family doctor), Walter
Scott, Emsley, Play fair, Hallam, Malcolm Laing,* Sir
William Drummond, Sir John Stoddart, John Eyre,
Lord Aberdeen, and Dr Duncan. When we got
beyond the twentieth number we had other contribu-
tors, such as John Leslie, Malthus, Mill, Bloomfield,
and Mackintosh.*

To the four first numbers Smith contributed
eighteen articles ; namely —

No. L Art. 2. Dr Parr's Spital Sermon.
„ 3. Goodwin's reply to Parr.
„ 9. Kennel's Discourses.

„ 12. Bowles on the Peace.

„ 16. Dr Langford's Anniversary Sermon.

„ 18. Public Characters of 1801-2.

„ 20. Nares's Sermon.
No. II. „ 2. Sonnini's Travels.
„ 6. Lewis's Alfonso.

„ 10. Necker's Last Views.
No. III. „ 2. Collins's New South Wales.

„ 6. Fie've'e, Lettres sur 1'Angleterre.

„ 14. Percival's Account of Ceylon.

„ 17. Delphine, by Madame de Stael.

„ 22. Sturges on the Eesidence of the Clergy,

* In reference to the names in the text, see Appendix XVIII.

T. 24.] THE ' EDINBURGH REVIEW/ 257

No. IV. Art. 2. Catteau, Tableau des Etats Danoia.
„ 4. Wittman's Travels.
„ 10. Edgeworth on Irish Bulls.

Jeffrey, sixteen; namely — •

No. I. Art. 1. Mounier, Sur la Ee volution de la France.

„ 6. Baldwin's Egypt — jointly with Brougham.

„ 8. Southey's Thalaba.

„ 13. Herrensch wand's Address.

„ 19. Bonnet on Eevolutions.

„ 22. Mackenzie's Voyages.
No. II. „ 3. Paley's Natural Theology.

„ 8. Denon's Travels in Egypt.

„ 14. Hunter's Poems.

„ 22. Madame Necker : Reflexions sur le Divorce.
No. III. „ 1. Gentz : Etat de 1'Europe — jointly with
Brougham.

„ 5. Hayley's Life of Cowper.

„ 21. Thelwall's Poems.

„ 23. Sir John Sinclair's Essays.
No. IV. „ 1. Miss Baillie's Plays on the Passions.

„ 21. Works of Lady M. W. Montagu.

Horner, seven ; namely —

No. I. Art. 7. Irvine on Emigration.

„ 11. Christison on Parish Schools.

„ 14. The Utility of Country Banks.

„ 25. Thornton on Paper Credit.

No. II. „ 16. Canard : Principes d'Economie Politique.

No. III. None.

No. IV. „ 11. Lord King on Bank Restriction.

18. The Trial of Peltier for Libel.

I contributed twenty-one, and four jointly with
others; namely—

VOL. I. U

25<S THE ESTABLISHMENT OF [1802.

No. I. Art. 5. Olivier's Travels.

„ 6. Baldwin's Egypt — jointly with Jeffrey.

„ 21. Horneman's Travels.

„ 23. Wood's Optics.

„ 24. Acerbi's Travels.

„ 26. Playfair's Illustrations of the Huttonian
Theory.

„ 27. Crisis of the Sugar Colonies.
No. II. „ 9. Politique de tous les Cabinets de TEurope.

„ 12. "Woodhouse on Imaginary Quantities.

„ 15. Herschell on the New Planets.

„ 17. Bakerian Lecture on Light and Colours.

„ 23. Transactions of the Eoyal Society of Edin-
burgh : Ivory's Solution of Kepler's Pro-
blem, and Wallace's Algebraic Formula.

No. III. „ 1. Gentz: Etat de 1'Europe — jointly with
Jeffrey.

„ 3. Shepherd's Life of Poggio Braccioline —
jointly with Perceval.

„ 8. Wollaston on Prismatic Eeflection.

„ 9. Wollaston on the Oblique Eeflection of
Iceland Crystal.

„ 10. Hatchett's Analysis of a New Metal.

„ 11. Guineas an Incumbrance to Commerce.

„ 13. Eitson on Abstinence from Animal Food —
jointly with Jeffrey.

„ 26. Stewart's Life of Eobertson.

No. IV. „ 6. Transactions of the American Philosophical
Society.

„ 8. Dallas's History of the Maroons.

„ 12. Walker's Poems.

„ 15. Davis's Travels.

„ 16. Fuseli's Lectures — jointly with Dr Parry.

This last article was written by Parry ; but I was
requested to put a little salt into it.

I find that in the first twenty numbers Jeffrey

JET. 24.] THE ( EDINBURGH REVIEW/ 259

wrote seventy -five articles; Smith, twenty- three;
Homer, fourteen; and I, eighty.

The great success of this publication, three editions
being immediately exhausted, and a large permanent
circulation established, and the influence of the work
in after-times, are matters well known and universally
felt. The first effect of our Review, absolutely inde-
pendent of the trade and of any party in the country,
local or general, was to raise the character and to
increase the influence of periodical criticism. The
purpose to which this influence was devoted was the
promotion of sound and liberal opinions upon all
questions in Church and State, leaving the doctrines
of religion untouched, and assuming the duty of sub-
mission to the constitution as fixed and permanent,
the frame of our government only being subject to
decorous and temperate comment or discussion. The
severity of the criticism on books and their authors
was much, and often justly, complained of; but no
one could accuse it of personal malice, or any sinister
motives. The rule was inflexibly maintained, never
to suffer the insertion of any attack by a writer who
was known, or even justly suspected, to have a per-
sonal difference with the author, or other sinister
motive ; and if any person had been found to have
kept concealed such cause of bias upon his critical
judgment, no contribution would ever afterwards
have been received from that person. So, if any one
had practised the deception of concealing the real
authorship, he was placed under the ban of prohibi-

2<5o THE ESTABLISHMENT OF [1802.

tion. The first two or three numbers were given
gratuitously, and neither the writers nor the editor
would receive any remuneration. Afterwards, as I
have before mentioned, for five or six years, the editor
had a salary of £300 a-year, and the writers received
ten guineas a-sheet of sixteen pages. These sums
were in the succeeding years raised, the editor to five
hundred, and the contributors to twenty; so that
upwards of ninety thousand pounds must have been
paid for the publication of this work. There may
have been occasionally some difference in the rate of
payment of different writers, though I have no reason
to believe in any such. But one rule was absolute —
no one was allowed to refuse payment at the usual
rate. Professional men, or judges in the receipt of
the largest incomes, or private gentlemen — Komilly,
Denman, Drummond, Aberdeen — were as much re-
quired to receive their payment as any writer who
made letters his profession.

It was one benefit conferred upon literature and
science, that men were led to work at the production
of dissertations, often of treatises, interesting and
popular in their composition, who might never have
otherwise engaged in such works. Men who would
not think of publishing a book, had a place ready to
receive their writings, and a place of respectability, in
which their works appeared in decent company. If
they desired concealment, their secret was inviolably
kept ; but so many were well known as members of
society, and mixing with it daily, that there was the

;ET. 24.] THE ' EDINBURGH REVIEW/ 261

responsibility, the want of which is often complained
of in periodical publication. The work was really in
one important respect unlike former Eeviews ; it con-
tained what these only very rarely had, dissertations
on the subject, as well as accounts of and criticisms
upon the works reviewed; and this, doubtless, was
carried so far as to interfere with the main object of
a periodical article. I remember Sackville, Lord
Thanet, saying he waited to see the quarterly pam-
phlets before he made up his mind on such and such
a matter ; for the rival journal pursued the same
plan. But this contributed largely to turn men's
thoughts towards engaging in written discussion.
That most of the writers to whom payment was little
or no inducement, thus became authors, there can be
no doubt. Horner often said that his dissertation
would in all probability have been in his portfolio
had the Eeview not existed ; but this was one of
the instances in which, as Denman observed, our
good friend, being wholly incapable of deceiving
others, now and then deceived himself; for there
were no such writings found among his papers ; just
as Hallam charged him with being the author of a
self-denying ordinance, as he called it, that no man at
the bar should ever take office, and soon after our
friend himself did so — contrary to the advice of his
oldest friends. He afterwards, on giving up his office,
described it as the cause of his having no success at
the bar — an exaggerated view, undoubtedly; but cer-
tainly he had much less success than his talents and

262 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF [1802.

learning deserved. Those talents were of a very
exalted cast, and his powers of labour, while his health
remained unbroken, were fully equal to any demand
upon them. His merits in spotless integrity, perfect
temper, sound judgment, and devotion to his prin-
ciples, have been often and fully acknowledged even
by political adversaries, and never exaggerated by
the partiality of friends. But some of the most zeal-
ous (Cockburn, for example) have greatly underrated
his talents, and really suppressed some of the most
extraordinary instances of their successful display.

To return to the Eeview, it may be observed that,
beside the exception taken to occasional vehemence
of the censures on works, there arose some doubts
upon the orthodoxy of the opinions in religion, and
objections to the undeniable bias against the existing
policy and ministerial arrangements. The attacks on
the Methodists by Sydney Smith gave great offence
to a large and powerful body, the Evangelical party,
especially in England. They complained, and most
justly, that he had confounded the Calvinistic with
the Arminian Methodists, charging the former with
all the views of the latter, which such men as
Wilberforce and Henry Thornton, Babington, Ste-
phen, and Macaulay were just as incapable of fall-
ing into as Sydney Smith himself. * The Eeview
suffered not only from this great mistake, but from

* The article is in the Keview for January 1808, in the form of a
review on ' Causes of the Increase of Methodism and Dissension,' by
Robert Acklem Ingrain, B.D.

JET. 24.] THE ' EDINBURGH REVIEW.' 263

the tone of levity on sacred subjects almost unavoid-
ably assumed by any one arguing against great and
manifest errors, sometimes of a ludicrous description.
There were frequent complaints in Edinburgh, much
strengthened by the known, and indeed absurd,
opinions of Sir William Drummond, who was a fre-
quent contributor, though only upon classical ques-
tions. A worthy and pious friend having taken
exception to some passages not written by Drummond,
the latter used to call him the " Eeverend Lord." I
recollect Ward, a person not remarkable for the de-
corum of his language on religious subjects, quoting
on his friend Dry (the nickname of Drummond)
''Nemo novit Deum, sunt etiam qui de eo impure
male existimant" This was about the time of Drum-
mond's taking the title of the Crescent, which he had
received at Constantinople while ambassador — an as-
sumption which Ward announced to us by saying,
" Drummond having a devil, now calls himself Sir
William."

Whatever objections men might take to the secular
or the spiritual opinions of the Eeview, or to the
causticity of the criticisms, from the charge of being
a party tool, or of ministering to personal feelings, it
was always free. The works published by its con-
ductors were either not reviewed at all (as was the
case with my own work on 'Colonial Policy7), or
only, when the subject required their being inserted,
referred to without any comment. The decided part
taken on some great questions, especially on slavery

264 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF [1802.

and the slave trade, unavoidably gave rise to warm
panegyric of certain individuals, and invectives
against others ; but these persons were wholly un-
connected with the journal; and as often as they
adopted views, or espoused a course of policy differ-
ent from that maintained by the Eeview, their merits
on subjects in which the reviewer agreed did not at
all mitigate its censure when they differed, of which
Stephen afforded a remarkable instance, his Orders in
Council calling down upon him a censure as strong
as his great services in slavery always obtained most
just applause. If I rightly recollect, Wilberforce
himself was visited with censure of some severity, at
the time of the Yorkshire contest in 1807, in con-
sequence of the part he had taken upon the con-
stitutional question, which occasioned a change of
Ministry, and the dissolution of Parliament.*

Jeffrey's labours as editor were unceasing, and I
will venture to say, if we had searched all Europe, a
better man, in every respect, could not have been
found. As a critic he was unequalled; and, take
them as a whole, I consider his articles were the best
we had. As an instance of the care he took in revis-
ing and preparing contributions, I remember an article
on the Memoirs of Prince Eugene was sent to Jeffrey

* In the number for July 1812 there is an article on "A Letter to
H. Brougham, Esq., M.P., on the subject of Parliamentary Reform, by
William Boscoe, Esq." Among other instances of the costliness of elec-
tions is, — " The committee which conducted Mr Wilberforce's election
for Yorkshire in 1807 state their expenses at fifty-eight thousand, with
every resource of the most rigid economy and great voluntary assistance
in labour" (p. 137).

JET. 24.] THE ' EDINBURGH REVIEW. 265

by Mill. Jeffrey gave it to Dr Ferrier of Manchester
to revise ; and when he got it back from Dr Ferrier,
he himself corrected it, and added the moral reflections
and the concluding observations on the new Paris
edition of the work !

The great and increasing success of this journal,
while it mightily raised him in the public estimation,
in no way interfered with his progress towards exten-
sive practice at the bar. He was afterwards Dean of
Faculty, Lord Advocate, and a Judge, and one of the
ablest and the best that ever sat on the Scotch bench.

It was the custom to say he had failed in Parlia-
ment. I recollect meeting Sir Eobert Peel the night
he made his first speech ; and in answer to my in-
quiry as to its success, he said that Jeffrey had fired
over their heads, and was too clever for his audience.

After the July number came out, I received the
following letter from Jeffrey : —

" EDINBURGH, August 5, 1804.

"DEAR BROUGHAM, — I am very sorry that your
letter of the 24th ulto. should have arrived while I
was in the country, both on account of the delay
which consequently took place in delivering the en-
closure for George Street, and because I find by your
subsequent letter, which I received this morning, that
there is but little chance of my being able to reach
you by letter within the four seas. I believe I have
never thanked you enough for your great and exem-
plary services in the campaign which is just termi-

266 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF [18.04.

nated. I was so hurried while it was going on, that
I really had not leisure to estimate them properly;
and it is only since the number has been out that I
discovered myself to have been indebted to you for
no less than six sheets. I have been prevented, too,
from the same cause, from deprecating your indul-
gence for the liberty I took in suppressing and altering
a few sentences in the beginning of your Lauderdale.
They did not bear at all upon the argument, and I
was really anxious that there should be no pretext for
complaining of anything personal or contemptuous in
the manner.* I have not yet seen any of the other
reviews; but it will give me great pleasure to find
that the confutation, which must, I think, be the
most masterly and convincing, is also the most tem-
perate and polite. It will amuse you to hear that I
was presented to the peer, and spent an hour in con-
versation with him, the very day on which the Eeview
came out. I was anxious to see him afterwards, but
though I remained till yesterday in his neighbour-
hood, I never had an opportunity of meeting with
him. He seems to have shut himself up immediately
on receipt of the book, and had not emerged when I
left that part of the country.

" I forget what I said to Horner, but I am sure I
excepted Lauderdale from the sentence of mediocrity.

" Of that article he knew my sentiments long before

* Referring to a review of ' An Inquiry into the Nature and Origin
of Public Wealth, and into the Means and Causes of its Increase,' by
the Earl of Lauderdale.— 'Edinburgh Review' for July 1804, p. 343.

/ET. 26.] THE £ EDINBURGH REVIEW/ 267

its publication. I should ask pardon of you and John
Playfair for the phrase, however, even after the ex-
ception of it had cased it with vigorous propriety;
but all I meant was, that there was scarcely any
article that was likely to make a noise, or to become
very popular, which, if it be true at all, is in many
instances the fault of the subject.

" I am glad you think my ' Slave Trade ' passable.
You see I have not ventured an inch beyond you, and
have aimed at nothing more than a clear and popular
exposition of the most striking parts of your pamphlet.

"I am sorry that you think P. so very objectionable.
I was a little staggered with the colonisation of India,
but that project was the very text and spinal marrow
of the article, and could not possibly be separated
from it ; besides, I think the public is too quiescent
and timid in its ignorance of such subjects, and I
cannot help thinking you a good deal too decisive.
India cannot be colonised, indeed, like a country that
is thinly or barbarously peopled ; and that distinction
ought to have been considered.'"

" But it may be colonised in a sort, by intermarriage
and the constitution of small landed estates. I do
not believe P. is very profoundly prepared to answer
objections or follow out his scheme in detail ; but the
suggestion, I think, may do some good, and in my
heart I believe that the poor youth had no wicked
designs whatever in indicting this article. What

* Alluding, apparently, to an article in the Review for July 1804,
in which colonisation is suggested. — See ' Edinburgh Review,' iv. 305.

268 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF [1804.

designs, may I ask, are imputed to him by the chair-
man?

"As to pious interpolations in Chatham, I utterly
deny the charge. The only alterations I made in that
article were an abridging what you say of Granville,
and investing some of your vital Christianity with a
more profane phraseology. It is very edifying to see
your surprise at your own goodness. *

" You are very much mistaken if you suppose that
I countenance Wilberforce or his principles. I have
much respect for his talents, and great veneration for
his character. I shall read his book ' at a convenient
season/ but scarcely expect to get the length of

W or King Agrippa. In the mean time I am

very much flattered by the favourable opinion of such
men, and should be sincerely sorry to do anything to
scandalise them. I have no doubt you may have
Washington, and it will be better perhaps to let it get
to a greater length before it be cut down. I am told
it is dolefully tedious and ill written. I shall venture
a response on Sir W. if no Oriental competition pre-
sents itself. I have better hopes of young Hamilton.
You say nothing of Barrow's China. I hanker after
it; not because I have read it or heard anything
very prepossessing about it (for I have neither), but
chiefly because I wish to be put upon some tack that
will force me to make up my mind about that absurd
people. I shall also, if you wish it, try to give an
abstract of your ' Colonial Policy/ short and simple ;

* Review on * Chatham's Letters,' July 1804, article 9.

JET. 26.] THE ' EDINBURGH REVIEW/ 269

and if the time be not past, I have no objection to say
a word or two to Stephens opportunely. This will be
enough for my share, I think. I thank you heartily
for your recruiting services. It is after the former
failure of your E. S. men I am afraid to depend upon
them after you are out of the way of dunning them.
Might I entreat you to remind them yourself, and to
point out the necessity of being early, as I may other-
wise be obliged in prudence to fill all the places. I
am greatly elated with the prospect of a paper from

"W . I wrote, in a pacific and friendly epistle to

Dr Eeeves, my hope that his indignation was abated,
and his resolution to desert us was withdrawn. He
has made me no answer, whether out of scorn and
abhorrence or to get time to consult his friend, I know
not. I have done my duty. If he fail I shall want
a medical reviewer. Do you have any such in Lon-
don ? We shall take no more of Dr R.'s I think I
must have a man that can write — if Fowler of Salis-
bury were willing, he is very able. I think I shall set

M upon him. By the way, is any arrangement

made with W or G about S 's book ?

We must have some scientific pot-hooks this time for
the refreshment of the Bailie. May I depend upon

the account of L , and has L himself fixed to

do Yolney or anything else ? You see of what impor-
tance you are to me by the number of questions I am
obliged to ask when you are going away. What are
you going to do in Germany 1 Do not stay longer than
three months, for God's sake; and give us a glimpse of

270 THE 'EDINBURGH REVIEW/ [1804.

you here in your transit to the south. I wish you all
sort of amusement. Try and establish the Keview some-
where on the Continent. Get a Hamburg journalist to
puff it, and, above all, write often to me what you are
doing. If you will send me an address I shall write
you as long letters as a Turkish spy. God bless you,
my dear Brougham! and learn never to take anything
amiss that I say or do to you. — Ever most faithfully
yours, F. JEFFREY.

" P.S. — Murray is in Argyleshire, and most of the
faithful scattered/'

2; I

CHAPTER V.
Eour tjjroufllj Hollantr antr Etalg*

NOTES OF A RAMBLE ON THE CONTINENT — CLOSED TO THE BRITISH,

AND NECESSARY TO OBTAIN AMERICAN PAPERS THE VOYAGE —

THE HELDER TRACES OF THE BRITISH EXPEDITION AMSTER-
DAM UTRECHT DELFT DUTCH APPRECIATION OF THE 'CO-
LONIAL POLICY ' RYSWICK DISCUSSION ON THE SLAVE TRADE

— PROJECTS FOR CO-OPERATION IN ABOLITION THE HAGUE— A

SITTING OF THE LEGISLATIVE BODY HAARLEM — DUSSELDORF

AND ITS PICTURE-GALLERY THE RHINE VENICE PICTURES

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY NAPLES POMPEII THE GROTTO

DEL CANE — ROME — ST PETER'S AND THE VATICAN.

IN the autumn of 1804 I determined to go to Hol-
land, where I hoped to obtain much information on
the subject of the slave trade, with the intention of
afterwards proceeding through Germany, if I found
that could be done without much difficulty, and thence
to Italy. Jeffrey had written to me in July remon-
strating ; he complained of my absenting myself at
that period of the year, and throwing the labour of
preparing for the October number of the Eeview upon
his shoulders, for Murray and many of the others were
about to take their holiday, leaving him alone in
Edinburgh. To make his mind easy I contrived to
send him four or five articles before I left England :

272 TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. [1804.

one was upon the means of rendering Great Britain
independent of foreign corn, with other plans of na-
tional improvement.

The state of the Continent made travelling there
difficult for any one — for an Englishman, impossible ;
so I went as an American, furnished with an Ameri-
can passport and papers.

I left London early in August, and after a very
quick passage, rather blowing, with execrable provi-
sions and accommodation, two sick women and a
stupid younker, made Camperdown in thirty -nine
hours after our departure from Gravesend, and arrived
at Helder on the 8th of August.

It blew a very hard gale on a lee-shore as near as
possible, and a brig went ashore. We weathered it,
however, and at 5 P.M. cast anchor between Helder
and Texel, as the searchers could not come off in the
gale. At 5 A.M. went off in a Dutch boat to the
Admiral, a fine 80-gun ship, in beautiful order, and
quite clean. Most civilly treated.

Helder, Aug. 9. — Helder, an ill-built large town
about size of Gravesend, all clean arid neat. Met
many French officers, who behaved most civilly.
At Helder went to the Roodelieuw, or Red Lion, and
found the French commissary and commandant had
quarters in it. They civilly interpreted for me, and
I passed for a Frenchman, I believe.

Battle fought on the sand-hills here.* 700 French

* In reference to the capture of Helder by the force under Aber-
cromby in August 1799.

JET. 26.] TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. 273

and 2000 Dutch soldiers are in the camp and outposts,
well clothed and armed, with depots — fine-looking
men. Supped and had a bath, which, after thirty-
six hours passed on shipboard, was a great luxury.

Aug. 9. — I hired a sort of phaeton, with two good
horses, and set out to Alkmaar : sandy roads — country
all sand-hills, but improved after the first two hours.
Passed the field of battle, and the camp.

Conversed with my driver, very intelligent, and
picked up some Dutch. Find, if he can be trusted,
they don't like the French, and still less the English.
Common Dutch and French soldiers at constant dag-
gers-drawn, but officers on good terms. The Dutch
like Americans better than any. This is so natural
in Dutchmen, that I take this as truth, though on
sorry authority. The horses being troubled with flies
from the extreme heat of the day, I jocularly called
them Frenchmen, and said the English were the whip
that drove them off. The man said, the Dutch pre-
ferred the trouble of feeding the fly to the pain of
the lash that drove it off. We stopped twice on the
road at neat little villages, and our route lay through a
delightful country of meadow and canal. Little or no
wood, except here and there a corner cut off to make a
young shrubbery for the neighbouring house, though in
no form or taste. The hedges are good. Lust-houses
on all banks, sometimes on the canal — a box like a
bathing-machine, with one or two rooms; sometimes a
row of these together. Last stage from Alkmaar is
called Schooldam, all battered by shot, still to be seen.

VOL. i. s

2/4 TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. [1804.

We saw fisliing in the canal two rival priests of the
town, the Catholic and Protestant. Every one, espe-
cially the French, civil to a degree. Near Allan aar,
a delightful country, and more wood ; surrounded by
30 to 40 windmills, which, however, also go by water.
The churches have a fine lofty appearance from a
distance, and are really superb buildings ; the town
neat, and even pretty ; canals and trees running-
through it ; a large fosse and walls, with a handsome
new and a fine old gateway. No trouble entering ; no
one ever stopped or spoke to us. A meadow of half
a mile square on the north side, filled with little
gardens and hedges, and crammed with lust-houses,
surrounded with a ditch almost stagnant. They
appear to the number of two in twenty yards, all
along the outside, and have a singularly Hollandish
appearance.

I am just waiting for my dinner, which I have
made shift to order in my bad Dutch. A very com-
fortable dinner, with exquisite hautboys in abundance,
and good claret, prepared me for the rest of my jour-
ney. I first saw the cathedral — fine, 100 paces long;
two organs ; the nave lofty. Proceeded at four through
narrow, soft, winding roads, in one continued grove of
young trees ; every now and then a break showing a
meadow of great extent in various crops — sometimes
nothing but green grass as far as the eye could reach.
Now the smell of beans from large patches, and then
cows and canals. The first Dutch mile brings a view
of Burwyk, and larger woods ; villas thick set ; large

JET. 26.] TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. 275

avenues, walks, fountains, temples, and fine houses ;
thick and nice-trimmed hedges, dark walks, parterres,
and all the richness of Dutch gardening. Every pro-
prietor a " Koofman." People all civil to excess, both
French and Dutch. All smoking, and drinking claret
and coffee. Appearances of industry and ease uni-
versal. Came to a plain of vast extent, with Amster-
dam in the distance, salt-water lake, and sea far off.
Haarlem church to the right, row of sand-hills at a
distance behind; meadows studded with spires, and
clumps of farmhouses; road along a dyke for ten
English miles. Dam at Spardam gave a dreadful idea
of power of sea breaking in ; at gates at 9^ exactly
as said ; went over nervous bridges, &c., rumbling on
the piles. Then to " the arms of Amsterdam," a
superb French hotel, where by accident I found Galiffe
lodges. Excellent supper, and most refreshing Ehen-
ish madeira and seltzer. Sound nap.

Amsterdam, Aug. 10, 1804. — Kindly received by
Vander Hoeven, Galiffe, and Melville. Monstrous
bustle on all hands. It is easy to lose one's way in
Amsterdam, as one always finds the same trees and
canals in every street of any size. Hollow sound of
piles, and stink of canals. Houses huddled together
as if falling. Some obviously so ; one or two here and
there actually zigzag. No plainness, all in bad taste ;
clumsy cut out tops and ornaments.

Stadthouse, a massive square, about 460 windows,
five stories, and 23 windows in front ; finest hall of
marble I ever saw — about 100 pilasters fluted. Hall

2/6 TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. [1804.

of Capital Condemnation, small, strong, and gloomy,
but well ornamented. Exchange most extensive;
each pillar and compartment numbered and named
from country, and even town. Grand bustle and fine
room. All the people very horribly dressed. Table
d'hdte excellent. Two courses and dessert, with half-
bottle good claret, for one florin and a half.

Amsterdam, Aug. 11. — Went to call on Elliot —
not in town. Went to Hotel de Ville or Stadthaus.

Dined very pleasantly at Melville's, and in the
evening went to see the Dutch play and the famous
actress Vatir, who astonished me. Two good men
actors. A pretty house, well lighted and fitted up.
A ballet, very good, but most indecent. Even the
figurantes danced extremely well. The orchestra
very good. Tea handed round between the acts.

Amsterdam, Aug. 12. — Went to Mr Vander Hoe-
ven's chateau, three and a half hours' journey, in a
carriage and pair : dull country, duller day, and some
heavy rain. Found his lady at home — a very pleasant
little Braban£onne, though an invalid. He out fish-
ing on his water ; went to him — no sport. The carp,
tench, and eels, as well as perch, are very fine ; the
villa excellent, extensive; less uniform than any I
have seen, somewhat a I'Anglaise ; but the country
quite sandy, like all the district near the sea. Every-
thing bespeaks the national character of making a
pleasure of business, and being precise as in an office,
at all times. In the theatre, the seats are marked, so
that each man in the pit has one place. In any ap-

^T. 26.] TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. 277

plause, a single hist may stop it all. Very fond of
amusements like this ; extremely punctual ; never
kept waiting, or disappointed, or cheated by trades-
men. Best attendance possible at inns, and by drivers,
who carry you to a very second.

Sweated by France ; pay seventy-three per cent
on income; fit out ships for France, and when not
needed, have to buy them back. Do not love the
French at all.

No paper money, except bills and actions; all sil-
ver, copper, and good gold, which bends between the
fingers.

The wealth and credit of some traders here is
astonishing. Hope has placed £100,000, some say
£200,000, of bills in one morning at " Change." No
one, however, comes near him. Payments above a
certain sum must be made in bank money, which
bears a premium of only two, three, or four per cent
at present. Though there are no notes in retail trade,
there are bonds of foreign loans as low as 100 guilders
in constant circulation. The colonial bonds not lower
than £100.

Water is very bad at Amsterdam, so that the only
water used for drinking comes from Utrecht, where it
is famous. The price is four stivers a bottle, almost
as dear as the worst kind of claret, which one may
buy for six stivers.

Utrecht, Aug. 13. — Set off with a small valise for
this place at 1 P.M. in the treckschuyt. Day at first
dull, then stormy and wet, yet the view rich and fine;

2/S TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. [1804.

villas in various forms and sizes. Our dinner, cold
fowl, bread, and wine, as is the custom ; women
drinking tea the whole way. We were forty in all,
besides those on the roofs. Passed Maarsen, a neat
clean village, inhabited -chiefly by Jews ; only one
horse all the way ; stopped twice, once to drink a cup
of tea and light pipe. Arrived here at 8.30 with
the usual precision of the country, and found a most
comfortable hotel, the Castle of Antwerp.

The French troops treat the people here with great
harshness, and are detested by all ranks, ages, and
sexes. There are fourteen French generals under
Marmont, the gendral-en-chef. One of them said to
him that Utrecht had suffered nothing since the
Ee volution, and that it ought to pay now. The
general, therefore, seized some of the best houses for
quarters for his etat-major. The municipality remon-
strated, and were driven out with contempt. Since
that, the French have done as they pleased in the town.

I saw to-day (Aug. 14) a pamphlet, published at
Utrecht in 1802, to prove that it is the part of a
good citizen to undertake any office that might be
offered him, whether lie likes the Government or not.
It has had some effect. Previously none but the
scum could be found for the public departments.

The rent of land is from twenty to forty florins
the Dutch arpent. Very bad land at ten to fifteen.
An instance of fifteen per cent for money vested in
land is quite rare ; seldom more than five ; average
two to four. Since the Revolution, land has risen in

^T. 26.] TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. 279

value, because no one trusts the public securities, and
all wish to invest in land. Loans almost impossible
to be had by private people, and in trade they either
gain a great deal or nothing at all. This, by the way,
always operates, and has been too much neglected by
economists ; it is the extreme, and not the average,
profits which tempt.

TO THE HAGUE, PASSING THROUGH EOTTEEDAM.

Hague, Aug. 20, 1804. — Breakfasted with Craw-
furd; then went to Koquette's and drew for £20.
Dined with M. Van Yzendoorn's married sister, and
set out with him on the roof for Delft ; found it
delightful. A Dutch gentleman was on it, from
whom procured much accurate information in return
for simply explaining a few passages and references
in my second volume, which is now being translated
into Dutch.*

Land near towns lets sometimes for so high as
120 guilders per margen (about two English acres) ;
and this is for the vegetables and milk sold in towns.
In country from ten to thirty guilders, and no more.
Three per cent for money vested in it is the ordinary
average rate, and two and a half is very frequent;
all owing to the heavy expenses of draining, which
requires a mill-machinery, and of dykes, repairs,

* De Staatkunde der Europeesche Mogendheden
nopens het bestuuren van Volkplantingen.
onderzocht en beoordeeld door Henry Brougham, Jim.,
Uit het Engelsch door P. Van Yzendoorn.
Te Amsteldam, 1804.

280 TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. [1804.

houses, duties, imposts. In an income of XI 20 per
annum, perhaps twenty goes to land-tax, income-tax
being paid from the rest.

The surface of the ground, to a depth of seven
or eight feet, is cut for peat — excellent fuel. This is
then flooded, and clay soil remains of excellent quality.
It requires a public authority to cut turf, for fear of
inundations.

Legislative body cannot initiate ; Senate must
propose ; they only originate. Foreign ministers re-
ceived by foreign secretary. No man can hold two
appointments. East India Company lost 100 millions
of florins by the American war ; on making np their
accounts, they lost in last war not less ; no divi-
dends for several years before its abolition, nor since.

All the old nobility, the patrician families, and
those not noble, but who have long been in Govern-
ment offices, the peasantry, and the proprietors, and
especially the rich yeomanry, are for the Stadtholder.
The merchants, the army of course, most of the func-
tionaries, especially Amsterdam, from old jealousy,
are against him. Towns often jealous of each other.

The schuyt set us down at Delft, and we landed to
view the fine old spire, and monuments in the cathe-
dral ; a noble one on William the First's tomb, 200
years old ; four bronzes of Justice, Eeligion, Prudence,
and Liberty ; a fifth of Fame, balanced on one toe,
and movable, though 220 cwt.; the rest marble, white
and grey. There is a modern one of Grotius. The
chime the finest in the world.

JET. 26.] TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. 281

Took a carriage, and the moon shining very bright,
came through a most rich succession of seats, the
best I have seen. In this delicious light, this most
beautiful wood, buildings and streets in the scene,
struck me much ; and I believe, as to the country, a
moonlight is best adapted to show its beauties by
hiding its petty defects.

Aug. 21. — After breakfast went to the parade of
about 170 foot, 50 horse (beautiful), and 60 artillery,
all Dutch, with a good band. The French Govern-
ment keeps no troops here.

Then to the French coffee-house with Van Yzen-
doorn ; then to the Society or Club, an institution
where only members of the Government high in office,
ambassadors, and strangers introduced by them, are
admitted : was introduced to several eminent men-
Van Keyser from Java, of the East India Company —
Van Omphal, a legislator, and others. Complimented
by all on my book, which they seemed to know as
well as myself. Lionised to all the state rooms of
the old palace, rich with the Spanish trophies — the
chamber of the admiralty, &c. ; chairs with the Orange
arms, and curtains — the Stadtholder's rooms, now
those of the Legislative Body, and library — the palace
of the Senate, &c. ; some of the rooms very superb,
and all elegant. Gobelins tapestry beautiful.

Those public buildings are in one chateau, with
gates, surrounded by a moat.

At the Senate palace, a fine public garden with all
sorts of walks, arbours, and " liist-huyses."

282 TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. [1804.

Saw the squares, which are noble, and the houses,
hotels of embassies, palaces, &c., all scattered about in
profusion. Bentinck House, with fourteen large win-
dows in front. All the places of vast breadth, no
canals, and trees very large.

Dined at the Deuxvilles table d'hdte, frequented
only by the Club Society ; had much instruction from
Omphal about the policy, &c., of Holland.

Walked afterwards to see two fine villas beyond
Eyswick ; passed the villa on the site of the treaty
chateau ; drank tea, &c., at a lust-house, and returned
with Van Yzendoorn to the Society.

The people in communes of 60,000 choose electors,
who choose the legislators. These are now in an
assembly extraordinary : having discussed the deficit
of 60 millions, they imposed a capital tax of 2^. In
public the debates not interesting, but much in com-
mittees. Saw them break up, and the soldiers in the
square salute the President, who walked out in a plain
hat cocked like the rest, and black knot.

SLAVE TEADE.

Van Yzendoorn said he believed if England abol-
ished they would directly follow.

Roquette — same, though less strong.

Gentleman in West Indian Department said there
is no fear whatever from insurrection in Dutch
colonies.

Crawfurd and others all misapprehend abolition
question, and talk of emancipation.

/ET. 26.] TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. 283

Yzendoorn, &c., talk of dangers of mooting the
point now.

Omphal talks of necessity of having supplies to
make the colonies yield anything.

French papers full of attack on Pitt on the
slave question ; every word of the debate, and especi-
ally Wilberforce's speeches, with comments, all violent,
in favour.

Notice of the Congos forming a white party.

See my ground clearly, and find it will probably
do. Have prepared all, to-day.

Van Yzendoorn is to translate the pamphlet on the
trade and the memorials ; and give all manner of
facilities. Luckily all have read my book, and it is
in great favour.

Aug. 22. — All morning working at memorial.
Dined at the Deuxvilles — thirty-five people. Tea
with Van Yzendoorn. After seeing the rest of the
palace — viz. Hall of Holland — a most splendid room
indeed — walked and spent the evening with Van
Edelbat, controller of colonial finance : two years in
Caraccas — nine in Cavasson(?); well informed; has
just views on slave trade and colonies.

Cavasson very valuable ; takes 16 millions of florins
per annum chiefly from Spanish contraband; 18,000
negroes, 4000 mulattoes, and 3000 whites. Negroes
well treated, but driven with overseer from 9 to 1
with whip ; keep up and increase without importation,
so that there is a constant exportation to Spanish Main
and elsewhere ; increase about 3 per cent per annum.

284 TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. [1804.

Ill 1798, just before capture of Surinam, &c., a
great debate here in Legislative Body on slave trade,
Many opposed its continuance, particularly De V.,
who proposed abolition and emancipation ; carried by
a narrow majority in favour of the present system,
and for encouraging the trade. But no details of the
plan to this effect were entered into till two years ago,
when the new Council took it up. The plan is now
organised, and only waits a peace for full execution.
The duties formerly laid of 10 florins on importation
of negroes taken off, and a bounty granted of 5 on
males, and 2i on children and women. All goods for
Africa go duty free, and if they paid a duty on ori-
ginal importation, it is drawn back. Thus, nails and
muskets from Germany pay 2i per cent ad valorem :
tliis is drawn back if they are sent to Africa, and they
are free from the 2i on exportation which they would
pay elsewhere.

Trade to West Indies free to all Dutch in Dutch
vessels. Pay 2J- per cent ad valorem out, which
must come back in produce there and 3 per cent
at home. No abolitionist in Council and Senate.
Yickers, leading man, is for the system, and so is
Bexieu ; Van Edelbert, not ; and all limit their sup-
port to their own supply. He is to speak to Vickers.
Van Yzendoorn was for long time on commission on
Java's laws ; says they tried to alter them, but he
against. The law of settlement exists in great force.
No one can be maintained under one year and six
months' residence. Tax-paying not specified, because

JET. 26.] TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. 285

every one must pay in excise. If he resides that time
he can't be removed; before it, he may, until he
proves his town, and that becomes bound to support
him when poor; till then he may be turned out
though in full health. This is very old law, and not
much acted on, but it has its effect: Amsterdam alone
has abolished it, and is eaten up with poor.

The Hague, Aug. 23, 1804. — After finishing and
despatching the memorial, went to the Maison du
Bois. The wood is enchanting, being large and ir-
regular — in short, a fine forest in any country, and,
after the Dutch-cut walks, truly refreshing. A coach
and footway winds irregularly through it. On the
right is a deer-paddock, with a few head of cattle,
and at present some artillery equipages. In middle
of the way found a tent with pipes and all sorts of
liquors; refreshed with a glass of lemonade and con-
tinued.

Aug. 24. — Finished the French memorial, and sent
it to Van Yzendoorn, who has a friend very confiden-
tial, having been a captain in navy, whom he some-
times uses to copy in very private business. He is
to take a copy for himself, to be very prudently used.

Attended the sitting of the Legislative Body. A
president and twenty-four present, and one was sworn
in and took his seat. The room long and vaulted,
with a good sombre light from twelve windows. The
president knocked with an ivory hammer after each
point was done. The secretary read the minutes and
orders of the day. All the members in full dress,

285 TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. [1804.

plain black. They sat the whole time like jurors,
with pen, ink, and paper before them ; a few spoke a
little, in a plain, discussing manner, but sitting all
the while. The session ends to-day. They have
given the prince five million guilders for his privy
purse, though this is secret; and have imposed a
tax of 2i per cent on capital.

Went with Van Yzendoorn to Count Hogendorp's
to dinner. A pretty campagne two miles off; a large
and most select company, it being the Stadtholder's
birthday. His health was enthusiastically drunk.
These were his firmest friends. The most interesting
of the company was M. Vander Hein, formerly se-
cretary or minister of the department of the Maes, in
the Admiralty, which was represented like the East
India Company, though now he has retired in disgust.
He is grandson of the pensionary Heinsius. I got
much information from him. He informed me that
in the years 1792 and 1793 a proposition to abolish
the slave trade — or rather, first to discuss if it should
be abolished, and then how, was made in the States-
General, in imitation of England ; but being referred
to the states, towns, and admiralties, as such, a thing
required by the constitution, they began to examine
the question ; then came the troubles, before any fur-
ther progress was made.

Dutch law allows no execution but for theft in
goods publicly exposed, housebreaking, and murder.
Forgery, punished by the right hand cut off, is very
rare. No man hanged without confession, and this is

JET. 26.] TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. 287

extorted, but not till after conviction by other evi-
dence, and not so as to hurt the health. If he still
stands out, he is imprisoned for life : not applied once
in fifty years, and never to burgesses, who are tried
by civil process, and may be hanged.

Haarlem, Aug. 25. — Had much conversation at
table d'hdte with M. Costeris of the West India
Council. He belonged to the anti-Stadtholder party,
and was a leading man. He arrested the princess in
1 787, and fled for seven years.4'7 He is tolerably acute,
but ignorant, and confounded abolition and emanci-
pation ; very angry at surrender of the Cape, and, en-
raged at seeing Batterbury, who commanded the
troops, sitting opposite to him at the table d'hote, cut
him. He is to be tried, and it will go hard with him.
Gave him my views in general on the abolition, and
he seemed influenced by them. I think the members
of Council and Government are prejudiced against
abolition, and that France would prevent it. The
Council very mixed : one Kypel is in it, who has been
in prison six years for trying to effect a counter-
revolution, and if judged by military council would
have been shot.

Haarlem, Sept. 4. — After the museum, went at one
to the organ. It was truly superb, though I scarce
believe, as I was told at Hope's, that if played full it
would break the windows ! It was well played both

* This refers to the rising against the house of Orange, which caused
the Prussian invasion of 1787. The princess was Frederica Louisa, the
daughter of Frederick the Great.

288 TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. [1804.

for the soft and full. The swell was sublime beyond
description. It should be heard from a distance.
There were many notes of the vox humana execrable.
In the Place, near the cathedral, is a good statue of
Laurence Coster, erected in 1722 in the Physicians'
Garden, and in 1801 removed from thence. It has
this inscription —

" Viro consular! Laurentio Costero ITaarlcmensi
Artis imprimendi vero inventor!."

He holds a letter-block in his hand, and leans on the
branch of a tree with the other.

On one side of the base, the above ; on another, a
printing-press, in form nearly resembling a modern
one ; on the third, a figure of Coster, cutting a letter
out of a tree ; and on the remaining side, a tolerably
good Latin inscription, to the effect that he is crowned
with laurel, not as a warrior for deeds of arms, but as
the benefactor and civiliser of the human race by his
immortal invention.

The representation of Coster cutting a letter on
a tree refers to the tradition, commonly believed in
Holland, that he amused himself by forming letters
upon the bark of trees in a wood near Haarlem ; that
he followed this up by cutting single letters on sepa-
rate blocks of wood, which he united in lines, and
from them took impressions upon paper.

Although this story may not be perfectly credible,
there can be no doubt that Coster was the first who
cut letters on wood, and that he must be allowed to

,ET. 26.] TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. 289

share with Mentel of Strasburg, and Faust and Gut-
tenberg of Mentz, the honour, if not of inventing,
at least of suggesting what led to the art of printing.
For if metal types were first cast at Mentz, their
wooden origin had its birth at Haarlem. The Haar-
lemites contend that their townsman first printed in
1430 — that his workman, Guttenberg, stole the
wooden blocks, carried them off to Mentz, and there,
in partnership with Faust, printed first with wooden
blocks, and afterwards with metal types. Coster died
about 1442.

From Haarlem return to the Hague, and from
thence went to Diisseldorf, where I arrived Sept. 14.
Saw the remarkable chef-d'ceuvre of Gerard Douw.
It has all the beauties of a fine miniature, with the
expression of a full-sized picture. Said to have cost
500,000 florins, of which he received 75,000 himself.
There is also a masterpiece of Eaphael, " St John in
the Wilderness;" also a Correggio, "Jesus from the
Scourging." Nothing can be more melancholy than
the effect of this. The grief and pain in the face is
devoid of every sour or angry feeling. A pity of
others tempers His agony. But the masterpiece is
Guido's "Assumption." I was told that £100,000
had been refused for this picture.*

Proceeded up the Ehine to Cologne and Coblentz
(Sept. 17). Passed many boats near Bonn, carrying
trees of liberty, with tricolor flags. Took in many

* The celebrated Diisseldorf Gallery was afterwards removed to
Munich.

VOL. I. T

UP THE RHINE. [1804.

of Buonaparte's Guards, Italians. Visited Ehrenbreit-
stein, quite demolished by treaty, never taken ; stands
nobly over Coblentz, which is a remarkably neat town,
with some large buildings. Vineyards constant, rich
and beautiful. Scenery, if possible, finer ; regulation
of vineyards on both sides the same, which is, that
there are fifteen days before the vintage (Oct. 16)
when not even the proprietor can enter a vineyard
on any account ; that is the time when the grapes are
quite ready for the press. On the 15th of October,
drums give notice, and all rush in ; then they can eat
their fill.

Passed Mentz, but did not venture to go into it.
After leaving the Ehine, I worked my way through
Switzerland into Italy, arriving at Verona, where I
slept on the 5th of October.

No need of being called — was roused by a horrid
toothache, and rose before five. Cured it in two
hours with tobacco-leaves. Eoad to Vicenza one
rich vineyard; a few mulberries. The vines make
garlands all the way between the elms, and each gar-
land is weighed down with innumerable clusters of
black grapes. Generally clover and grass between
the rows ; sometimes corn and maize. Peasants all
gay, being Sunday and the Emperor's name-day.
Eoad level, some part steep from high bridges. Three
or four rivers, large, but utterly dried up ; one had a
good road along its course ; but in a few weeks, per-
haps days, they will overflow. One or two bits of
road I can't conceive passable in the dark.

JET. 27.] TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 2QI

Eegaled on grapes. Arrived at mid-day at Vicenza
(Oct. 6), and agreed for room. Sent letter to Great-
head, and dined excellently. Fine Braganz wine for
six liris ; never drank anything better. After dinner
took siesta, and told it is gone out of use. Awoke
by Colonel Eoche, who got my card, &c., by mistake :
very polite.

Oct. 13.— Got to Venice.

Venice, Oct. 14.— Went to the Galleries. "The
Presentation of the Virgin/' by Titian — thirty -two
figures : chief is a most lovely woman, turned to-
wards us, with red silk and satin robe, or rather
gown ; enchanting sweetness of face ; and a peasant,
with egg-basket — i.e., old woman sitting below,
looking half up — face and hands inimitable. Sky
and trees cold and harsh, as usual, but grouping all
fine.

Then to the Palazzo Pisani — Moretto (Bonvicino).
On stairs, " Icarus and Daedalus," Canova's coup
d'essai, and excellent for such. In one room, " Death
of Darius," by [illegible'], good and horrid ; his
body is dreadfully convulsed and discoloured. Noble
Veronese in next room, " Alexander receiving the
Family of Darius : " chief figures are Darius's queen,
profile, in grief, and kneeling; and Alexander, in
red under-dress, standing in an attitude of inimi-
table grace, ease, and dignity, beautiful and youthful.
Darius's daughter is dressed in a straight gown, quite
modern. On the whole, the piece is fine. It was
painted in the house.

292 TOUR THROUGH ITALY. [1804.

But in the Barbarigo Palace 43 the chef-d'oeuvre
of collections. In one room some excellent pieces by
Titian's scholars; in next, twelve first-rate Titians,
besides other small ones — viz., portrait of Barbarigo,
very capital, dated 1492, painted when Titian was
only sixteen years of age — all these done in the house.
"St Sebastian," head alone finished: Titian died
while doing it. " Christ crowned with Thorns,"
livid complexion, very striking. "Kedeemer," with
finger lifted up, and globe in hand ; sublime face :
mouth peeling off. "Madonna and Child," colour-
ing fine, but expression vulgar, and face rather fat.
" Christ bearing the Cross/' dark. " Venus and
Adonis," she turning her back, naked, and throwing
arm round him to retain him ; looks coarse at first,
but examined, is very sweet ; her face and his ex-
cellent ; above all, the Venus, naked to middle.
Near are two cupids — one holds glass, in which she
is looking, turning slightly round, almost profile;
colour exquisitely delicate, and full, and mellow;
hand and body noble, and the greatest beauty I ever
saw, which for elegance and softness is lovely indeed.
An Apollo, by Giovanni Bellini, worthy of accom-
panying its neighbouring picture by Veronese.

Oct. 15. — Morning spent in study at St Mark's
and shopping ; in evening, at the usual hour of nine,
got into my gondola and drove to theatre ; very fine ;
staircase noble ; company numerous and good ; acting
first-rate — Orestes, the character by Deblairis, one of
the best I ever saw ; his horror at discovering his parri-

*:T. 27.] TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 293

cide was far superigr to any mole acting I ever had
seen. Bather effeminately dressed ; arms and neck
shown naked, and his part a little over-acted. Accent
said to be foreignish. The action rather more than
just, but a foreigner can't judge well in the country of
gesture. Women, gods, and ^Egisthus and Pylades
excellent ; latter 's concealment of his friend first-rate.
I never felt so animated as by the applause and
bravos.

Oct. 16. — Day very bad. Spent it in St Mark's,
and had a long spell from three to half-past twelve at
night.

Oct. 1 7. — St Mark's. Learnt that Venturi is now
ambassador from Italian Eepublic to Berne. Went to
Sassi's collection now on sale; some fine sketches, some
good pictures, especially two Schiavones advertised as
Titians, and a noble Correggio.

At night, the weather being as usual divine and
moon bright, went to Square of St Mark, and saw the
resort which holds here nightly. All nations here
meet; you have Jews, Poles, Turks, Greeks, all in
their costumes ; the Turks elegantly dressed, always
smoking long pipes and sitting at doors and on low
seats under piazzas. One coffee-house called Florian
is the resort of all the fashion and English ; they sit
in the rooms and drink coffee, lemonade, &c.

Some have long collections of seats standing
under an awning and extending to the Place. Busy
scene.

Went on the water in an open gondola, and enjoyed

294 TOUR THROUGH ITALY. [1804.

a delicious two hours, quite still ; moon shone with a
full glow on the cupolas and palaces. Ships look fine ;
coasted round the lagune to the outer or quarantine
roads, then round the islands. The canal Giudecca,
nearly half a mile broad and two long, in a sweep,
with cupolas of San Giorgio Maggiore at one end and
the Salute on other side ; it is a noble view.

Oct. 18. — St Mark's. Shop of pictures; a good
Veronese, smaller than usual.

At night to the theatre ; Mareschini, a new trage-
dian ; for the first time " Idomeneus' Eeturn to Crete,"
founded on his vow to kill the first he met as a sacri-
fice to Neptune for his safety from the storm. Mare-
schini a very fine actor; same nudity; liked him
better, because chaster, than Deblairis. He was so
applauded as I never saw before ; three times called,
one after another ; made neat speech : name of poet
called, and he came forward and acknowledged it;
others all called and applauded ; very interesting.
Had spell again at Eeview for Jeffrey, the subject
being, " On the Military Character of the different
European Armies." *

Oct. 1 9. — St Mark's. Ducal palace ; inside of square
very rich architecture ; two colossal statues of Neptune
and Justice, brought from Athens. Golden stair
whereby ambassadors ascended to the Hall of the
Grand Council, which assembled every Sunday to the
number of 800 ; long benches, plain, and in rows ;

* See « Edinburgh Review,' January 1805, p. 451. Review of a French
Pamphlet, ' Caractere des Armies Europe'enes,' &c.

JET. 27.] TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 295

grand Tintoret of Paradise, contains above 200 figures;
largest I ever saw — occupies whole end of Hall ; other
end a Veronese ; Palma's, Bassano's, and Tintoret's on
side, chiefly battles and historical pieces connected
with Venice ; on ceiling a fine Veronese, " Venice
crowned." Hall of Council of Ten plain; best Veron-
eses away at Paris. Hall of Inquisition, all the roof
by Tintoret ; best pictures were the Veroneses in the
Grand Council Hall.

Saw hall in which were four doors, each with two
marble pillars, brought from Greece in the best times
of Venice. The whole by Palladio, rather loaded.
Ponte dei Sospiri between Council of Ten and Prison.

In the church of the Salute are some good Giulio
Eomanos ; an altar-piece of the Advent by Titian.
Sacristy has four of his ; three on ceiling superb.

Having finished my article for Jeffrey on the 20th,
I took a gondola for two or three hours to enjoy the
lagune. Eeturned, and at two went to the post-
office ; had coffee and refreshments served, and when
all was ready to depart, the courier retired, while I
went to high mass. There was something solemn in
the thing. A small chapel and altar in the upper hall
of office for the purpose. The priest of the parish
officiated, with all the robes and ceremonials, but with
a courier-like velocity.

Set off near three in a covered boat ; night delici-
ous ; good mattresses and pillows ; the noise of the
oars did not prevent us from sleeping till eight in the
morning ; when I awoke, found we were alongside of

296 TOUR THROUGH ITALY. [1804.

a wall, five or six miles from Chioggia, of huge stones,
hewn, strongly cemented. It shelves up to the top by
steps, and is above 12 or 14 feet high.

Oct. 22. — At Chioggia changed boat and had re-
freshments ; then up the Adige, which is here a noble
river : the sail was used, and it was delightful. From
the Adige, by a canal and lock, to the place where
we left boat (Savia). Commandant of the place (a
French officer of Polacks) had me brought up for ex-
amination, not understanding my American passport ;
he was excessively civil, apologised, and gave me
Kosolio, with many compliments, after signing my
passport

At Pesaro, Oct. 23. — Arrived at Foligno (24) at
six in the morning — never remember being so fatigued.
Horrid toothache — no sleep. Went over very rough
road, bones almost broken by the constant prac-
tice of galloping through towns, where the pavements
exceed all others in hills and valleys. All the towns
of the Campagna di Eoma are on hills, steep on both
sides, rising out of a noble plain full of vineyards.
Quantity of villas with gates highly ornamented.
Came to Spoleto — "Spoletum, Umbriae caput" — a
most ugly town, but ancient, with striking wall of
Gothic thickness. Went on without stopping by the
Via Flaminia, arriving at Eome (Oct. 25) at eleven.
Fatigued and jolted to shivers by the Via Flaminia
— a causeway twenty miles long. Not so sore as
yesterday. Last night the rain continued as before.
Passed through Terni. From thence to Narni, which

JET. 27.] TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 297

stands in a striking situation on the brink of a pre-
cipice, which looks over a beautiful valley. Thence
over hills of great height, with dreadful precipices
on one side ; and when in the midst of one descent
there began the grandest thunderstorm I ever saw.
It lasted an hour, and the lightning was the most
vivid I ever witnessed. The flashes disclosed at
each time a prodigious gulf on one side so clearly
that I could have counted the trees and stones.
The thunder echoed over the Apennines. After-
wards the lightning continued to flash at intervals,
but distant.

Nothing very particular happened till., with scarce
any sleep from the jolting, we came in sight of the
Eternal City. The distant view is fine ; but all
Campagna di Eoma (this district of Eomagna) is
absolutely a waste of waving ground in heath, lean
grass, and scattered, stunted vegetation, with a cot-
tage, church and chapel, and crucifix here and there.
Met both yesterday and to-day vast flocks of sheep
and lambs. The shepherds seem an odd race of
peasants ; covered with hairy skins : dogs all crossed
with the wolf. View of Kome at a distance very fine,
from the unevenness of its foundations and the num-
ber of cupolas. St Peter's looks like St Paul's, only
on a gigantic scale. Passed the Tiber — red, rather
•than "flavus Tiberis "- — by an old bridge. Passport
civilly looked at at the Porta del Popolo — fine obelisk.
Came through the Corso ; passed Trajan's pillar and
some fine buildings ; arrived here in the Venetian

298 TOUR THROUGH ITALY. [1804.

house of the minister and couriers — a very large good
palace surrounded by others, some of which have
eighty-four windows on a side.

After dining at the Cafe* di Venezia and sleeping,
which was necessary to remove a fever which was
oppressing me, went to the opera ; neat, but small.
An opera buffa, and a comedy in one act. Music
very pretty. Tiers of stage-boxes are called after the
great composers. Actors very submissive, as usual —
bow when applauded.

Kome, Oct. 26. — Went out to hunt for an English
compagnon de voyage to Naples, having resolved to
go thither at once. Agreed with courier. Went to
see sights. Church of Sant' Andrea della Valle —
noble — frescoes and architecture by Domenichino.
Antoninus' pillar much inferior to Trajan's, which
was excavated by a former pope. Grand fountain of
Trevi — water comes as from the rock. Effect of
Michael Angelo's architecture of the Campedoglio is
superb. Colossal foot of Apollo wonderful.

Cardinal Borgia received me very graciously at
dinner, made me come in, and invited me to stay,
but I refused till my return. American consul very
civil. Evening spent at the Colosseum, Circus, and
Forum. Then set off after regaling on ices, which
you have here excellent in every coffee-house.

Two guards well armed attended on horseback;
being soldiers of the Pope I had no confidence in
them. The courier of Naples was robbed a month
ago here. The road sometimes fine, at one place

JET. 27.] TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 299

twenty miles in a line with rows of trees. Terracina
and other towns finely placed on hills as usual.

After losing greatcoat and handkerchief from the
horrible machine, arrived here and saw Vesuvius with
dull solemn light; am told it was not visible last
night, and obeys the wind.

Oct. 29. — Day delicious. View of mountain and
smoke fine — with glass saw the lava as it flowed
down, issuing from one small hole in side in fine
white clouds.

Oct. 30. — Went to Pompeii.

Temple of Isis — plain, — communication for priests
with the oracle's part, and a good room behind.
Hence you cross to the main part, I think, of the
whole, over vineyards planted on lava above the
town. Here you are in the midst of the town. A
broad street and two narrow leading off its end.
Houses compact on each side, and shops. On each
side of causeway are ruts of wheels just size and
width of Christian carts and sedias. Thence over
more vineyards to a villa — fine house, rooms, paint-
ings, bath, &c. — magnificent, though not at all large.
Fine terrace behind looking into garden, exactly use
of this day. The depth of the shower of ashes is
from six to eight palms, very heavy and close ; fine
soil above is from two to four, excellent for vines, but
plains better for grain, &c.

Walked two miles off road to the main stream of
lava. Fine sight of desolation. Twenty-four feet
high, and more in some places ; hot ; frequent parts

300 TOUR THROUGH ITALY. [1804.

of yellow, red, and brown sulphur ; and as you ascend
you come to hotter parts, and these are almost all
sulphurous, and give out much hot sulphurous-acid
gas. Many parts even near bottom very hot. Went
up through the desolated villa, and visited houses
overthrown. Many parts as I ascended burning hot.
Walked over parts, and saw where a stick, &c., took
fire. At night is quite red. Almost knocked down
with fumes.

The views of Naples and bay most striking. The
large even flat walls of the houses here are made for
the spot, and the quantity of villas and islands in
offing, with English men-of-war and three Neapolitan
(fitted out against the Algerines), add much to the
effect.

At Naples almost famished. The Neapolitans take
the siesta regularly. They shut up shop at mid-day;
then regularly undress and go to bed as at night till
four, when they begin again. Six is at present Ave
Maria, or night, and all hours reckon from it; but they
know the hours of our computation.

They call them " di Spagna," sometimes " di
Francia;" in some parts of Italy, the latter. The
title Don is frequent here with all ranks, since the
Spanish times. It is used with first name, second
little used. Lazzaroni are very numerous ; have all
houses if they please, but prefer streets and porticoes.

Naples, Nov. 1, 1804. — Went in caleche to Avernus.
Grotto on going out of Naples is astonishing ; a mile
long, a hundred feet high. Four carriages can go

^ET. 27.] TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 30!

abreast. Solid rock arched out. Continued in one
line of road through vineyards, till came to Baise. A
finer bay is not in Europe. Bridge of Caligula a quarter
of a mile long ; had fourteen arches — ruins visible ;
thence could go to Baiae by bridge of boats. Caprese
in offing. At Puzzoli took a cicerone ; was pestered
with offers of cameos, found on shore and in ground.
First saw temple with three fine pillars — good deal
cut away at top — vast square ; tepid-water accommo-
dation for the priests ; rings for victim remain, and
parts of cornice and capitals.

Went to Lake Agnano in caleche; found guide
with party of English, including two or three of royal
navy. Lake is a dull and very deep-looking water,
a little like Avernus. Fowls abound on it. Grotto
del Cane at one side, road between. The grotto is
about 3 yards long, 8 feet high, and 5 broad — uneven
floor ; just a hole inside of hill and rock ; an old
wooden door at it for benefit of cicerone, who hires
and rents the key. When our sailors were trying to
force the door, came the cicerone with dogs, who
seemed to know quite well the process, and not to
relish it at all. One had fifteen times tried it, and
could hardly be brought up ; was laid on his side and
held fast; gasped, and fell into convulsions. This
was very unpleasant, from his being large. We had
him brought into the air ; he became quiet, and then
he recovered and howled a little. He was not dipped
into the lake ; this is a vulgar error. Lighted torch
extinguished suddenly and thoroughly, difficult to

302 TOUR THROUGH ITALY. [1804.

light again ; I fancy this is from the humidity. I
had brought a large bottle of pure water, and I emptied
nine-tenths of it carefully at the deepest part of the
air, which had not been much agitated ; then corked
and agitated for a minute. Eapid absorption ; much
more than with common carbonic -acid gas. Took
from the grotto a full mouthful, and tasted nothing
but heat.

Air of grotto not at all bad ; the heat great.
If you look along the stratum you see a very singular
appearance. At a certain height — very unequal, for
the ground is unequal — you see a level of mist, one
definite line between the good and bad air ; the latter
being like steam, and hot. It lies like water in a cup,
and the heat does not make any mixture.

Baths of St Girolamo in neighbourhood on banks
of lake : modern building, with chimneys which
steam like smoke. The vapour is very hot, and is sul-
phurous and hydrogenous. In one part, if a light is
held, it smokes black, without flame. At other times,
was told, it flamed. Suppose this depends on propor-
tion of water and sulphur. In some places it is acid,
and forms acidulous sulphates, which abound in great
masses; most frequently acid and sulphurous, and
hydrogenous.

Keturned to Naples. Mountain had a dull red
light over it ; rather fine ; and the passage of the
grotto was in a high degree picturesque. Torches
were necessary.

Nov. 2. — After breakfast, went to the Monte ;

JET. 27.] TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 303

ascent gradual, among villas and views of the bay.
One odd conceit — a large painting placed to represent
a villa or box ; not bad, for it actually passes in the
crowd of real ones. Entered a locked villa, and wound
along its slope. Came near grotto of Posilippo, but
high up in air, on a tremendous precipice of wall.
Over the entrance of the grotto, and, between this
and that, hollow corridors deeper still; over that
stands the tomb of Virgil ; our picture * like it, but
not quite like the situation, from not taking in its
chief features — the precipices on both sides. In the
inside, inscription on stone opposite not much de-
faced, and only lost four words — date 1504.

A Russian gentleman and company dined in the
tomb, which is a decent little room with a good flat
floor, but the window overlooks the precipice of the
grotto road. Climbed up and cut pieces of the laurel
shrub, which has a delicious smell.

I went along the brow, and had a noble view of
Vesuvius, the bay, and city; then wound up the hill
about a mile to the gate of a high villa on the other
side. Enjoyed a noble view of Mysenum, Baiae, and
flat between.

Nov. 3. — Took a caleche to Portici, with an order
to the Museo Reale ; very well worth the trouble.

* By Buonaria, now at Brougham. This picture was brought, with
several others, from Italy by my father's grandfather, who visited that
country very early in the last century. He returned to England so im-
bued with Italian taste, that he rebuilt a large portion of High-head Castle
in the Italian style, and brought workmen from Italy to decorate the
interior. The household accounts at Brougham show that he spent
£10,000 on this work — an enormous sum in those days.

304 TOUR THROUGH ITALY. [1804.

Indeed all Pompeii and Herculaneum are thus sur-
veyed in the very best manner. Every portable thing
being brought away, every portion of the palace is
devoted to this superb purpose. The floors are all
made of ancient mosaic disposed exactly as found.
You find it in every form : small bits, two, three, or
four inches ; large pieces, figures, and blocks. In one
room are manuscripts unrolled, like burnt cylinders.
All sorts of antiques. All the cameos are still at
Palermo.

Nov. 4. — Set out from Naples on my way back to
Eome.

Nov. 5. — Left Capua, passed Terracina, and arrived
at Yeletri on the 6th.

Nov. 7. — Set off from Veletri after chocolate, and
arrived after dark at Albano, where breakfasted at a
Trattoria. The best bread imaginable, made in half-
pound rolls, each costing four bajocchi. On leaving
this finely-situated town, had a splendid view — on
one side the sea, in front the great plain of the Cam-
pagna, stretching before us all the way to Rome,
which looked to be at no great distance. The town,
domes, palaces, and ruins, backed by the distant
Apennines, had the finest effect possible. The whole
plain covered with endless remains of aqueducts — at
every step a ruin. Along the road, tombs and tem-
ples of all forms, then a ridge of earth, beyond which,
aqueducts as far as the eye can reach. Last of all,
Rome itself, as the ruins thicken. We enter by St
John Lateran, a beautiful piece of architecture, but

JET. 27.] TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 305

in parts too much, ornamented ; then the Colosseum,
then the Forum ; arches, Titus and Severus. On
arriving at the Casa di Venezia, found the places
already taken, and so sent adrift. The route to Flor-
ence blocked up by the plague, and a cordon round
Tuscany. Same difficulty apparently in the way of
Ancona. Doubtful what to do. Went to San Pietro
in Montorio, as soon as I had dressed. View superb,
commanding the whole plain from the platform at
the foot of the church-stairs, which is very high, and
commands all Eome. St Angelo, a noble object-
Dome of St Peter's, rising above the ruins, has a fine
effect.

The court of the church was a round temple built
over the spot where St Peter suffered martyrdom.
The church is nothing, except that it once held the
" Transfiguration." Below is an excellent St Sebas-
tian, a fine Flemish piece, and a number of marble
figures, small and large, by Michael Angelo.

From thence to the Vatican.

The entry in front of the great circle is finer than
can be conceived; the massive pillars, the church,
the great centre object, then the noble fountains,
have an effect not to be described. On entering the
church one is struck dumb and almost blind. No-
thing but grandeur; yet all is ornament — no little-
ness, but every inch well wrought. All marble and
gold, the roof dazzling, and the dome, with the grand
altar, are exquisite as well as sublime.

St Paul's differs as much from it as size does from size
VOL. i. u

306 TOUR THROUGH ITALY. [1804.

combined with splendour, and elegance, and beauty of
every sort. The paintings are all mosaic. The chief
piece is certainly the "Transfiguration," and I fancy the
original, now in Paris, is not much finer ! The light
on Christ's figure is radiant. His attitude is a little
constrained. The hill is too petty ; but Christ's head,
the attitude of Moses and Elias, and the stupefaction
of the dazzled apostles, are miraculous indeed. His
hands and feet, and the feet and hands of the two
former (Moses and Elias), are like bas-relief. One
can't possibly think it flat mosaic. A number of
other mosaics, both in the roof and altar. " Christ
walking on the Sea," His baptism, and that of Con-
stantine, are the most striking. The repairs of the
outside of this great temple make it look new and
small ; but perhaps the former effect counterbalances
the latter, as in point of size it has much to spare.
The Vatican rather fell short of my expectations,
chiefly from the frescoes having suffered much from
damp and time. The four rooms (the stanze), with
vaulted roofs, all designed by Raphael, and all but
one painted by him, and that one by Giulio Eomano,
are indeed noble, in spite of slight defects. The most
striking appeared to be the " Disputes of the Doctors,"
done when he was twenty-three, and had been only
one year in Rome. This is full of his peculiar genius.
All his drawing and imagination are there in full
force. The School of Athens has suffered consider-
ably. Socrates' countenance is taken from Christ in
the " Transfiguration." " St Peter delivered by the

JET. 27.] TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 307

Angel" — said to have reference to the deliverance from
captivity of Leo X., after he was taken prisoner at
Eavenna. This fresco is remarkable for the singular
lights, quite uncommon in this master — the angel
outside the window throws his light through the
bars ; the effect prodigious. The armour of the sleep-
ing soldiers is thus illuminated. One soldier awake
has a torch in his hand, and the moon is shining
behind. One part of the soldier's helmet reflects the
torch-light, the other part the moon-light, which at
the same time is illuminating the landscape behind.
All this is very singular for Eaphael, and most mar-
vellous in its excellence.

In the corridors round the courts of the building
are a profusion of the finest frescoes. Each arch has
four. These are small, but most brilliant, though
exposed to the air for three centuries, and are much
better, in point of preservation, than the rooms.
The frescoes in the Loggia are by different hands.
Eaphael designed one side, containing about fifty
paintings; he finished one and his scholars the rest.
Zucchero did the other three sides. In Eaphael's
part, each subject has four pictures; the finest and
freshest is the " Creation." He finished the first part,
" Chaos, and the Deity making Light." He is soaring
wildly with purple robes among fire -clouds, and
sweeping His hand, which produces the light; it is a
divine piece. Then the Land and Water ; He is still
flying and tracing with His finger. Then the Sun and
Moon, less exact ; and then the Beasts — fantastic, for

308 TOUR THROUGH ITALY. [1804.

you see them making by bits — first a horse's head,
and so on — which is not the idea. The figure of the
Deity standing here is very fine. "Moses striking
the Kock," noble.

The stanze suffered much during the sack of Borne
by the Constable Bourbon. The troops lighting fires
in the rooms greatly injured the paintings, which
were afterwards carefully cleaned by Carlo Maratti
about the end of the seventeenth century.

Left Home and arrived at Terni on the llth of
November; at Pesaro on the 13th. Fano and Sini-
gaglia, 16th and 17th, fortunately escaping the
plague quarantine, which I expected would have de-
tained me at Ancona. By sea to Trieste, and thence
to Vienna. On the 8th of January, visited Presburg,
returning to Vienna, which I left, and arrived at
Prague on the 23d ; and from thence to London.

309

CHAPTER VI.
Foltmteertng project, antr JKfeston to Portugal.

NARRATIVE OF PROJECTS AS TO VOLUNTEERS AND MILITIA — RE-
CEPTION OF THEM BY GOVERNMENT ESTIMATE OF THE EFFI-
CIENCY OF SUCH A FORCE IN COMPARISON WITH REGULAR
TROOPS — NOTICES OF THE YOUNGER PITT — LADY HESTER STAN-
HOPE LORD LIVERPOOL LORD CASTLEREAGH — FOX DESIGNS

OF NAPOLEON ON THE SPANISH PENINSULA CONDITION OF

PORTUGAL — SPECIAL MISSION TO PORTUGAL MY SHARE IN IT

LORD ST VINCENT — LORD ROSSLYN GENERAL SIMCOE — THE

BRITISH FLEET IN THE TAGUS — PROJECT FOR THE SEIZURE OF
THE ROYAL FAMILY, AND THE REMOVAL OF THEM TO THE
BRAZILS — ANECDOTES OF LORD ST VINCENT — DEATH OF FOX
— MINISTERIAL RUMOURS — CONCLUSION OF THE MISSION.

THE following is a brief and exact statement of certain
proceedings which took place last August in Edin-
burgh, relating to my efforts in attempting to organise
a volunteer corps. The facts can be proved by the
original papers and correspondence which I sent to
Wilberforce, in Old Palace Yard, on the 17th July
1804.

A large body of gentlemen, between the ages of 20
and 35, who from particular circumstances happened
not to be attached to any volunteer corps, considering

310 VOLUNTEERING PROJECT. [1804.

the danger of invasion imminent, desired exceedingly
to form themselves into a battalion of infantry, to serve
without pay, and to clothe themselves. They accord-
ingly met to the number of above 200, about the end
of July. My intention at that time was to serve in
the militia of the northern counties of England with
which I was chiefly connected, and I had actually
taken steps for obtaining a company in the West
York militia. I was, however, applied to by the
leading persons among those above mentioned ; and
having the honour of enjoying a very unmerited share
of the confidence of the body, I was requested to
attend a meeting which they purposed to call. This
meeting did me the honour of appointing me the
chairman of the association, and of desiring me to
charge myself with the superintendence of their con-
cerns. I mention these particulars to show the reason
why I feel it my duty to retain some interest in the
manner in which they were treated, and to take this
opportunity of doing them justice. I must also add
that the body in whose name I write these lines was
composed of all the young gentlemen of family, for-
tune, and talents, in that part of Scotland, who hap-
pened to be in no volunteer corps. They were about
two-fifths Scotch, two-fifths English, and one-fifth
Irish. Some of them were residing at Edinburgh for
pleasure, others attending the University, and some
belonged tfo the place, being engaged in the professions
of the law and physic, or members of independent
families. All of them at every meeting showed the

^ET. 26.] VOLUNTEERING PROJECT. 311

utmost zeal for the service of the country ; and their
eager wishes to form an effective corps induced me
to give up for the time my intentions of entering the
militia, and to remain with the rest of the body, to
our very great inconvenience, in Edinburgh during
the whole of the season.

It was resolved, with the countenance of the Uni-
versity, the magistrates, the Lord-Lieutenant, and the
Commander-in-Chief, to form a battalion of light in-
fantry of 588 men, who should serve everywhere
without any expense to Government. We immedi-
ately enrolled a large proportion of that number, and
knew that in a month it must be completed, as our
letters from the country showed that many others
only waited our establishment to join us ; and our
plan was set on foot at the very worst possible season
of the year. We obtained the hearty concurrence of
all the constituted authorities above mentioned, and
acted in every step by their special advice — that is to
say, I communicated almost daily with the Com-
mander-in-Chief and Lord -Lieutenant, and these
proposed regulations to the association, which were
uniformly carried unanimously and eagerly. Our
offer of service was drawn up, signed by me at their
desire, and transmitted in the form pointed out by
the persons above named, accompanied with an obli-
gation signed by the whole body, and forwarded to
Lord Hobart by the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, as
lord-lieutenant of the city, and the Duke of Buc-
cleuch as lord-lieutenant of the county, both very

312 VOLUNTEERING PROJECT. [1804.

warm friends of the plan. I should add that our
design was, instantly on being formed, to march into
quarters for six weeks, in order to complete our dis-
cipline during that season of the year ; and my de-
cided opinion is, that if our offer had been accepted,
there would at this moment have been in his Majes-
ty's service a light infantry battalion of 600 spirited
young men in the highest state of discipline, instead
of the same number of gentlemen attached to no
corps, and certainly not very keen " to die with the
levy en masse."

It remains to mention the reception with which it
pleased Lord Hobart to honour the hearty and unqua-
lified offer of our most zealous and active services.
He returned no answer: he never even acknowledged
the receipt of our papers. We waited in Edinburgh,
to our utmost inconvenience, the whole summer, many
of us belonging to very distant parts of the island,
and, every post, expected to be called out. The Lord-
Lieutenant wrote repeatedly in our favour, and so did
the commanding officer. They received no answer
any more than we had done. In November I tried to
set on foot a new corps after Lord Moira's arrival ;
and so disgusted were those hundreds now, whom I
could have persuaded with a word to march to Land's
End three months before, that only eleven would put
down their names. This was the true way to encour-
age " the volunteering system" and " call forth the
energies of the country"

I am no advocate for that system, nor for the

^T. 26.] VOLUNTEERING PROJECT. 313

militia system, except as subservient to the recruiting
of the only defence of any modern and civilised state
— a regular army. On the contrary, I hold every
other means of defence to be barbarous in the extreme,
and utterly repugnant to the whole principles of poli-
tical science ; and as for balloting, I think it is not a
jot different from a poll-tax falling in the way of a
lottery, while the principle of volunteering is worse
than that of supporting the State or the poor by vol-
untary gifts. Therefore it is not as an advocate of
the system that I feel the bad consequences of the
above conduct, but as an enemy to gross inconsistency
in great State affairs, and as a friend to conciliatory
measures in great emergencies of the public fortunes.
I have drawn up this narrative to satisfy those who
did me the honour of putting themselves and their
zeal under my direction. It is a duty I owe them,
and they will be more than recompensed for the IN-
TOLERABLE insult which was formerly thrown upon
them, if their efforts are made known to those distin-
guished persons whom it is their first and best wish to
please.

TO JOHN AECHIBALD MUEEAY.

"21 CRAVEN STREET, April 2, 1805.
" MY DEAE MURRAY, — I won't begin by a number
of excuses for not answering sooner your very agree-
able letter, but seize the present moment to tell you
how angry I am at your not coming up this spring.
I am almost afraid that fate, the enemy of all wise
and good men, may continue to make us miss one an-

314 JOHN ARCHIBALD MURRAY. [1805.

other, as I have some intentions of a pilgrimage to
the shrine of Jeffrey during the autumn, and you, I'm
told, have thoughts of looking towards the south.
Nevertheless, I highly approve of your London plan,
disinterestedly speaking; for there is always good
society at the empty period of the year, and you'll be
able to enjoy it in great style, besides seeing something
more of the country than birds on the spring flight
generally look at.

" I entreat you to bear with me while I give you a
commission. Jeffrey seems to have thought I was out
of humour in my last letter to him, which he must
have entirely mistaken, for I never was less angry in
my life than when I wrote it. In fact, the whole
Lord L. business has not once made me feel sufficient
interest in it to feel any approach to passion. I have
only time to write this by the present post, and wish
much that Jeffrey should not for a day mistake me so
much as to suspect such a thing.

" But chiefly, I want to explain my opinion about
the notice printed in No. IX. of the Eeview. It
tied me down to publish the answer, which I would
not otherwise have done, when I found there were so
many scruples about giving it the plural form. I also
thought that it was as much as possible committing
the Review against Lord Lauderdale to talk of our
rejoinder, and to cut Lauderdale by the very style of
the notice. But I feel much indebted to the notice
upon the whole from another consideration, which
I certainly only discovered upon reading Horner's

JET. 27.] MELVILLE'S IMPEACHMENT. 315

article on the Corn Bill. The very unnecessary intro-
duction of L.'s book there, in a manner which gave a
most erroneous idea of H/s general opinion of the
book, must have had the effect of making L. conclude
that he had succeeded in his end of obtaining a
favourable verdict from the reviewers in general. The
notice tended to counteract this. I own I was the
more astonished at the remark in Horner's article,
from the circumstance of his having told me repeatedly
that my review erred in not being severe enough —
that he himself would have been more bitter — that he
wished to review the observations in the next number,
and that he meant to have a former compliment to L.
erased in No. II. Hence, again, I must say I feel
obliged for the notice in No. IX.*

" All the world talks all day about the 10th report :
it is more universally enjoyed than any publication I
ever remember to have seen, and not a voice is raised
in Melville's behalf even by ministerial people.! If
fame may be credited, Pitt has written him a dry
letter, and the Doctor J means to vote against him. But

* See 'Edinburgh Review,' October 1804, art. 15, "On the Bounty
upon Exported Corn," at p. 205 is this passage : " The different em-
ployments of national capital, and the progress in which they naturally
succeed each other, or alternate, form a subject on which we are not yet
in possession of a complete theory, though a beautiful sketch was drawn
by Dr Smith, to which many original remarks have been added by Mr
Brougham in his work upon Colonial Policy, and some happy illustra-
tions by Lord Lauderdale in the last chapter of his late publication."

f The Tenth Report of the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry, ordered
by the House of Commons to be printed, Feb. 13, 1805 — the foundation
of the impeachment of Lord Melville. See State Trials, xxix. 550 et seq.

I The Doctor — i.e. Addington.

316 LORD MELVILLE. [1805.

I give you this only as the talk of uninformed persons.
The general question seems to me very short and clear.
Whether the public lost or won — whether Lord Mel-
ville gained or not — whether even Trotter gained or
not, — I have no reason to inquire. A statute provides
to the public money security against risk, and a high
officer in a station of great trust acts in the teeth of
that provision. The public has incurred risk; and if
you were to prove that it had gained instead of losing,
I would only say, ' So much the more dangerous is
the precedent/ If it is argued that Lord Melville
served the State with the navy money on pressing
emergencies, the answer is plain : he should have
applied for a bill of indemnity. But, in truth, such a
bill could only have been got for a part of the trans-
action so extremely trifling, that the application would
have ruined his cause.

" But though the above is clearly the naked State
question, I am far from viewing the facts of profit and
loss as indifferent. It is something that such sharks
should be brought to justice ; and it is much, much
indeed, that an attempt is made to wipe off this first
foul stain which the country has ever received from
the conduct of its rulers. Dirty fingers will abso-
lutely not do in England.

" All people of any character here seem to feel much
upon the occasion — and well they may, upon national
grounds.

" But those who love Dundas with the pure affec-
tion which I bear him, must feel a mixed sensation —

JET. 27.] WILLIAM PITT. 317

a little sorrow for the country, and an infinite satis-
faction for the fate of the men. I feel truly savage
upon the whole affair, and only lament most sincerely,
as every admirer of Pitt must do, that he has been so
long coupled with such a nasty dog. The city (who
say they used to feel the fellow in the stock-market)
are going to petition for his removal; and though
he will gain a great victory most likely in Parlia-
ment, I venture to prophesy that he will soon be
little heard of.

" The capture of our West India Islands comes in
to puzzle ministers a little further, and I have no
doubt that a few days will bring the worst news from
the East. Every man who knows how to estimate the
importance of Mr Pitt's security to the country at
present, must feel inexpressibly annoyed at all this.
Indeed I must be impartial enough to say that nothing
has surprised me more than the strength of the tide
now setting in against him. But he will gain some
great victory, and scatter all his enemies, except those
eternal existing circumstances, which I fear he is fated
to be undone by, and which he seems once more to hug
as close as ever. Pray tell me what Edinburgh folks
say of Lord M.'s business. I agree in all you say
about Fox's impolicy. What a pity that the first man
in the world should be incapacitated from ever ruling
in this country by so trifling a defeat ! H. B."

Although on more than one occasion I had heard Pitt
speak, I never had an opportunity of making his ac-

3l8 ANECDOTES. [1805.

quaintance ; but many years after his death I received
from my friend William Napier so graphic an account
of a visit he had paid to Pitt in 1804, that I wrote
down nearly the whole of Napier's statement in the
very words he had used in relating to me the impres-
sion left on his mind by his visit to the great minister.
Napier received through his friend Charles Stanhope,
Pitt's nephew, an invitation to pass some time at
Putney. When he arrived, Mr Pitt received him cor-
dially, and welcomed him with such gentle good-
nature that he felt instantly not only at perfect ease,
but that he was in the presence of a friend with whom
he might instantly become familiar, to any extent,
within the bounds of good-breeding. All this pro-
duced a strange sensation, for Napier had gone to
Putney determined to hold fast by his Whiggish
principles even in the presence of the wicked Tory
minister, however polite and condescending he might
appear to be; for he had been reared among Whigs, and
accustomed to hear Mr Pitt abused with all the vehe-
mence of their sneering virulence. So he looked upon
Pitt as an enemy of all good government, and had
always heard his father, who was no Whig, condemn
the war with France as an iniquitous and pernicious
measure. Thus primed with fierce recollections and
patriotic resolves, he endeavoured to keep up a bitter
hatred of the minister; but in vain. All hostile feelings
gave way to unbounded surprise at finding such a
gentle, good-natured, and entertaining companion, for
such he proved to be long before the visit was at an end.

^ET. 27.] WILLIAM PITT. 319

Lady Hester Stanhope was there : he found her
very attractive; and so rapid and decided was her
conversation, so full of humour and keen observation,
and withal so friendly and instructive, that it was
quite impossible not to succumb to her, and to become
her slave, whether laughing or serious.

She was certainly not beautiful ; but her tall com-
manding figure, her large dark eyes, and varying
expression, changing as rapidly as her conversation,
and equally vehement, kept him, as he expressed it,
in a state of continual admiration.

She had little respect for the political coadjutors
of Mr Pitt, and delighted to laugh at them. Lord
Castlereagh she always called " his monstrous lord-
ship:" but Lord Liverpool was a constant theme for
ridicule and contempt. Thus, speaking of a design
which had been approved of by Pitt, of conferring
military decorations, she said it had been stopped by
the meddling folly of Lord Liverpool, who insisted
upon being consulted on the texture and colours
of the ribbons : whereas, she said, she thought, as a
young woman, she was more capable of settling such
a question than an old woman like Lord Liverpool.
But he would not give way, and ended by sending
her four thousand yards of different ribbons, all, as
she said, to be paid for by the public; and this collec-
tion he proposed to examine in concert with her, for
the purpose of selecting the most suitable. Lady
Hester declined the partnership, and so there was an
end of the plan for military decorations.

320 ANECDOTES. [1805.

Some years afterwards, and after Mr Pitt's death,
she told Xapier a more melancholy story in which
Lord Liverpool played a part. A young fellow of
Deal had been engaged in smuggling, and got in-

O O OO O' o

volved in a fray in which a sailor was killed, but not
by him ; and there were, besides, circumstances of
extenuation: however, he was apprehended, tried, and
condemned to death. His old mother went to Lady
Hester, beseeching her aid ; and Lady Hester without
hesitation went to Lord Liverpool, stated all the
circumstances, and made out, as she fully believed, a
case for pardon. Napier said she described her inter-
view with the most bitter sarcasm. His maudlin
lordship, she said, listened with great interest to her
story, admitted it to be a case for commiseration, and
that the plea she had urged in the man's favour was
very powerful ; but added that, before he could give
an answer, he must consult his housekeeper ! He
went down -stairs, remained half an hour with his
adviser, and, returning to Lady Hester, told her
" they had wept together over the sad case, but that
the man must be hanged!" All this seems incredible,
but Xapier assured me it was positively so stated
to him by Lady Hester, and that she had told him
many other stories about this housekeeper, and of her
marvellous influence over Lord Liverpool. Of Sir
John Moore she always spoke with great admiration,
and said that Mr Pitt had so high an opinion of him
that he never received from him the most ordinary
note without showing it to whoever was then with

O

^T. 27.] WILLIAM PITT. 321

him, and pointing out the grace and felicity of the
expressions.

Mr Pitt used to come home to dinner after his
Cabinet work a good deal exhausted, and requiring
port wine, of which he generally drank a bottle
during dinner in a rapid succession of glasses; but
as soon as this stimulus restored his strength, he
drank no more. His conversation then became gay,
good-natured, and humorous, and he would tell all
sorts of amusing stories : some of them about the
colonel of Napier's regiment — the 43d. This was
General Smith, an uncle of Sir Sidney; and certainly
a humorist, as appeared by the stories Mr Pitt used
to relate of him. One was, that during the fears
produced by the apprehension of the French invasion,
the general sent by extraordinary express a parcel
supposed to contain important news, but which turned
out to be the nightcap of a member of the Govern-
ment, who had left it behind when on a visit to the
general. Another story was that, when he com-
manded on the south coast, he sent a despatch to Pitt
announcing that two French ships were then actually
landing troops in three places !

Mr Pitt liked practical fun, and used to encourage
it. One instance, which Napier gives, shows Pitt in
a point of view singular, and little to be anticipated
of so generally solemn a personage. They — Lady
Hester, James Stanhope, and Napier — had resolved
to blacken his face with burnt cork, which he most
strenuously resisted. Early in the fray, a servant

VOL. T. x

322 ANECDOTES. [1805.

announced that Lord Castlereagh and Lord Liverpool
had called, desiring to see him on important business.
" Let them wait in the outer room/' said the great
minister, instantly returning to the battle, catching
up a cushion and belabouring his attackers, who
proved too many for him, and after a prolonged
struggle got him down, and began daubing his face-
when, with a look of well-assumed confidence in his
powers of still resisting, he said : " Stop — this won't
do : I could easily beat you all, but we must not keep
these grandees waiting any longer ;" so they were
obliged to get a towel and basin of water to wash
him clean before he received the grandees. Being
thus made decent, the basin was hid behind the
sofa, and the two lords ushered in. Then a sudden
change and entirely new phase of manner appeared,
to Napier's great surprise and admiration. Lord
Liverpool's manner was, as usual, mean-looking, bend-
ing, nervous, and altogether pitiful. Lord Castlereagh,
Napier said, he had well known from his childhood ; had
often been engaged with him in such athletic sports
as pitching the stone, bar, and so on ; and he had
looked upon him as a model of calm grace combined
with great strength. What, then, was his surprise when
he saw both him and Lord Liverpool humbly bending
as they approached the man who had so recently been
maltreated with such an excess of fun! But it was Mr
Pitt's sudden change of manner and look which most
entirely fixed his attention. His tall, ungainly, bony
figure seemed to grow up to the ceiling — his head

.JET. 27.] WILLIAM PITT. 323

thrown back, his eyes fixed immovably in one posi-
tion as if gazing into the heavens, and totally regard-
less of the two bending figures before him. For some
time they spoke, and he made now and then a short
observation ; but finally, with an abrupt stiff inclina-
tion of his body, but without casting his eyes down,
dismissed them. And then, turning round with a
laugh, caught up his cushion and renewed the fight.

Napier described to me another instance of what he
called Mr Pitt's power of countenance. Some time
after the visit to Putney, while walking across the
parade-ground of the Horse Guards, he saw Mr Pitt
talking to some gentlemen, evidently upon business
which interested him. Napier caught his eye while
still some forty yards distant. Pitt gave him a smile
and nod of recognition, but on Napier advancing
laughing towards him, his countenance assumed a
commanding fierceness of expression, difficult to de-
scribe, but unmistakably saying, " Pass on : this is no
time for foolery."

Napier concluded this account of Pitt, which I have
given in his own words, by telling me a good deal
about Fox, whom he had frequently met, not only at
his own father's at Clifton, but in Fox's own house,
or, more frequently, at the Duke of York's, which
then stood on the present site of Stafford House,
where Fox lived when he was Prime Minister. I
much regret that I did not make more copious notes
of what he related to me, as I had done in the case
of Pitt. But 1 well remember that he told me that

324 FOREIGN POLITICS. [1806.

Fox's manners were totally different from Pitt's;
always agreeable, gentle, kind, and good-natured ;
but not attractive for young people, inasmuch as he
never appeared to take any interest in them, but ra-
ther to bear with them than to like them. Such was
the clear impression he made upon young Napier ;
whereas Pitt's manners were joyous hilarity and de-
light at having the opportunity of unbending his
mind, and relieving himself from public cares, where
he could do it safely ; and this Napier declared was
very attractive.

Between this time and the autumn of 1806, when
I accompanied Lord St Vincent and Lord Eosslyn to
Portugal, I have nothing of any interest to record.
I now proceed to give the history of that mission,
and the circumstances connected with it, much of
which will be explained by the correspondence and
despatches which follow.

The intention of the French Government — that is,
of Napoleon — to invade Portugal, had for some time
been made manifest in various ways during the sum-
mer of 1806, and it appeared to the English Govern-
ment that the situation of that country was becoming
critical. It was felt that if France should succeed in
establishing a peace with the northern Powers, she
would probably attack the only remaining ally of
England upon the Continent, and might even succeed
in making herself mistress of the Portuguese domin-
ions. Portugal, from its long alliance with England,
was regarded by Bonaparte almost as a part of our

JET. 28.] FOREIGN POLITICS. 32$

dominions, both in a commercial and political point
of view. Considerable as were the benefits we de-
rived from its trade, and great as was our preponder-
ance in its councils, he certainly formed an exagger-
ated estimate of both; seizing upon Portugal was
like a direct defeat of England. He was smarting
under the recent defeat at Trafalgar, and had found
not the least facility in his plans of invasion ; so that
anything like a territorial advantage over us would
be a gratification, if it did not amount to a compen-
sation. The possession of the Tagus was intimately
connected with our other great naval victory at St
Vincent ; but though the importance of that event in
rescuing us from the most complicated and almost
inextricable embarrassments must have been well
known to him, he cared little about anything that
had happened before his own reign, so entirely did
personal vanity form a part of his character — more
entirely than of any other person of great renown.
To be able to boast that he had driven the English
into the sea, captured their only stronghold on the
Continent, and dethroned those who held it by and
for them, was his main object, and probably nearer
his heart than any substantial injury done to us, or
any real advantage gained to himself.

The Courts too, both at Lisbon and Madrid, were
feeble beyond all description; their Governments,
both civil and ecclesiastical, as bad as possible ; the
Queen of Spain and the Prince of the Peace more
likely to assist the French in destroying Portugal

326 FOREIGN POLITICS. [1806.

than to oppose any obstacle to its destruction. Since
the peace of Presburg, Bonaparte had nothing to
occupy his attention, nor had anything occurred to
postpone the project of subduing the ally of England
and winning the last stake England had to lose on
the continent of Europe.

Early in August 1806, the English Government
had received intelligence of the intention of France
to invade Portugal with an army of 30,000 men then
assembled at Bayonne. From perfectly reliable in-
formation, it was believed that it was the object and
intention of Bonaparte to dethrone the royal family,
and to partition Portugal, allotting one part to Spain
and the other to the Prince of the Peace or to the
Queen of Etruria.

The ministers thereupon resolved to send an army
to the Tagus, to be there met by a competent naval
force, the whole to be intrusted to the command of
Lord St Vincent and Lieutenant - General Simcoe,
with full powers, conjointly with Lord Eosslyn, to
negotiate with the Court of Lisbon.

I received from the Foreign Office the following
letter : —

"DOWNING STREET, August 12, 1806.

" SIR, — I am directed by Mr Secretary Fox to inform
you that his Majesty having been pleased to appoint
the Earl of Eosslyn, the Earl of St Vincent, and Lieu-
tenant-General Simcoe to proceed on a special mission
to the Court of Lisbon, you have been selected to

JET. 28.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 327

accompany them as secretary to the said mission.
You will therefore join the Earl of Eosslyn and Gen-
eral Simcoe, who are proceeding without delay to the
place of their destination, where the Earl of St Vin-
cent will be already arrived, and place yourself under
their directions ; and you will exert yourself to the
best of your ability in the execution of all such mat-
ters as may be intrusted to you.

(Signed) " BENJN. TUCKER."

I was further informed that, to avoid multiplying
places unnecessarily, I was named secretary, but in
all respects I was to act as a fourth commissioner.
General Simcoe was taken ill on his passage out, and
grew so much worse after his arrival in Lisbon, that
he was compelled to return to England, and shortly
afterwards died. The work of the commission there-
upon was carried on by Lord St Vincent, Lord Eoss-
lyn, and myself.

Lord St Vincent was ordered to proceed with as
little delay as possible to Lisbon, to be in readiness to
execute the secret service communicated to him by
Lord Howick. He was directed, after having placed
the ships off Brest under the officer next in command,
to proceed, without a moment's loss of time, to the
Tagus, taking with him such of the ships then under
his command as he should judge necessary; and to
remain in the Tagus until joined by the troops which
were about to be employed in this special service.

The object of this move was to counteract the ex-

328 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

pectcd French invasion of Portugal by the army then
assembled at Bayonne.

In executing this service, Lord St Vincent was
especially directed by Lord Howick to keep the fol-
lowing in view : First, if he should find the Portu-
guese Government willing and resolved to make
effectual efforts for their own defence, either singly
or in co-operation with Spain, he might intimate that
England would be ready to afford substantial assist-
ance, the preliminary step to this being the presence
of an English squadron in the Tagus. Second, if
the Portuguese Government, believing resistance to
be impracticable, should resolve, as had been conjec-
tured, to remove their, ships, forces, stores, &c., to
the Brazils, then, that he should co-operate with them
for that purpose, by affording the aid of the British
fleet under his command. Third, if the Court of
Lisbon should appear too undecided to adopt either
of the above resolutions, that he should take such
steps as should prevent the accession of force, parti-
cularly of naval force, which the enemy would receive
were they allowed, without resistance, to possess
themselves of the port of Lisbon, and which must
at all events be prevented, and such means adopted
as might enable him to bring away the Portuguese
ships of war, Brazil and other ships, and also the
persons, ships, and property of the British factories,
and, above all, the Court itself.

In the event of this last contingency arising, the
troops which were embarked had been ordered to

JET. 28.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 329

follow him with the least delay possible. But he
was especially cautioned to be most careful not to
give any information, before they actually arrived,
that they were expected by him, and above all to do
nothing that might alarm the French minister at
Lisbon, or give the smallest hint to the French party
there, that might lead to any measures being taken
to counteract or defeat whatever steps he might ulti-
mately be compelled to take.

Thus it will be seen that the object of our mission
was to provide with the Portuguese Government for
the defence of the country ; to show them that an
invasion was intended, of which we had abundant
proof from the diplomatic intercourse with Paris, as
well as from the preparations actually in progress on
the Spanish frontier; to require adequate prepara-
tions on their part, with the co-operation of our naval
and military forces, and whatever aid in subsidy might
be required; and if it should be found that either
they would make no effort in self-defence, or that
their means with all the help we could afford them
were wholly inadequate, then our object was to urge
the transfer of the Government to the Brazils, assist-
ing by every means in our power this important
operation, which implied the removal of the royal
family, the ministers, and the principal nobles, as well
as the substitution of the metropolitan for the pro-
visional or colonial system. The three commanders
were as well selected as possible for this difficult and
delicate service. The admiral's name, renowned all

330 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806-.

over the world, was peculiarly an object of venera-
tion in these countries which had witnessed his great
exploits : of the generals, Lord Kosslyn had served
in the country, and was distinguished by his great
knowledge and talent for business : and the third
was General Simcoe, son of the general who had
been sent to Lisbon at the time of the great earth-
quake with the liberal grant of money given to relieve
the distresses which it had occasioned. The greatest
weight of authority was possessed by the head of
the commission, and the most favourable disposition
prevailed towards the other members. My inter-
course was with Lord St Vincent and Lord Eosslyn,
because General Simcoe, as I have before stated, died
before we began our operations. On the voyage,
however, he (Lord Eosslyn) and myself had a great
deal of discussion upon the objects of our mission,
and the extraordinary difficulties which we expected
to meet from the strength of the forts, should entrance
into the Tagus be refused ; and in that case we were
to remain with the fleet off the coast till the troops
arrived; though these conversations turned chiefly
on the formidable nature of the service we were un-
dertaking, and particularly on the great means of
naval defence on the river, in case we should have to
force a passage and a landing. For the first three
days of our voyage we had been constantly signalling
strange sails — and, receiving no answers, were often
011 the point of preparing for action ; so it seemed as
if we were destined to have a hostile encounter either

JET. 28.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 331

at sea or when we reached the Tagus, and we all felt
desirous that it should end one way or another.
When we arrived, however, there was no prospect of
the kind. We found none of the fleet off the coast ;
it had all entered without the least opposition, or any
delay whatever interposed ; and then we found the
great admiral's plan clearly explained.

I could not but recollect who this illustrious man
was, with and under whom it had become my lot to
act : not only his achievements, of which I had heard
Pitt, when in the act of moving a censure upon his
naval administration, " extol the vast renown," declar-
ing that they " shed a new lustre on our national
glory, and made his name a tower of strength in every
naval capacity/'? but his other great qualities, of
which, on the same occasion, I had heard Fox, in his
factious co-operation with his rival's proceeding, pro-
fess his unstinted " admiration when he found him
possessing in so high a degree what he truly described
as so much more rare than gallantry in the field, civil
courage and decision/' t Thus impressed with a deep
sense of his genius both in war and peace, I felt the
greatest deference for his judgment no less as a states-
man than a warrior; and it may well be supposed
how closely I observed his proceedings, and how
anxiously I cultivated his friendship. I soon found
that, like all great men, though having entire confi-
dence in his own judgment, he received patiently,
even kindly, any doubts or objections proposed by

* House of Commons, 15th March 1804. f Same debate.

332 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

those for whom he entertained respect, not even re-
jecting the suggestions of others, or their information,
without duly considering what was offered ; and only
showing impatience when subordinate persons re-
quired to be assured that his resolution was taken,
and in peremptory terms announced. His objection
to the word impossible he did not conceal ; indeed he
never could comprehend its meaning, even before his
mind was made up — and nobody dared to use it after-
wards.

On our arrival in the Tagus, we found that his first
step had been, as soon as he anchored, to cut off all
communication between his fleet and the shore, which
he effectually did by proclaiming an eight days'
quarantine. When his colleagues in the commission
joined him, he still prohibited all his officers and men
most strictly from landing ; but threw open the ships
to the inhabitants of the place, whose multitudes
never ceased pouring through the vessels, lost in
admiration of their beauty, their force, and the dis-
cipline of their crews. His intercourse now began
with the Court, and we soon found, what might in-
deed have been expected, that his name, independent
of the armament, made his influence supreme. But
our attempts were vain to convince the Court or its
ministers that an invasion was prepared, and that
they must expect the French army to cross the Pyre-
nees immediately.

I have already stated, generally, the instructions of
the commissioners. It happened, however, when I

JET. 28.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 333

fully considered the position of Spain in all respects,
that there was a fair prospect afforded by our ex-
pedition of detaching her from the French alliance —
in fact, of inducing her to make some efforts at this
particular time for recovering her independence, sup-
posing that the full powers which we had with respect
to Portugal were extended to Spain, both in respect
of pecuniary and military assistance. Her grievances
were at their height. Her abject submission, and
the great losses which it had inflicted, were rewarded
not only by the seizure of the last of the Bourbon
dominions in Italy, but by an attempt to obtain the
cession of Sicily from England in return for the
Balearic Islands and Porto Rico, parts of the Spanish
possessions. But, independent of just cause of offence,
the danger was manifest, indeed imminent, of an in-
vasion from France. A French army was assembled
on the frontier ; and though the pretence was to invade
Portugal, yet even that operation implied its march
through Spain, which must prove the next thing to an
occupation of the country. There was every induce-
ment to make the effort, and the moment was favour-
able; indeed, was in all probability the last opportunity
the Spaniards ever would have. In Germany there
was a great and general agitation occasioned by the
French armies continuing on the right bank of the
Rhine, and which was there increased to exasperation
by the acts of violence committed, especially the
murder of Palm, the Nuremberg bookseller. The
indignation of Prussia at the establishment of the

334 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

Confederation of the Eliine was extreme ; and the
hostility to France was stronger in the Prussian terri-
tories than in any other part of the German states.
The exasperation was increased by the discovery that
Napoleon had proposed to give up Hanover as part
of his terms with England, allowing part of the Hanse
towns as a compensation. Everything seemed to
portend a rupture with France, which of course meant
an invasion of Germany. The Emperor Alexander
had, by his ambassador, concluded a treaty entirely
favourable to Napoleon ; and nothing prevented Eussia
from breaking with him but the negotiations still

o o

pending with England — and the ratification of the
treaty was delayed. All these things had been known
to our Government before we left England, in conse-
quence of Lord Yarmouth's communications, acting
as our minister at Paris previously to Lord Lauder-
dale's more formal appointment ; and I conceived the
plan of opening a direct intercourse with Madrid.
This was laid in detail before my colleagues in the
commission, who all, especially Lord St Vincent,
entirely approved of it, as did the Government at
home. The chief minister (Godoy, Prince of the
Peace) was applied to for passports that I might pro-
ceed to Madrid and carry on the negotiation there
directly. A week's delay in sending them was pro-
posed, and I proceeded during that time to the north,
charged to examine the preparations pretended by the
Portuguese Government to be making on that frontier
against any attack, though the ministers were? or

JET. 28.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 335

affected to be, satisfied that none was intended. But
before I went, our conversation with the Government
had been most unsatisfactory, not only as to their
disbelief of any peril, but also as to getting them to
make preparations against a design which they per-
sisted in considering, or at least in representing, as
very remote. That their means of defence, as far as
we could ascertain them, were very inadequate, was
but too manifest. It was very fit that we should
examine their preparations in the north, if it were
only to have a test of the accuracy of their statements.
But on the best consideration we could give to the
whole case, it appeared that the passage of the Pyre-
nees by the French army must at once seal the fate
of Portugal, whatever assistance we might be able to
render them ; and that therefore we should be driven
to the other alternative as soon as that passage was
effected — viz., the prevailing on them to transfer the
seat of government to the Brazils. But we plainly
perceived that this was quite as hopeless as to make
them prepare effectually for their defence. I had
repeated discussions on this great question with Lord
St Vincent, and he never for an instant imagined that
they would voluntarily accede to the proposition. The
reluctance to remove was universal and deep-rooted,
wherever the subject was broached. Those at the
head of affairs, as often as we approached it, plainly
showed us that no result of an invasion, no terms
which a successful enemy could propose, would be
more hateful than their banishment for life across the

33<5 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

Atlantic would be to those whose excursions had
hitherto been confined to a journey between their
town and country residence at home. But the ad-
miral, well aware of this resolution, without letting
any one entertain the least suspicion of what he was
about, arranged everything for the voyage of the
royal family and its attendants. In talking over
the matter, when both of us dwelt upon the absolute
necessity of the strictest secrecy, I remember his say-
ing, " You know there is but one way of keeping a
secret— to tell nobody." I said, " Of course our col-
leagues must know it." " Certainly," he said ; " but not
their families, as they call their aide-de-camps" And
General Simcoe being exceedingly ill, it was agreed
that I should mention it to Lord Eosslyn as soon as
the preparations were completed, before which time
it was unnecessary to trouble him. As soon as every-
thing had been prepared, and all communication
between the fleet and the shore been cut off (I
forget on what alleged ground), the admiral only
waited till the proper moment came to execute his
plan. The success appeared quite certain. His design
was to have one or two boats with crews of picked
men, then a few of his most able and trusty officers,
and a number of men on whom he could rely, not in
any order or arrangement, but scattered about and
ready to assist when they received directions either
from himself or the officers, who were to be dispersed
among them, lie had rehearsed with them what he
expected would be done, and no one had the least

JET. 28.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 337

suspicion of the service in which they were to be
employed, all supposing, probably, that these evolu-
tions were merely a piece of discipline connected with
landing and embarkation, as the arrival of our troops
was known to be expected. As soon as the moment
came, and the operation was resolved upon, the
admiral was to propose that the regent and his
attendants of rank should drive to the harbour to
view the Hibernia (his flagship), dressed out on occa-
sion of some English festival. They had frequently
done so before, and their repairing now to the spot
would not be objected to. The regent was of course
likely to be accompanied by many of his Court, and
Lord St Vincent himself would attend him. I recollect
his saying, in answer to my question whether he
would invite him to a collation as on former occa-
sions, " Certainly not ; for, considering what was in-
tended, it might be thought contrary to good faith."
I replied that 1 conceived the plan to be so little
grounded on good faith, as to make this distinction
somewhat of a refinement. But he said that was as
one happened to feel it, only they would cry out the
more against the whole proceeding.

When he had with the utmost possible respect at-
tended the regent to the boat, he expected that there
would be a positive refusal to go on board, which he
meant to urge in the most humble and submissive
terms. He laid his account with the resistance being
greater the more he pressed, and took for granted
that either a peremptory refusal or a return to the

VOL. I. y

338 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

palace would be declared as the suspicion entered
their minds of what was in view. He then was de-
termined to take the prince's arm, while one of his
officers (I think it was Sir Pultney Malcolm who was
in the secret, and on whom he .had entire reliance),
took the other arm, and the men joining them, the
prince and his chief attendants were to be forced into
the boat as gently as possible, but at once, and con-
veyed on board the Hibernia without their having
time to give any warning to their servants, all of
whom were to be detained by the men surrounding
the boats. On their arrival at the Hibernia, the
regent would find the most ample preparation for
accommodating them, and as many as they chose to
send for. But they were to sail for Eio Janiero that
evening, after issuing a proclamation to declare the
seat of government transferred. Lord St Vincent
had no doubt that great as the ill-humour and even
indignation might be, yet a few hours' conversation
would obtain this proclamation. All communication
with the shore being cut off, and the commission
having the power of placing the whole affair in what-
ever light they pleased, he believed the regent and
those about him would consent, and care would be
taken to send for his favourites, in whose hands he
was known to be entirely, as we had found from all
our sources of information, including Lord Strangford,
who had been for some time charge d'affaires in the
absence of our minister, Lord Robert Fitzgerald.
Aranjo, the chief minister, was to be allowed, if he

JET. 28.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 339

chose, to join his master ; but we had no idea that
anything would have tempted him to quit Europe,
particularly in these circumstances. The unhappy
condition of the queen would have required that she
should be conveyed on board in the night ; but the
regent would have been made to give the proper
directions, and one of the other ships being ready for
part of the Court, she might have been embarked in
that. To have left her behind would furnish the
invading army with the means of misrepresentation,
and even of acting in her name.

As every part of the execution of this plan depended
upon the admiral himself, the only risk I could per-
ceive of its failure was if any attempt against him
had succeeded. But this must have been at the very
first ; and in case any troops should have been sud-
denly brought together from their accidentally being
near the spot, the marines were to be landed so as at
once to overpower them ; for part of the plan was to
have them repeatedly landed as for parade or review.
But the obtaining possession of the regent's person,
and the consequent acting in his name, rendered any
such emergency extremely unlikely. The picked men
who were to man the boats and to mix with the
crowd afforded abundant security against everything
except some chance attack upon the admiral's person.

There could be little doubt that Lord St Vincent
had borrowed his plan from Cortes's seizure of the
Emperor Montezuma (at least the leading features of
it), and I told him he had been reading my great

340 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

kinsman's account of that transaction. He did not
deny it, but said there were material variations in his
plan. There was force, though gentle force, if neces-
sary, at the beginning of his plan, and there was no
maltreatment or cruelty at the end. He expressed
the greatest horror of Cortes's cruel, bloodthirsty, and
sordid conduct, not only towards Montezuma, but in
all his actions and designs; and on my entirely agree-
ing with him, he said that miscreant had not been
enough abused. Your uncle, I think he said,"* has
not abused him half enough ; in which I entirely
agreed. Our discussions on the matters connected
with this plan took place at different times before I
went to the northern provinces. ' It formed a frequent
subject of our conversation. It plainly occupied his
thoughts a good deal; and I recollect when at Cintra,
where we had gone for a day to escape the heat and
the offensive atmosphere of Lisbon, after his rubber of
whist, which he made me play with his old hostess
Mrs Dacy, and Dr Cope our physician — when she and
the Doctor retired, he would fall a-musing on the sub-
ject, and putting questions for consideration.

It was on such occasions, as well as on board the
Hibernia, that he dwelt on many things which were
most interesting in his former life. Thus he described

* Of this expression I may have some doubt, for he was in the habit
of saying " your uncle," in reference to another, Mr Meux, who had
married my father's sister, and with whom Lord St Vincent had been
at school, and always kept up some intercourse, and had him occasion-
ally on board his ship. He used to speak of " my old schoolfellow, your
uncle Dick."

JET. 28.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 34!

the means which he adopted for putting down the
mutiny in the vessels so often sent to him for that
purpose ; and he was very indignant at the complaints
which were sometimes made of his cruelty, or at least
his severity, when in truth it was only his humane
determination to prevent mischief and spare life by
vigorous action that were the ground of complaint.
An instance he gave of this which I shall not easily
forget, was when the fleet lay off Cadiz, and a seventy-
four, I think she was, joined him in as bad a state as
possible. He soon found that the mutinous crew were
all but in possession of the vessel. " I knew well
enough/' he said, " that all would be right, and the
authority of the officers restored, were they laid along-
side of an enemy; but of that there was little chance
to all appearance :" so the officers were one after
another quietly withdrawn, and two vessels of superior
force suddenly directed to place themselves one on
each side of the mutinous ship, with orders to sink
her after distinct announcement of the fixed intention.
I don't recollect whether this notification was to be
made by calling for some of them on board, or by
sending some men to her, but the notice was clearly
conveyed, that disobedience to orders would instantly
be followed by the extremity of punishment. Lord
St Vincent well knew that what actually happened
was certain to take place — submission as soon as the
mutineers saw the men in the other ships at their
guns with matches lighted. I think it was the day
after this mutiny was quelled that he ordered a court-

342 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

martial to try the ringleaders ; and some of the worst
being singled out for punishment, an officer waited
upon him to know at what hour it was to be inflicted.
He said, " To-morrow morning at eight." The officer
begged leave to remind his Excellency that the morrow
was Sunday ; to which his Excellency did not return
a very gracious, but a very short, answer. "The
foolish man," he said, " did not perceive that an execu-
tion never before having taken place on a Sunday, I
was determined to make it have ten times its ordinary
effect, and to avoid the necessity of making more
examples than would suffice."

So on a much more recent occasion, when he was
First Lord of the Admiralty, he related how he had
been attacked for the harshness of his proceedings
when our fleet, after having been long at sea, and ex-
pecting to be paid off upon the peace in 1802, was
suddenly ordered to sail after the French expedition
fitted out against St Domingo, and a general and
alarming mutiny broke out. Courts-martial were
held and men condemned. The fleet was drawn up
in a half-moon; signals were made for each ship to
man a boat for attending execution. The next signal
was for the convict in each ship who was to suffer
to be hanged up ; and the third signal was for all the
fleet to sail, which it did while the punishment was
barely over, — I rather think he said, before the men
were cut down. But certainly there never was a
whisper of discontent on the whole voyage. It is
easy to understand how a less decided course might

JET. 28.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 343

have had the appearance of being less harsh, and
might also have kept the fire of discontent alive for a
length of time, caused great injury to the service, and
led to loss of life both in quelling the mutiny and in
the punishments necessary to be inflicted upon its
ringleaders.

One of the most remarkable instances of his prompt
decision, as well as his ignorance of the word " im-
possible," was that which really gained the battle of
St Vincent, and had all the important effects of both
quelling the mutiny and relieving us from the appre-
hension of invasion. Intelligence was brought over-
land to Lisbon, where he lay with his fleet, that from
clear indication the Spanish fleet was immediately to
sail. He ordered his fleet to be instantly got ready;
and when his captains who were assembled said that
under five or six days this could not be done, he said
it must be done in six hours, and he would not hear
of a moment longer. They were in great consterna-
tion, but they knew their man, and that the fleet must
put to sea in the time specified. It did so ; and the
victory was gained with less than half the enemy's
force. A day or two later and the Spanish fleet
would have escaped them, raised the blockade of
Brest, swept the Channel, and led to the invasion of
Ireland. This was the plan which Napoleon after-
wards complained of Villeneuve for having failed in
enabling him to execute, when he drew off the army
of England (as he called it) to gain the victory at
Ulm.

344 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

When I in one of our conversations referred to his
great and prompt decision, and to the breaking up
of the Addington ministry in 1804, immediately after
the joint attack upon his naval administration, ex-
pressing my wonder that he had not taken the king's
offer to stand by them and dissolve, if necessary, —
his answer was, that he certainly should have insisted
upon this course being taken, but he knew that there
were friends of the besieged in the garrison ready to
open the gates to them. He particularly named Per-
ceval and Eld on, whom he believed to be in league
with Pitt. On my saying he had the professional
dislike to lawyers, he added that Hawkesbury also
inclined to Pitt, and perhaps Castlereagh, but of
Eldon he was sure. But he denied having the least
prejudice against our profession, and, on the contrary,
said he had some most excellent friends who were at
the head of it, particularly Erskine, for whom he had
the greatest regard, and had sometimes taken him on
a cruise. Indeed I always found he had a kind of
professional pride in Erskine, from his having been,
as he said, " bred to the sea." In mentioning Ad-
dington, he said he had been much underrated, and
in some respects was a considerable man, especially
for his political courage, which, he said, would have
borne him out in resisting the coalition had it not
been for the enemy within his garrison.

I found him to be less adverse to the Catholic
question than was supposed ; but he greatly disap-
proved of Pitt's manner of conducting it, with the

JET. 28.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 345

knowledge which he had of the king's strong pre-
judices ; and considered that the whole matter might
have been settled with a little temper and firmness.
He had frequent occasion to come upon the subject
of the Catholic system and its gross abuses, which he
always maintained that sensible men like Aranjo and
Souza viewed in the same light as we ourselves did ;
while the mere courtiers and the royal family, espe-
cially the regent, were in a state of deplorable big-
otry, and were ruled partly by their confessors and
partly by their servants. I recollect his going to see
the ceremony of a woman taking the veil; and on
that occasion he showed very little respect for the
solemnity when the part of it came which shows the
individual to the world for the last time unveiled,
and he had been expressing his pity beforehand on
so sad a thought as a young creature shut up from
the world. We were a good deal amused at his expense,
for it turned out to be an old woman not in any re-
spect interesting. We afterwards accused him of
emitting exclamations far from benedictory, and not
altogether suited to the place.

He was one day referring to something which I
had published, and on his saying "you authors," I
said you used to say you lawyers, when you denied
having any prejudice against our craft, but still less
ought you to take exceptions against authors, being
one yourself, and of a celebrated work. He asked in
what way ? I told him that when I was lately in
Scotland, his health, I found, was given at political

346 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

dinners as the author of the "Tenth Report. "* He
said he quite understood what that meant — it was on
account of Lord Melville ; and that he was extremely
vexed at the use to which the party had turned it,
and at the very great exaggerations which had been
made as regarded Lord Melville, though it was im-
possible to exaggerate the other abuses which the
inquiry had brought to light. He ascribed Pitt's
hostility in part to the inquiry, but I think errone-
ously, because the attack on Lord Melville had really
not been begun till a year after the motion against
the Admiralty.

The only subject on which we differed was the
slave trade, upon which I well knew he had very
strong prejudices. Like most seamen, he had im-
bibed these in the "West Indies, military men being
generally the other way : but he also had conceived
false notions of the leaders in that great cause, whom
he regarded as among the righteous over-much ; and
some of them, by the language they held rather than
the topics they used, gave him an unfavourable im-
pression. I well remember the strong opinion of the
abolitionists against Lord St Vincent. It was a
common joke of Wilberforce and Stephen that we, on
carrying the abolition, should allow two slavers espe-
cially, one for him and the other for Thurlow. When
on board the Hibernia in the evening, I have talked
with him about the power of sleeping at any time,
which, like him, I possessed. Once, when leaning on

* See above.

JET. 28.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 347

a gun, lie said he could sleep close by it and not be
awakened by its firing the morning and evening gun
—that is, after he had been, as he called it, several
days afloat. I have continued writing after he turned
in, as he phrased it, and this about eight or nine
o'clock : when I asked how early he intended to get
up, he would say, "At eleven or twelve," meaning
that after three or four hours he would be up and
working. He never paid the least regard to time, but
was most exact in requiring all under him to do so.

He often mentioned his peerage, and one day
said, " See that desk \ I chucked the patent into it
when it came out after the 14th of February, and
would not even open it, knowing its contents by
letters received." Some time after came the letter
remitting the fees and perquisites, which he consi-
dered a necessary part of the honour, for no man cared
less about money ; and then he opened it, and took
his title.

In his great dining-room, where he could have
above sixty at table, it was observable that Nelson's
dirge was always played by the band on great occa-
sions, and I well remember that the tears stood in his
eye, hating as he did all displays of feeling. He never
mentioned Nelson's name without emotion, and would
have been inexpressibly hurt had he lived to see those
letters which Lady Hamilton so basely published, and
in which Lord St Vincent, and indeed every person
mentioned, except Sir William and Lady Hamilton, are
attacked, though never any one more venerated another

348 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806-

than lie (Nelson) did his great master, or more gratefully
felt his great kindness, and the extraordinary exer-
tions which he made in fitting out the fleet which he
gave him to command, and which gained the battle
of the Nile. But it was a kind of disease with Nelson
not to bear any person being in authority over him,
even as a puisne Lord of the Admiralty.

When the delay of the passports for Madrid led to
my quitting Lisbon and proceeding to the north, I
was satisfied from what I then saw that there were
little means of defence, and that no preparations were
really intended. On my return from Lisbon, I found
that our fleet had suddenly been ordered home, and
that I was directed to remain until the passports came
from Madrid. These were again delayed ; and it was
evident that the Prussian army under the Duke of
Brunswick having marched into Saxony, at Madrid
they were waiting to see the consequences of the
rupture with France. But though Godoy was afraid
of the open quarrel with Napoleon, which must have
resulted from my being received at Madrid, he had
concluded a secret treaty with Eussia to join against
France as soon as the French armies should have
sufficient occupation in Germany ; and before the first
battle had been fought, he had, with the greatest
imprudence, published a proclamation, manifestly
hostile to France, for assembling all classes, and
making soldiers repair to their regiments. The battle
of Jena, a week after, destroyed all hopes of a success-
ful resistance, and the proclamation was explained

JET. 28.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 349

away by the pretence that the object of the arma-
ment had been the apprehension of some attack in
Africa from the Moors. I was, however, still kept in
suspense, by Godoy wishing to have communication
with England, unknown to Napoleon ; but as he sent
no passports, I refused to wait after November, and
returned to England, considering all prospect of Spain
being detached from France as at an end, by the con-
quest of Prussia, and the completed dependence of
Germany, which would probably enable Napoleon to
prosecute his designs in the south. The Government
which I represented had no wish to maintain a pro-
tracted negotiation at Madrid, even if what had passed
there with Eussia had led to her supporting Prussia,
and renewing the war with France. The folly of the
Spanish Government had led, after the defeat at Jena
and the entry of Berlin, to the more entire subjuga-
tion of Spain, and to the abandonment of the half-
begun resistance of Portugal. But even had the
contest in the north been foreseen (which ended in
the peace of Tilsit), it was impossible to expect that
while it lasted the powers in the Peninsula would do
more than remain passive till they saw how it was to
end ; and in fact Spain did not even so remain, but
allowed Eomana to join Napoleon with a considerable
force, the penalty which he made her pay for the pre-
mature demonstration, denied as soon as it failed.
The battle of Friedland and the peace of Tilsit were
the final consummation ; and it was Napoleon's insane
aggression upon Spain which threw away all the ad-

35P MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

vantages he had gained, and ended in the liberation
of the Peninsula, with our assistance, and in his own
downfall.

The following I give from my despatches to Lord
Kosslyn : —

" OPOETO, Sept. 21 (Sunday), 1806.

" MY DEAR LORD, — It is unnecessary to trouble
you at great length with any account of what has
been done here since my arrival. I shall only state
that I find every moment greater reason to be satis--
fied with having come, and to be convinced that the
service never could have been completed without the
presence of one of us on the spot.

" Mr Warre has been induced to enter very warmly
and effectually into the business in contemplation. He
may be said to have joined us with his whole forces ;
and these are indeed very considerable, both in con-
nections and in correspondence.

"As no time was to be lost, we took measures on
the day of my arrival for despatching a proper person
to Bayonne. He received full and repeated instruc-
tions, and I was with him for above an hour immedi-
ately before his departure.

" He is in every respect a judicious choice, if I may
be allowed so far to flatter myself. He has orders to
correspond with Mr Warre through two channels,
either of which it would be next thing to impossible to
detect. He is at this time well on towards the fron-
tier, and is to remain at Bayonne and San Sebastian
till further orders.

JET. 29.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 351

" Another person will probably be despatched by
a different route this day; and the renewal of the
reports of preparations from different quarters,
seems to demand that a third person should also
be on the spot. This is the more necessary from
certain circumstances respecting the arrangement of
the affair which I cannot now explain. This person
is now in readiness. Upon the whole the difficulties
attending this business have been greater than could
be conceived, and of a nature rather unexpected ; but
I trust they are now nearly overcome.

"Mr Warre on receiving my first letter had de-
spatched a proper person to Ferrol, Bilbao, &c. and
we expect his return in a few days.

" I have arranged matters for securing in a couple
of posts an extensive correspondence with persons
residing along the bay at Bilbao, St Andre, &c., &c.
These will give us a warning in case any new arrange-
ments for intelligence should become necessary, and
they will also check the other information. Mr
Warre's own communications with different parts of
the north of the Peninsula are various and important.
He is to improve and extend them immediately with
a view to the affair in hand ; and I shall not fail to
suggest whatever may seem important, both respect-
ing his own inquiries and his correspondence with
Lisbon in future.

" The French consul here and his family positively
deny the Bayonne preparations. They seem to be

352 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

sincere, if I may trust my own observation ; and this
is the general opinion in the place.

" Pray let me know by your answer what news you
have from England, especially about Mr Fox. Should
anything private occur, you may cipher with the
dictionary. But letters sent by the channel which
this goes by are perfectly secure. Mr "Warre trusts
it in all matters, though otherwise fully suspicious on
such subjects.

" When you write, I think a compliment to Mr W.
for his zeal and judicious conduct, and for his present
extensive correspondence, would have a good effect,
besides being quite well merited. — I remain ever, my
dear lord, most faithfully yours,

"H. BROUGHAM."

"OPORTO, Sept. 24 (Wednesday), 1806.
" MY DEAR LORD, — ... I purpose, as soon as
I have put the last hand to the business here, to go to
Beira, where, by means of Colonel Prior, I hope to
have a military man of much confidence immediately
employed in the service. I shall return here with all
speed — say, on Monday — and expect to receive your
answer to my last at that time. You will certainly
have time to send my English letters here before I
leave this place, as that can scarcely be before this
day week. Pray think if anything further can be
done while I am here, and command my services for
any private commissions which you may have to exe-
cute. The accounts of Mr Fox's situation are truly

JET. 29.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 353

afflicting. I view the event which must before this
time have taken place as the most deplorable which
could at present happen. The advices from Gallicia
look like peace and quiet. You will find from Mr
Warre's letters to Lord S., in which I have made him
write most fully everything that he learns, a number
of reports from the side of ; but they prove no-
thing at all, except that the people there as elsewhere
deal in reports respecting the other parts of Spain.
A gentleman from the neighbourhood of Finisterre
arrived yesterday, and having passed through the
whole province of Gallicia, positively denies the exist-
ence of anything like preparations in any part of that
province.

" With my best compts. to Lord St Vincent, I re-
main, in haste, yours faithfully, H. BROUGHAM.

" Pray hint to Lord Strangford that if he gave the
merchants here somewhat less reason to think the
present crisis would end safely, it might be as well.
I think his last letter held out too fair hopes."

TO LORD EOSSLYK

" VIANA, Sept. 29 (Sunday), 1806.

" MY DEAR LORD, — I have been here since Friday
night, and have had the wished-for success. But it
is only necessary that I should trouble you with a
notice of some fresh information which I have obtained
to-day. Hearing that a Portuguese vessel had ar-
rived here on the 26th from Bay onne, after an uncom-
monly quick passage, I used every means in my power

VOL. i. z

354 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

to examine the captain, and to check his information
by that of his crew. The result of my attempts is as
follows : The vessel is a port-schooner, the St Jose
Diligente. She sailed from Bayonne on the 18th,
entered the Port of Passage on the same day, and
arrived here on the 25th. There were two Italian
regiments at Bayonne, and a French invalid regiment.
It was reported that more troops were expected there,
and that they would be encamped about the town.
News were also circulated of a rupture with Eussia,
Prussia, and Sweden, and of Bonaparte having al-
ready marched his troops on that account ; — so far
the captain. A sailor adds that the troops expected at
Bayonne would amount to thirty-five or thirty-eight
thousand men, reported to be destined for the invasion
of Portugal. A strong dislike of the present Govern-
ment is also mentioned ; and it is added that before
the schooner arrived at Bayonne a riot had been appre-
hended, the troops ordered out, and tranquillity re-
stored by this means. The two Italian regiments had
not been long there. I conceive that if the riot story
is true, these regiments may have been marched
thither in consequence of it. At any rate, this ac-
count quite confirms our former information as to the
non-existence of actual preparations. Letters received
in this place last night from Gallicia state that con-
siderable bodies of troops were assembling at Corunna
and Ferrol, supposed to be destined for South America.
This is given on the authority of respectable Spanish
houses in those parts of Gallicia.

JEI. 29.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 355

" A schooner from Eussia has just arrived here. She
came from Eiga and touched in Denmark, having had
a very quick passage. I have as yet heard no certain
account of her intelligence, but have desired that it
should be collected and transmitted to-morrow. They
say she talks of Prussia having marched 100,000 men
to Holland. — Ever yours, H. BROUGHAM."

TO LOED EOSSLYN.

" OPORTO, Friday Morning, Oct. 3, 1806.
" MY DEAR LORD, — I thank you for your letter of
the 24th. I received your courier yesterday after-
noon. The cause of the delay is as follows : Your
courier arrived here on Tuesday, late at night, which
was shamefully long. I was at Yiana, and Mr Warre
despatched a courier to tell me of the arrival of
yours. I set out instantly, and had a painful journey
hither, where I arrived at one in the morning. I
read Morland's note, and found by it that I must
come speedily to Lisbon, though for what reason I
cannot certainly tell. I rather suspect, from all ac-
counts, that we are going home. I should have liked
better to sail by convoy from hence, but as I am
quite uncertain what may be your commands, I must
just set out for Lisbon, and run the risk of not find-
ing you there. I shall accordingly leave this by day-
break to-morrow. I should have gone on this morn-
ing without doubt, but for a sprained ankle, which
prevents me from mounting a mule. If it be no
better I must go by a litter. At all events, I shall

356 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

lose not a moment, and shall possibly be with you on
Tuesday morning, if I can get change of mules to go
by night ; if not, certainly on Wednesday evening.
I send back your courier with this in the mean time.
My business is completely and most satisfactorily
finished in this quarter. In Bracan£a, Valenca, and
the rest of the northern frontier, I had an oppor-
tunity of seeing much with my own eyes that may
serve present purposes, and can't fail to be useful,
at any rate, hereafter. Kespecting my main object,
everything is on the very best footing. We have
now in Bayonne and Ferrol two proper agents ar-
rived ; and for Bayonne several others, of the very
best qualifications, on their way by different routes
through Spain. All that can be desired from corre-
spondence in various quarters must be obtained, and
in many different ways. This branch of the business
is in such hands that it may continue, so long as
there are British merchants here and in the north.
Information from the Spanish frontier, on the side of
Almeida, is settled in a way equally satisfactory, and
for no expense whatever. The expenses of the com-
missaries are as limited as possible ; and should
Government not choose to defray them, I will take
them on my own head. For this purpose I have
advanced all the small sums necessary out of my
own credit, and where it was necessary have extended
that credit by the assistance of friends. The whole
has been arranged with the utmost secrecy; and
even Mr Warre only knows of what has been done

JET. 29.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 357

by himself. Should it be necessary now or hereafter
to send a still better observer, I have an officer of
very great trust and experience ready at an hour's
notice. He has assisted me much, and was zealous
to go himself, but I declined it for the present. He
is a quartermaster, and the fittest man for the service.
One of the emissaries is a military subject, an eleve
of his. I have arranged matters for improving in
various essential respects the general correspondence
of the consuls in the north, and have in general
taken all the steps that seemed to me best adapted
for organising such a state of communication with
France and Spain as will secure us at all times the
best and earliest intelligence. The present crisis
may soon pass over, but the expense will cease with
it; and the same communication may at any mo-
ment be renewed by writing a few letters. I think,
that until something definite occurs, no counter-
orders should be given to the emissaries. Had we
possessed such means of information ten weeks ago,
our expedition and mission to Lisbon would have
probably been saved.

Private.

" I lament most sincerely the fatal news of Mr
Fox's death. Though I had almost made up my
mind to expect it, I own I felt it as if it had been a
surprise. Next to that calamity the worst news is
the piracy in South America. If Popham is not
shot, we deserve to be conquered everywhere, both

358 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

on sea and land, and in negotiation. Might it not
have happened that while he was buccaneering in
the king's name, we had orders to promise Spain the
safety of her colonies as an equivalent for her aid in
Europe ? May this not be better still in the event of
a new coalition ? If Popham had only taken a place
in the common way, and there been shot or hanged,
no lasting harm would have been done. But he has
begun a rebellion all over America; it may reach
Brazil, and must spread over Spain and America;
and how can we undo what he shall thus have done ?
I heartily hope he will be punished as severely as the
popular feeling in England will permit. I don't
detain your courier longer than to assure you how
happy I shall be to join you in Lisbon, and to con-
gratulate you on the happy termination of our mis-
sion.— Believe me most faithfully yours,

" H. BROUGHAM."

" P.S. — Should you have sailed before my arrival,
pray leave me your commands fully, and stop the
packet, that I may take her to go home in. For any
private commissions that I can execute for you or
Colonel Stuart, Morland, and Bowrie, command me,
and I shall do my best.

" I beg my compts. to them and Lord Strangford."

TO LOED EOSSLYK

" LISBON, Oct. 11, 1806.
" MY DEAR LORD, — I rejoice to think how com-

JET. 29.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 359

pletely the plan of intelligence is likely to succeed.
Pimentel, I believe, will prove a very excellent sub-
ject. My people are all in Bayonne, or very near it,
by this time. I have a letter from the last of them,
dated 7th October, in Spain.

" The accounts of Spanish preparations induced me
to make two persons take the route of Astorga and
Pampeluna. I daily expect their reports.

" The correspondence through various channels is
likely to be regular and full. I every post receive
notices of this kind ; but as they are hitherto all of
a negative kind, or, at the utmost, only allude to
rumours from other quarters, chiefly Madrid, I need
not trouble you with them. Mr Hunter — whose
letters are very meagre, and who plainly shows by
his own statements that he might have learned more
—writes repeatedly that an expedition against Por-
tugal is in preparation at Madrid. He has given us
the names of the generals, of whom the P. del In-
fantado is one. But in another letter he says that
the king said lately to his generals, ' We must all
get ready to march either to Portugal or the Pyre-
nees/ He admits that no Spanish troops are moving
—that Bayonne is deserted by the soldiers moving
northwards — and that Perpignan has not a man in it.

" Our friend at Badajos writes (date 3d) that the
rumours of a war with Portugal continue ; and that
a confidential friend of his at Madrid gives him
notice of Massena's defeat in Calabria.

" I have taken the proper steps for increasing our

360 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

Spanish intelligence by means of correspondence. I
think matters are so arranged on all hands that we
are secure at every point ; and our pickets, as it-
were, being all set, we may rest on our arms in full
safety. I must, however, mention a circumstance
which I rather think has escaped you. You talk of
my proceeding to put Lord Strangford in possession of
all our sources of intelligence. This I shall, of course,
do, the moment before I am to leave Lisbon ; but it
would answer no purpose, I apprehend, to do it now.
You must be sensible in how delicate a situation
I stand respecting some of our emissaries, and still
more delicate is my connection with certain Portu-
guese officers of high rank. To divulge the part
taken by them in our concerns, without the most
obvious necessity, would be very unpleasant to me ;
and to be plain with you, I would rather do it
to another than to Lord S., who is somewhat too
flighty and uncertain in his movements to gain my
confidence.

" Whensoever I leave Lisbon, you may rest assured
he shall be put in possession of everything which
may enable him to keep the channels open; and I pre-
sume this is enough. However, tell me if you think
otherwise.

" A similar remark applies to what Morland says
of c vouchers for secret-service money/ Why, it is
nine times in ten impossible to get any ; at least to get
receipts from persons who receive pay as spies — or
bribes, or even douceurs, of any sort — is next to im-

JET. 29.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 361

possible. Does Morland believe, for example, that
the officer alluded to in my letter from Oporto, would
give us receipt for the money he might get to fit him.
out for going to Bayonne ? Where this can be done
you may believe it shall ; but I can give but very
slender hopes of vouchers being fully or in a consider-
able degree proportioned to the sums expended. Per-
haps he does not allude to receipts, but to some other
means of proving our expenses : if so, I beg to be
informed of it, with as little delay as possible. Of
course you will permit me to keep everything on my
own private credit until we settle what those vouchers
are ; for I could just as soon obtain a receipt from
every spy I bribed, as I could think of letting the
expenditure I take credit for be transferred from my
account while there existed a doubt as to the way
of proving it. I shall only add, that the expenses
alluded to are very small in comparison of what I
find Lord Strangford gives his people. What made
him give thirty-five doubloons to a man for going to
Badajos, and remaining out altogether nine days?
When I made many words about this extravagant
payment (which the office has allowed), he said his
man had the order of Christ : very likely ; but what
is the use of employing the worthy persons who
bear that order in such service 1 I have estimated
the average expense of our men who would have
been sent upon that service, and I find that they
would have received just the sixth part of the above
sum. The very best servant we have has four tes-

362 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

toons a-clay for his maintenance. It is true he is
quite unmatched in his economy, and luckily had the
sense to agree that his reward should be proportioned
to his services and to his frugality jointly.

" During my absence from you I have procured a
good deal of valuable matter respecting the Spanish
privateering on our trade in the north. This I should
like to have sent to Lord St Vincent, as it may lead
to some good consequences. I shall send it, therefore,
to you by next opportunity, and trust to you for let-
ting it come to Lord St V., or whomsoever else you
judge to be more proper.

" My general information respecting the state of
Portugal has, of course, been greatly augmented. It
all confirms the opinions already delivered by you and
also by myself. But it confirms likewise an opinion
which I have long held — that by a little care and
judicious interference on our part, the interval of
present quiet may be turned to excellent account in
improving the resources of the country. Of this
more fully hereafter.

" I may almost save myself and you the trouble of
observing how dull Lisbon is since your departure.
To me who know nobody here, I assure you it is a
triste sejour. My only hope is that my instructions
may soon arrive. Indeed I must rely upon you, my
dear lord, for standing my friend, in case the idea of a
Spanish communication should go off or be long de-
layed, tli at I may not be detained here in uselessness
and idleness. I hope you will keep your eye on this

2ET. 29.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 363

point, so interesting to me in every respect. Should
nothing be required here, I may, perhaps, be employed
better elsewhere, as, in the north.

"The frigate will wait no longer; so with best
wishes to Stuart, Morland, Bouverie, believe me ever,
with the greatest esteem, most faithfully yours,

" H. BROUGHAM."

" P.S. — On looking over the above I observe you
might suspect, from the accidental mention of Strang-
ford's name, that we were not likely to draw well
together during my stay. This I add, to prevent
any such idea, for nothing could be more incorrect :
we are as cordial as possible.

" I have received the copying-machine, saddle, &c.,
which you were so good as to leave ; and thank you
much for them. The guineas which you left are not
to be found ; nor will anybody plead guilty to having
received them."

TO THE VISCOUNT HOWICK.

"LISBON, llth Oct. 1806.

" MY LORD, — Upon my return from Oporto, on
the night of the 8th, I received the secret letter which
your lordship did me the honour of addressing to
me on the 3d, and by which I learn that I am to
remain here until further orders may arrive from
England.

" According to the instructions contained in that
letter, I have let it to be understood that my stay

364 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

here is connected with, the business of the extra-
ordinary mission lately at this Court. I had a good
deal of conversation after my return with M. d'Aranjo,
upon whom I waited, both to thank him for the per-
sonal civilities I had received from his family in the
northern provinces, and to inform him that I had
discovered the robbery of my courier to be, contrary
to every appearance, a tale invented by the man to
screen himself from punishment for having lost his
bag of letters in a scuffle. They have since been
recovered, unopened. In justification of Messrs
Mayne & Browne, who had employed this person in
forwarding your lordship's letter to me, I must re-
mark that he had been well known as a courier at
Oporto, and on the road for above twenty years, and
bore the best character.

" In the course of this conversation with M.
d'Aranjo, he alluded to the sensation produced at
Madrid by Sir H. Popham's expedition. Upon my
saying that this must doubtless have created a great
alarm there, he observed, rather significantly, ' Ce-
pendant il faut que 1'Angleterre en tire quelque parti'
— and added, 'II vaudra mieux que des nouvelles
colonies dont-elle n'a pas besoin.' This remark, I
presume, bears a reference to what passed in the
early stages of the negotiation relative to Spain. It
appears to me, however, that the greatest care should
be taken to prevent M. d'Aranjo from learning what
are the designs of his Majesty's ministers upon this
very delicate and important subject; and, at any

;ET. 29.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 365

rate, that M. de Souza should receive no hints which
may lead to a knowledge of the drift of those plans
until they are fully matured. Indeed I must be
allowed to add that M. d'Aranjo's attachment to
England is too slender, and his entire freedom from a
contrary bias too problematical, to justify any confi-
dential intercourse with his party upon such matters.
" Before leaving this subject, allow me to express
my high sense of the honour conferred on me by the
king's servants in thinking of me for the conduct of
the business in contemplation. It would be improper
to make promises at present, but I shaH desire to be
tried only by the event ; and, without any reference
to circumstances, shall be satisfied to have my services
judged entirely by the actual success which may at-
tend them. In the mean time I shall spare no pains
to fit myself for the duty in question, especially by
the collection of such information as may bear upon
the discussions likely to arise. I have the honour to
be, my lord, your most obedient and humble servt.,

" HENRY BROUGHAM."

TO LOED EOSSLYK

"LISBON, Oct. 13, 1806.

" MY DEAR LORD, — The frigate Mercury carried
both a private and public letter from me. In case
you may not have received them, I here shortly run
over the contents of the former.

"My regret at not having seen you before your
departure ; my inability to comprehend what Morland

366 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

means by sending home the vouchers of money given
to spies, &c., as not one in ten of those gentry ever
gives a receipt ; my wish to be informed what other
vouchers I can send, and how I shall procure them.
I received saddle, &c., copying-machine, not a single
article of stationery, nor any guineas, nor anything
else. Mounier and Mrs Dove have made between
them a clean board. I say this rather that you may
tell me whom you gave the guineas to, than that you
should blame them for the other depredations. Pray
ask your servants if they took away my umbrella ; if
they did not, it has gone with the stationery.

" I also mentioned in my private letter that until
I knew what sort of vouchers might be required from
you, I could not consent to transfer a single pound
from my account to yours. Indeed the whole ex-
pense is, I fancy, not likely to be great.

" I grumbled a little in the same letter at the dul-
ness of Lisbon since you left it. I scarcely know it,
and literally know nobody in it. From this circum-
stance, I devoutly hope my mission eastwards will
soon commence. If it is very long delayed, I had
better come home and go out again. I mean better
for the service, for God knows the two voyages would
be un pen fort.

" So you were after the famous amethyst at Oporto 1
I was beforehand with you, however : have it lying
beside me in a fine setting. I won't annoy you further
by telling you what a trifle I paid for it. Hill says I
got it for a quarter of its value. Can I be of service

JET. 29.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 367

to you in catering for such things, here or elsewhere ?
Tell me freely.

"I give you a thousand thanks for your kind
promise to write to me. It will be real charity. If
you can give me accurate information as to the pro-
spect of a dissolution of Parliament, I shall be much
indebted to you. That point interests me very nearly ;
for though I have some assurances that I shall be
brought in at the election, yet if I am off the spot
and have not warning of it, I know how little such
promises avail.

" The hurry in which the packet sails has made
this as well as my public letter a mere scrawl. I
trust to your goodness to excuse it. — Believe me, with
real esteem, yours very faithfully,

" HENRY BROUGHAM/'

TO LOED EOSSLYK

" LISBON.

" MY DEAR LORD, — Since writing the private letter
of yesterday, I have added one public letter to my
inclosures. My remarks on the consular business I
beg your attention to ; and my chief reason for stating
them, when Strangford's department leads him more
properly to the subject, is, that I know from his great
intimacy with Gambier there is no chance of his
doing it, nor indeed would it be proper in him.
Nevertheless I am persuaded the abuse is great, and
indeed I look on the whole office of consul here as a
mere job.

368 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

" I am sadly in want of boxes and copying-paper,
and don't know that those which were coming to you
are not stopt.

" I fear there is some contretemps at the Foreign
Office about my letters, for I have not received one ;
therefore I suppose they were all stopt on the sup-
position of my coming home. May I beg you to let
them be sent out speedily. Though I were to miss
them, it would not signify: they can follow me.

" If you hear anything about peace, I trust to your
kindness to let me know it soon. I beg leave to re-
peat my offer of service to you in anything you wish
to have done here. — Once more, believe me, with great
esteem and respect, most faithfully yours,

" HENRY BROUGHAM."

TO LOED ROSSLYK

" LISBON, Nov. 9, 1806.

" MY DEAR LORD, — You will scarcely thank me for
giving you a hurried private letter, and I have not
ten minutes to write it in before the packet goes. My
chief reason for troubling you at present is to say
that, in conformity with your desire, I have very care-
fully, and with no small labour and exertion of
patience, kept perfectly well with Strangford. This
was necessary for the public business ; but I appeal to
you, who know him, how difficult a thing it was. My
temper has been tried perpetually by his infinite
childishness in doing business, and indeed in doing
everything else ; and really, however unpleasant to

JET. 29.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 369

say so, there is a defect about him, which I can still
less pardon than his want of sense. I mean his total
want of that first-rate quality which gives a man's
words the right to be believed.

" I can scarcely express this more delicately. He
has on all subjects the above disease, to a degree
quite unexampled.

" However, let that pass. I have done my part of the
business, and I am sure have humoured him in every-
thing, to his merest caprices, and to his very heart's
content. I only lament that the consequences of his
character here are a total want of respect either from
common society, or from those he has to do business
with. I don't wish to judge harshly, but I can
scarcely wonder at this, from what I know and see of
him. Certainly he is not the man to change a
ministry here. Pray discourage him from writing
loose letters to you, for his silliness makes him brag
of it everywhere, and so, I suppose, do his blackguard
companions, to the great annoyance of one who has so
real a respect and friendship for you as I have.

" Eeferring you to my public letters, pray allow me
now to add that I have heard nothing at all from
Permentile, which alarms me not a little for his safety.
I feel he will go the way with Strangford's other
agent, for it is now above seven weeks since he was
sent. All the other agents and correspondents are
doing their duty as well as possible ; but I rather
fear the effects of an old spy being lately condemned
at Barcelona.

VOL. i. 2 A

370 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806.

" Have you no bowels of compassion for me in this
place 1 I am beginning my sixth week, and Burg-
hersh is still here.

"The packets are strangely irregular. We have
vessels from Falmouth and Cork in very short pas-
sages ; and no packet since the one that sailed the

O 3 1.

18th, though three, if not four, must have been due the
week before last. They should always keep a look-
out after our agent there, and the captains. I have the
clearest proofs that the man who arrived with last
despatches lost nearly a fortnight by waiting three
whole days after his time in order to get his smug-
gling goods, and then the wind changed. I think it
rather hard that ministers at home, and we poor
people here, should fag hard to get things ready, and
then such delays should be occasioned by a rascally
captain of a packet. The agent at Falmouth will
positively never interfere until Government gives
him a hint. If such abuses can't be prevented, the
despatches of importance must be sent by cutter.
Indeed the swarm of large Spanish privateers lately
gone to sea renders this advisable at any rate. Will
you do two empenhas for me ? One is to give me a
few lines of introduction to some of your Portuguese
or foreign friends here, for I know nobody, not even
the nuncio, and Strangford never has introduced
either Burghersh or myself to any of them, notwith-
standing his intimacy with both of us. Of course I
only give you this empenho in the unfortunate event
of my remaining here.

JET. 29.] DEATH OF FOX. 371

" The other is, to get my servant John's wife put
on the list of Corsican bounties. She is a Corsican
subject, who came with the army from thence. He
has served nine years in our army and in Egypt,
where he lost his eye and had to leave the service.
He has a son still in it, and two other young children,
both born in Corsica. He has, I think, a very good
right to this empenho : I believe he has it by the
regulations — certainly by the practice ; for there are
people here who I know have such bounties merely
by favour, and from having been in Corsica, though
their wives and children never were, or near it. He
has been extremely useful both here and in the
north, — more so than I can easily describe."

While I was at Lisbon I received the following
letter from London, from my excellent friend Whishaw.
The unsolicited kindness of the concluding paragraph
I can never forget.""*

" LINCOLN'S INN, September 19, 1806.

" MY DEAR BROUGHAM, — I am extremely obliged
to you for your letter, and much pleased with the
intelligence so far as it relates to yourself. It is
highly satisfactory to know that you go on so well
with Lord Eosslyn, and that he agrees with you in

* John Whishaw, now little known, is often respectfully referred to
in the correspondence of the day. He was connected with Romilly,
and appointed his executor. He took a keen interest in the abolition
of the slave trade, and was an authority on currency. In 1790 he
gained the prize for a Latin essay on a theme by the Vice-Chancellor
of Cambridge, " Whether the French Revolution was likely to prove
advantageous or injurious to this country," taking the side of " advan-
tageous."— Mem. of Romilly, i. 404.

372 DEATH OF FOX. [1806.

your general views. This being the case, I can have
no doubt that the mission, whatever may be its final
result, will terminate with honour and advantage to
yourself. Not having seen Lord Holland or Allen,
and knowing nothing of the plans which are suggested
by your despatches, I can only wish well to your
diplomatic exertions, and sincerely hope that your
achievements may be successful and short. Since I
last wrote, the event which I then anticipated has
taken place — poor Fox is no more. His death was
perfectly resigned, tranquil, and happy. He had
been in expectation of the event from Tuesday. He
died on the evening of Saturday, and retained his
senses, though not his speech, to the very last. He
was only able to look in Lord Fitzwilliam's face, and
grasp him by the hand. Lord F. was so much affected
when he heard of his death that he fell down in a
nervous fit, from which he was recovered with some
difficulty. Windham is in a state of extreme dejec-
tion. They are in great trouble and consternation
at Holland House ; and Lord Holland, as you may
readily suppose, is deeply afflicted.

"It was proposed by Lord Grenville that Fox's
funeral should be at the public expense, and with the
same honours as that of Pitt, and he undertook to
obtain the king's consent to the measure. This offer
was very properly declined by Fox's friends. But
the ceremony is to take place with all circumstances
of solemnity and public attendance, at the expense of
Lord Fitzwilliam and the Duke of Devonshire. The

&T. 29.] DEATH OF FOX. 373

procession is to be from the Duke of Bedford's, in
Stable Yard, to Westminster Abbey.

" There has been great mystery as to the appoint-
ment of a successor to Fox. Having no authentic
information, I can only give you the floating rumours.
At present Lord Ho wick, under all the circumstances,
is the most likely man. Our friends naturally wished
for Lord Holland, and for some time had confident
hopes. I do not believe that these hopes now con-
tinue. The Admiralty, which will be vacated by
Lord Ho wick, may perhaps be offered to him; but his
indolence and want of habits of business would make
this office very irksome to him. Eeport yesterday
gave the latter appointment to Lord Buckingham,
who is an amateur of naval details, and came up
post-haste upon the news of Fox's death. I am far
from thinking this probable, but the report is not
pleasant; and the delay in the appointment seems
clearly to show that the parties do not entirely agree.
The present crisis is certainly very important to the
fragments of a popular party which still remain in this
country. If Lord Holland or Lord Lauderdale is not
admitted into the Cabinet upon the present vacancy,
I shall consider it as the annihilation of their party
in the administration, and the forerunner of a final
rupture : but these are surmises which I hope will be
falsified by the despatches which will convey this letter.

" It seems to be quite settled that Lord Howick is
to be the leader of the House of Commons, and that
this will oblige him to quit the Admiralty, the con-

374 DEATH OF FOX. [1806.

stant engagements of which are wholly inconsistent
with regular attention to Parliamentary business. All
these arrangements are very mortifying to Sheridan ;
and he is at no pains to conceal his discontent, which
is now aggravated by being refused the support of
Government for Westminster. You will see his speech
on this occasion in the newspapers.

" I cannot say anything on the subject of the
negotiation ; but I hope that our late successes have
not altered our tone, or made us more impracticable.
Lauderdale's stay is a favourable circumstance, and I
conclude that we have still some chance.

" Sydney Smith has at length got the promise of a
living of £400 a-year in Yorkshire. Lady Holland
wrote to him in such terms that he concluded there
was an actual vacancy, and he came up in great haste
to get the presentation passed through the proper
offices ; and now he finds out that the incumbent is
still living, though not likely to continue long. This
is no small disappointment to the eager expectant,
who came up in the mail-coach from a remote county,
in the hopes of immediate possession. The living is
the Eectory of Foston, between York and Malton,
and about four miles from Castle Howard. The
Chancellor and Sheridan have been playing strange
pranks in their water parties, very much to the
annoyance of the feebles and admirers of ministerial
decorum. They have had a project of marrying
Petty to Miss Drummond, Lady Scott's daughter, but
it has entirely failed.

^T. 29.] DEATH OF FOX. 375

" Erskine has declared his intention of making
Jekyll and Edward Morris Masters in Chancery. *
These appointments will be very unpopular, and do
him a great deal of harm in his court. Upon the
whole, he seems to be losing ground very fast.

" I told you the particulars of the intended conflict
and proposed renewal of hostilities between Jeffrey
and Moore ; but everything has been settled between
them by the negotiation of Homer and Eogers. And
Jeffrey is gone off in peace to superintend his October
Eeview.

" I have now told you all the gossip, and have only
to add that I beg you will employ me during your
absence in any manner in which I can be of use to
you. There is one subject in particular which you
will allow me to mention, and which I ought to have
mentioned before : your sudden journey and voyage
may have involved you in some unexpected expenses;
and it may happen that you have pecuniary demands,
for which you may be not altogether prepared. If
this should be the case, I have money at my banker's,
and can without any inconvenience furnish you with
any reasonable sum for which you may have a tempo-
rary occasion. Now I trust that you will at once ac-
cept this offer, if it will be of the least service to you.
If it will not, excuse me for mentioning the subject.
— Yours ever most truly, JOHN WHISHAW."

* Jekyll was not made a Master in Chancery till June 1815, when
Lord Eldon, much against his will, was forced by the regent to appoint
him. Lord Eldon considered Jekyll most unfit for the office. — See full
account of this in Twiss's Life of Eldon, ii. 266.

,76

VCH AFTER VI I.

^oltttcs of tfje Sajj.

HOME POLITICS WHITBREAD's MOTION ON THE STATE OF THE

NATION NEGRO EMANCIPATION AND THE LOCAL PRESS OF THE

SUGAR COLONIES — CONTINENTAL POLITICS IN 1807 CORRE-
SPONDENCE WITH LORD HOWICK CONTINUATION ON HIS BE-
COMING EARL GREY FOREIGN POLITICS AGAIN PERSONAL

PROSPECTS CONSIDERATION OF THE BAR AS A PROFESSION —

SELECTION OF THE NORTHERN CIRCUIT PRACTICE AND POLI-
TICS CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT SPAIN, PORTUGAL, AND THE

FIRST PENINSULAR WAR COURT POLITICS THE QUEEN AND

THE PRINCE OF WALES — RESUMPTION OF CORRESPONDENCE ON
THE PENINSULAR WAR.

TO THE EABL OF KOSSLYK

"ALBANY, PICCADILLY, Dec. 12, 1806.
" MY DEAR LORD, — A slight illness, and some bother
at the offices since my return, have prevented me
from writing to ask you how you do, and to tell you
I am at last come back. I wish to God my notifica-
tion had been sent a week sooner, as it would have
brought me home on the 1st of November, instead of
December 9, and have prevented all the evils that
have resulted to all my plans from so ill-timed an
absence. But Secretaries of State and such great
folks don't much think of other people in the lower

JET. 29.] LETTER TO LORD ROSSLYN. 377

departments of Government; and still less do they
trouble themselves with thinking of absentees hors de
vue, &c. I sincerely hope your expedition has not
had such bad consequences to you. I need scarcely
tell you that I am charged with most especial compli-
ments from all your friends in Lisbon — at least from
such of them as I know. Had I chosen to be ac-
quainted with Kantrow, I presume he would have
sent home by me flattery enough to sicken a court.

"I had intended to give you a longer letter of
news and remarks on what I perceive, or think I
perceive, as to the state of parties among our friends,
because I suppose, of course, you will like to hear
this from a near observer. But, in truth, I am so
much fatigued with my illness and morning's work
together, that I must give over for the present.

"Pray, how should I do as to money expended by
me in Portugal ? I take it for granted they mean to
let all my own expenses fall on my own shoulders ;
and perhaps most of the secret-service money. But
I honoured Warre's bills and others to a considerable
amount for ordinary consular services, &c., to save
them trouble and keep them in good-humour ; and
I don't relish the joke of doing that without repay-
ment."* It is quite inconvenient enough to advance
the money. — Ever most faithfully yours,

" HENRY BROUGHAM."

* The result was, that I was left considerably out of pocket by this
mission. My personal services were, I daresay, worth nothing ; but it
was a little hard, not only to do the work, but to pay for the secret
service of this LIBERAL Government.

3/S POLITICS OF THE DAY. [1807.

The following, relating to the slave trade, I wrote
to Lord Howick : — -

TO THE VISCOUNT HOWICK.

"February 23, 1807.

" MY DEAR LOED, — The Jamaica newspapers are
nowhere to be found; but the fact stands thus on the
positive recollection of those who have read them
within a few months.

" 1. The debates in Parliament on the abolition,
from 1792 to 1806 inclusive, were published regularly
in ' The Jamaica Gazette/ by the Assembly's printer.
Lord Stanhope's inflammatory speech in 1804 was

given at length.

" This fact Mr Wilberforce is ready to say on his
legs that he knows, but that he has lost the Jamaica
newspaper in which those debates were published.

" 2. A memorial was prepared by a committee of
Assembly, and inserted in the same Gazette in
1802; but perhaps it may have been 1801. The
object of it was to show the danger of negro insurrec-
tion ; and this it made out by a detailed statement
of the means by which, and the ways in which, the
slaves might revolt. Mr Wilberforce recollects per-
fectly having read such an argument in the Jamaica
newspaper, but is not prepared to say on his legs
that it was in a memorial. Other persons, of West
Indian connections, assert distinctly that it was so.
Upon the whole, I should think there is no danger
whatever in stating the fact as above.

JET. 29.] THE WAR. 379

" 3. Mr Stephen distinctly states that his recollec-
tion of the general practice of publishing in the West
India newspapers (St Kitts, where he resides) mat-
ters respecting the slave trade, and even to the best
of his remembrance the revolutionary transactions in
the French islands, induced him to suggest a search in
the Jamaica coffee-house for such papers as are above
mentioned, in consequence of which they were found
there, in two different years, and passed through him
to Mr Wilberforce, who has mislaid them. To this he
could make oath. — I am, in great haste, your lordship's
most obedient servant, H. BROUGHAM."

After the dissolution in 1807, but before the meet-
ing of Parliament, the following correspondence re-
lating to the expedition to Egypt, the war in Spain,
the proceedings of our Government relating thereto,
and other matters connected therewith, took place :—

EEOM LORD HOWICK.

" STRATTON STREET, June 16, 1807.
" MY DEAR BROUGHAM, — I received your letter and
the accompanying papers yesterday evening at Wim-
bledon, and am lost in admiration of your activity.
Nothing can be better calculated for the effect in-
tended to be produced than what you say on Sir H.
Mildmay and the Egyptian expedition. On the lat-
ter nothing further occurs to me, in addition to the
general statement you have received from me of the
motives and object of the expedition, except, perhaps,

380 POLITICS OF THE DAY. [1807.

that the accusation of acting hostilely at the same
time that we were professing to negotiate for peace,
comes rather oddly from those who blame us for not
having, in the first instance, seized the castles of
the Dardanelles. Sir Eobert Wilson's book, which I
have not by me, will, I think, furnish you with some
useful information with respect to the position of
Alexandria, particularly as to the length of time it
was held by the French, not only after they were cut
off by our army from all communication with the
country by land, but were closely blockaded by our
fleet by sea."" The accounts are so imperfect that it is
impossible to judge, either of the necessity of occupy-
ing Eosetta, or of the probabilities of success if the
attack had been well conducted. But this seems
clear — that if Eosetta is of the consequence that it is
stated to be, this might have been ascertained from
Major Bisset, and from others, the first day of the
arrival of our troops ; and as it is the first business
of a general to consider and to occupy those points
which are material to the safety of his troops, not a
moment should have been lost in detaching for that
purpose, before the Turks could have had an oppor-
tunity of making any preparations for defence. If,
on the other hand, the enterprise appeared too haz-
ardous, he ought to have strengthened his position at
Alexandria, waiting till he could receive further direc-

* ' History of the British Expedition to Egypt, to which is subjoined
a Sketch of the present state of that country, and its means of defence.'
By Sir Robert Thomas Wilson. 1802.

^T. 29.] THE WAR. 381

tions, and if necessary, make reinforcements. Surely,
with the sea open to them, Alexandria might have
been maintained and supplied long enough for this
purpose at least ; and afterwards evacuated — if min-
isters, disapproving of our plan, should have given
orders to that effect — without loss.

"I see they have got my circular-letter in the
' Courier/ and make a foolish attack upon our deter-
mination to oppose right or wrong, without knowing
what is to be in the king's speech. There are subjects
which must be in the king's speech. There are also
subjects of so much importance that, if omitted in the
king's speech, the House of Commons ought not to
pass them over for a single hour without animadver-
sion. The dissolution of Parliament comes within
both these descriptions. It is impossible that it should
not be adverted to in the king's speech; or if ministers,
ashamed of what they have done, and afraid of the
discussion, should wish to evade it by a total silence
on this interesting subject, the case is so strong, and
the circumstances connected with it so extraordinary,
that no man jealous either of the real prerogatives of
the Crown, or of the liberties of the people, could avoid
on the first opportunity proposing a representation
upon this point to the king. — I am yours very sin-
cerely, HOWICK."

The following is also from LordHowick (undated) : —
" It is very difficult to make a defence against at-
tacks of this kind without saying more than perhaps

3§2 POLITICS OF THE DAY. [1807.

ought to be said. It would be better, therefore, in
the first instance at least, to confine any paragraphs
that may be inserted upon the unfortunate failure at
Eosetta to such general topics as will not seem to
imply an intimate knowledge of all the circumstances
of the case. The most obvious of these are the un-
fairness of judging merely from success, and the par-
ticular unfairness to the late ministers and to the
officers employed, of forcing the former to defend
themselves at the expense of the latter, when they
have not had an opportunity — being deprived by their
removal from office of a sight of the despatches — of
knowing the circumstances which have induced them
to deviate from their orders. The truth is, that the
attack of Eosetta was entirely the act of the officer who
commanded ; it formed no part of our plan, nor can I
conceive on what ground it was undertaken. In ad-
verting to this generally, it may not be amiss to take
notice of the danger of officers disregarding their in-
structions, and the encouragement which has been
given to this practice in the cases of Sir Henry
Pophani and Sir David Baird. I write this in great
haste, but if you can call on me to-morrow about half-
past eleven, I shall be glad to talk with you on the
subject. I am going out of town between twelve and
one. — Ever yours, H."

TO THE VISCOUNT IIOWICK.

"ALBANY, Kept. 13, 1807.

" .... I have just seen a gentleman from the
city. They are in very great dismay about the Buenos

JET. 29.] THE WAR. 383

Ayres speculation, and talk of three millions and a
half worth of goods on hand in the Plate.

" Considerable anxiety is entertained for the expe-
dition to the Baltic. People naturally enough dread
a change of weather in case the operations are pro-
tracted. This would be very unpleasant even if the
King of Sweden gives us shelter, in spite of Russia.
But at all events, though we completely succeed
(which is perhaps upon the whole most probable), we
are rather in a dilemma, for Eussia will be more hostile,
and will probably allow Bonaparte to do just as he
pleases. We shall risk much by remaining in Zea-
land. "We shall get very little trade by it, and he
will have not perhaps twelve or fourteen bad ships,
but a number of seamen, whom he wants a great deal
more, and whom, nothing but our own violence could
have made very hostile to us. If, on the other hand,
we give up the island, the Baltic is closed against us,
which indeed signifies little, as it would be effectually
closed at any rate. But we shall have done enough
to make the Danes and Russians ready for any efforts
against us. The love of this Baltic plan has sensibly
subsided, and people are more desponding than ever
upon the sum of affairs. The Yorkshire men are in
great anxiety about the American dispute, which they
say would ruin them.

" Munroe and Pinckney, however, greatly commend
Canning and Perceval for their candid and temperate
behaviour towards them. I am afraid, however, that
the West Indian and shipping interests will have

POLITICS OF THE DAY. [1807.

great weight with Perceval at least, and the greater
part of his colleagues.

" The king has been excessively anxious of late
about the expedition, and all the people about Court
have been as nervous as possible.

" I suspect something is in agitation with Portugal.
Souza has been frequently in town, and full of some-
thing, but exceedingly afraid of being talked to.* He
received a courier the other day, who told an Oporto
merchant of my acquaintance, now in town, that de-
mands had been renewed of the men and ships stipu-
lated in the treaty of Badajos, but that the Portugal
Government expected once more to buy them off. The
English connected with Portugal seem to believe that
their last danger is now come, and that they must
bethink themselves of a change in good earnest. If
left to the Portuguese and French (they think), the
business may be spun out for a few months, but they
have a great fear of something sudden from our inter-

o o

ference. The ministers, three weeks ago, gave the
Portugal committee the same permission as in 1801—
viz., to bond, and to use any ships in bringing over
their goods from that country. This intelligence they
keep as secret as possible.

" I leave town to-day for Yorkshire, and shall per-
haps go as far as Edinburgh, in which case I will
avail myself with great pleasure of your kind in-
vitation.

* Jose Maria, Marquis of Souza-Botelho, Portuguese statesman and
man of letters, born June 1758, died 1825.

HI. 30.] AMERICA AND NEUTRALITY. 385

"If Lord Lauderclale or Lord Ponsonby are now
with you, I beg my compliments to them, and desire
my respects to Lady Ho wick, being, with great respect
and esteem, faithfully yours, H. BROUGHAM.

" The people about the offices give out that they do
not expect the Copenhagen business to be over in less
than three weeks. Lord Sidmouth says ( he may, in
less than three weeks, be ashamed of being an English-
man/ alluding to violent measures against the town."

TO THE VISCOUNT HO WICK.

" GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH,
Oct. 2, 1807— Friday.

" MY DEAR LORD, — On my arrival here I found
Jeffrey very anxious to insert in his next Eeview
proper discussions of the American and other neutral
questions. As it is published about the end of this
month, I think it will produce a very salutary effect
if we can manage to deposit there all the right views
upon the important and little understood subjects.'*
By this means we shall be able, I think, to furnish
proper arguments and information to friends in dif-
ferent situations, and various parts of the country,
and to give the tone to the press (in so far as it is
favourably disposed), better and more conveniently
than in any other manner. I have therefore pro-
mised to supply Jeffrey (whose own opinions on these

* See the first article of the ' Edinburgh Review' for October 1807,
a review of three pamphlets on America and neutrality.

VOL. I. 2 B

386 POLITICS OF THE DAY. [1807.

subjects are perfectly liberal and enlightened), either
with some articles, or at any rate with materials for
these, and I should be glad to have any suggestions
that may occur to you upon these subjects, in addi-
tion to those which you have already mentioned in
the course of conversation. I wish you would also
take the trouble of mentioning this to Lord Lander-
dale, in case any hints should occur to him, as it
might rather seem odd if I were to write to him upon
a thing connected with the ' Edinburgh Review/

" I perceive a great change in the language and
behaviour of the people here since my last visit (in
1805). The Melvillcs have none of the confidence
and haughtiness which they formerly had, and, though
very happy with the present flourishing state of
things, manifestly look up to their adversaries with
fear and doubt. "With my best respects to Lady
Howick, I remain, with much esteem and respect,
most faithfully yours, HENRY BROUGHAM.

" The Hollands are expected here in six or seven
days, and talk of remaining about a week on their way
to Duiibar."

TO THE VISCOUNT IIOWICK.

" GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH,
November 7, 1807.

"MY DEAR LORD HOWICK, — Since I was favoured
with your last letter, I have heard several times from
London, respecting the consequences of the Copen-
hagen business. It seems to be generally admitted

;ET. 30.] AMERICA AND NEUTRALITY. 387

that the public were pleased with the whole affair,
and that the ministers have upon the whole gained
considerably by it. Nevertheless, I find the abuse of
it, which the opposition papers have very properly
indulged in, and of which the * Morning Chronicle '
has set the example ever since it received the hint, is
producing daily some impression. One advantage
at least is gained by this means, that ministers are
compelled to defend their conduct instead of raising a
great exultation about the success of it. I strongly
suspect they will be still worse off in Portugal, for
the emigration of the Prince to Brazil is a step which
I never will suspect him of till I see him there. The
most notable point, however, is the concession to
America. This is all very well in itself, but comes
with a sad grace from them, and must injure them in-
calculably with the country. I learn from my brother
James, who has been in London for a few days, that
the consternation of the class of people who are
always with ministry, but especially with the present
set, is great beyond description; and that the ridicule
which this proclamation excites is very amusing.
You will remark that the point conceded does not
leave the other rights claimed in a situation at all
more comfortable or easy than before. I drew up
a statement of the whole American question for
Jeffrey's review ; and having procured a copy, I shall
enclose it to Lord Lauderdale and request him to
; forward it to you when he has read it He was so
good as to write me a letter on some points, at your

388 POLITICS OF THE DAY. [1807.

desire ; and I also had the benefit of consulting with
Lord Holland and Allen respecting the negotiation
with America, I should be very glad to have your
opinion respecting the general principle which I have
ventured to propose for satisfying the Americans
without giving up our search of merchantmen, —
viz., redress in our common laiv courts, and not our
Admiralty.

" Wilberforce, having promised to let me know as
soon as he heard anything certain about the meeting
of Parliament, has written me two letters, stating
that one of the ministers (I presume Perceval) told
him they hoped there would be no occasion to meet
before Christmas : and Lord Melville says here that
it will not meet till the end of January. Though I
know you will not dislike this, I am sure you must
admit it to be a most reprehensible thing during such
a state of affairs.

" I have received several letters from a friend of
mine, of the Orange party in Holland. The com-
munication is so much interrupted that he cannot
send me a mcmoire which he has just had the bold-
ness to publish on the abolition of the Dutch slave
trade. Their anxiety for peace knows no bounds.

" Lord and Lady Ossulston were here for a day ;
and I find he has resolved at all events not to come
in competition with Sir Charles Monk, unless he
should find the sense of the county decidedly with
him. Indeed he says he does not care about it. — I
remain most faithfully yours, H. BROUGHAM.

JET. 30.] THE PENINSULA. 389

" P.S. — I have to beg pardon for having misled
you as to Lord Grenville being returned from Corn-
wall. I understood this from the Kings, but I now
find that it was in Devonshire, on his way down, that
they had seen him. He had not returned a fortnight
ago/'

TO THE EARL OF EOSSLYN".

" EDINBURGH, Nov. 8, 1807.

" MY DEAR LORD ROSSLYN, — I have just received
a letter from Mr Warre, our consul at Oporto, and
I enclose it, not only because it contains some late
intelligence from that quarter, but because he seems
to wish that the contents of it should reach the
Foreign Office, which I think might be best effected
by your desiring Vincent to look after it. I should
have sent it direct to Hammond, without troubling
you, but I have understood there is some dryness
between him and Warre. The case of the people at
Oporto, and of poor Mr Warre especially, is most
pitiable. What he says of neglecting his own con-
cerns in looking after the factory under his care, I
verily believe to be strictly true. He is of all the
mercantile men I ever saw by far the least sordid ;
and I saw with my own eyes how constantly he
sacrificed his private interest to his situation, which
was indeed his hobby; and you will observe that
after all he was only a vice-consul, receiving nothing
like a repayment of the necessary expenses of his
office; but he loved to play the old Castilian, and
considered himself as the father of the factory. His

390 POLITICS OF THE DAY. [1807.

zeal in the service last year was most exemplary; and
I am certain that the best (indeed, for anything I
could see, the only good) information they have at
Lisbon comes through him. You will remark that
his remaining at his post for further orders is very
laudable, for the risk is great. From Lisbon you can
escape at a moment's warning, but the bar at Oporto
is frequently impassable for six weeks at a time, and
may probably have become so the day after the
convoy sailed, in which case he must find his way to
Lisbon as soon as the French come near ; and will
most likely be stopt for want of a vessel to bring him
off, when things get so for on. As to the Brazil
scheme, I still believe it never will be done as ive
desire it without our interference. They may send
a part of the family over, but it will be to keep us
out of the concern. The ministers are stark mad if
they do not make Sir Sidney call in his way out ; but
Lord St Vincent would have been the man for that
business. H. BKOUGHAM."

TO THE EARL OF ROSSLYK

" HOLLAND HOUSE, December 1, 1807.

" MY DEAR LORD, — Having come here for a couple
of days, I shall have time to give you the political
gossip which I promised some time ago.

In general, things have been pretty dull and uni-
form since my return. Lord Howick's appearances
in the House of Lords have exceeded considerably
the highest expectations that had been formed of

JET. 30.] WHITBREAD. 391

them ; but his speeches of last night for the negotia-
tion, though certainly able, and perhaps superior in
oratory to any of his former ones, are not very much
approved of by those who like prudent and calm
avowals of principles in leaders of parties. It must,
I fear, be admitted that he is a little too warlike ; and
in general I fancy he is more Grenvillian, both in
opinions and indeed in cast of character, than the
rest of the remains of the Foxes. In his office he is,
I should conceive, an excellent man of business. And
he has appointed Stratton to the envoyship at Stock-
holm, though he was only known to him by his merit
and services, having no friends nor influence.

" But the talk of the day is Whitbread's opposition,
which I assure you is pretty fierce, and was even
personal to Grey.* It seems to be generally admitted
that he acted from principle, though I hear some
people hint that he would in no wise dislike having
his hands tied up by a high office — and this, I must
say, I do not at all believe ; and though I cannot but
think he liked the eclat of the thing after he had
resolved to speak in this way, yet I am sure he acted
a most conscientious part in forming his resolution.

" His praise of Yarmouth (whom it is really im-
possible not to blame, and whose appointment all
our friends, I am sure, regret) was very like a little
common factious opposition. Still more so was his

* See the debate on Mr Whitbread's motion, "That a committee
be appointed to inquire into the state of the nation," July 6, 1807. —
Cobbett's Debates, ix. 70-1. As strangers were excluded, the report is
only an outline.

392 POLITICS OF THE DAY. [1807.

putting the motion in Grey's former words ; this is
considered, I think, as rather spiteful. And in several
points I conceive even those who agree with him in
the main must admit that he argued his cause too
high. By the way, he had no want of men to second
him. The sensation excited is very considerable.
I am quite clear the ministry will suffer by it-
but most of all the Fox part of it; and this seems
admitted.

" All is hitherto entire cordiality between the two
parties in the Cabinet. Nevertheless, no one can deny
that there is a sort of hankering after Lord Grenville
on the part of Hawkesbury, &c., which will look
suspicious if it lasts much longer. It must be
observed that the opposition (I mean the regular
opposition) do not stand very well united. It is
evident that they take different grounds ; and I know
that there are violent dissensions, in which I shall
not much wonder to see Hawkesbury and Castlereagh
wheel off.

" Most of the Foxites talk calmly and rationally on
the state of affairs ; build a little on the chances of
Bonaparte being defeated by the Eussians — a little
more on his failing to beat them, if he advances far—
and a good deal on our own naval or colonial experi-
ments.

" They are in the main rational also on the subject
of peace, though certainly not sufficiently clear and
steady in their views of that question. I don't think
they have a very right view either of the state of our

;ET. 30.] THE COURT. 393

connections with Eussia or of the questions relative
to Sicily, expecting a good deal too much from the
former, and not seeing all the evils of our attempts
in favour of the latter. Buenos Ayres is not quite
given up ; but at any rate they think it must have
been retaken by our expedition.

" The merchants are a good deal laughed at for
having been taken in by the scheme to such an
extent, and Popham is given up by almost every-
body.

" The king's health is pretty good ; but on Irish
affairs he is by no means more sound than formerly.
This part of the subject is very ticklish, and has of
late given very great uneasiness ; but nothing is to
be done in the way of emancipation, though I much
fear a petition will be presented, and, of course, op-
posed by Lord G. and the Foxites, which would be
rather unpleasant. I believe they say within these
two days that things are looking better in Ireland
than before. All this is quite extraneous.

" The prince has been really illt and is still in a
very unpleasant way, though somewhat better. He
is reduced to water or iced punch and turtle, and no
wine nor animal food.

" This I know for certain. I have been down at
Brocket Hall during the holidays, and the Melbournes
(who by the way expected him there as an invalid)
say he is exceedingly touchy about his health, so that
he will neither take medicines nor allow anybody to
say he is ill. The story of his being so much in love

394 POLITICS OF THE DAY. [1807.

with Lady Hertford is quite true, but certainly is
not the sole cause of his lowness. She has treated
him pretty cavalierly. Yarmouth's row about Ha-
nover was all addressed to the prince, who has the
family twist very strong.

" The elections are still much talked of. Sheridan
says he is secure, and I rather suppose Paul may give
in before many days elapse. But Windham, I fear,
will be thrown out, as well as Coke, for treating, and
so will their antagonists.

" They have all bungled it sadly, and there was a
compromise not to petition, which was rendered in-
effectual by a couple of rich old maids taking part,
and raising a petition against them. For the mean
time ministers are to secure Windham a borough,
and I suppose Coke also. Indeed all the loose seats
are picked up, God knows how, before one hears of
there being a vacancy.

" The Chancellor is going on, I hear, as indifferently
as possible in his court, and the bar are greatly dis-
pleased.

"The ministry are resolved to abolish the slave
trade in good earnest ; and I hope will refuse to hear
any evidence. I fancy this will be the great measure
of the session, which, however much one must approve
of it, is certainly not all that is wanting. Wellesley
will certainly be screened. I fancy a whitewashing
motion will be made ; and then I should think his
admission into place is almost certain.

"Everything in this house goes on as .usual, only

JET. 30.] . PENINSULAR WAR. 395

little Souza is here almost every evening. They are
coining to town next week.

o

" I shall not fail to write such intelligence as may
interest you from time to time; and in the mean
time I remain ever faithfully yours,

" H. BROUGHAM."

TO EARL GREY.*

"ALBANY, December 31, 1807.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — As there are various
stories in circulation among the newspapers about
late events, I trouble you with a few lines to mention
what I conceive to be the truth of the matter.

" Eespecting the Lisbon business, Strangford com-
plains bitterly that they have garbled his despatch ;
but while he says this to me, and one or two others,
who are likely to know the truth, as an excuse for
the bragging which appears in his letter, he tells
people whom he thinks he can take in, that if the
whole despatch had been published, it would have
appeared how much more concern he had in the
transaction. I doubt not, indeed, that the original
contained a great deal more bragging ; but, unluckily,
enough is published to deprive both Strangford and
the ministers of every atom of credit which they may
wish to take for the event. For the rest, the articles
in the ' Morning Chronicle/ with another which will
appear to-morrow, meet the opinions of all our friends,

* Lord Howick became Earl Grey on the death of his father — 14th
November 1807.

596 POLITICS OF THE DAY. [1807.

excepting the conjectures as to Bonaparte not wish-
ing to detain the Court. This many people think
a refinement ; among whom are the Holland House
folks. But I may add that some persons lately re-
turned from Paris rather confirm it, by reporting
that the wish there was that the Court might escape.
I should be very glad to know your opinion upon this
part of the subject.

" Every one is agreed that the choice of a minister
to Brazil is of infinite moment, and could not have
been worse made, It is conceived that Strangford
has been appointed in order to give eclat to the
management of the affair on our part, and to make
the country think that we did the business. This,
indeed, is quite of a piece with Gambier's peerage."5"
Ministers reverse the old rule, arid reward men, not
because they have performed important or difficult
services, but in order to give their services an air of
importance and difficulty.

" You will perceive contradictory statements as to
Oudinot's marching towards Astrakan ; but I know
it for a fact that the directors believe he is. The
deputy-chairman said so at Hertford College last
week to Malthus, from whom I heard it. It is sup-
posed Oudinot will settle matters in Persia for an
attack upon India after some interval ; and the pro-
bability is they will enter the peninsula by the Puri-
jaub, for obvious reasons. Such a movement will

* Admiral Gambler had just been raised to the peerage for his services
in the bombardment of Copenhagen and the removal of the Danish fleet.

;ET. 30.] PENINSULAR WAR. 397

raise the Mahrattas and the southern powers almost
as certainly as if it were begun nearer the Carnatic,
or Bombay, against which there are insuperable ob-
jections. If we lose India, there will be infinite
clamour ; but we shall be more frightened than hurt
—thanks to the company's monopoly, which has so
much stunted our commerce with that country.

" The colonies, especially Jamaica, are all in an
uproar ; and to play such difficult cards the Duke of
Manchester is sent with all his wisdom. Eeally, ap-
pointments like this are too bad, and, one should
think, not beyond Parliament's interference. Gam-
bier's peerage, I should conceive, clearly within it.

" I trust you will command me freely if you have
any commissions which I can execute for you before
your arrival in town. — And I remain ever most faith-
fully yours, H. BROUGHAM."

FKOM EAEL GEEY.

" Ho WICK, January 3, 1808.

" DEAR BROUGHAM, — . . . My hopes are a
good deal revived about Spain. We have now, I
think, evidence enough that there is no want of spirit
amongst the people. There has been nowhere any
submission ; the loss of the French has, I have no
doubt, been much greater than they allow, while that
of the Spanish armies is not stated, even by them, to
have been very considerable, and the strongest part
of the Peninsula yet remains to be conquered. But
what cheers me most is the march of Moore upon

39$ POLITICS OF THE DAY. [1808.

Yalladolid ; it is a clear proof that lie did not think
things desperate. It is a bold and a decisive meas-
ure, not unlike what I think Bonaparte would have
done in similar circumstances. It places the two
armies in a situation more anxious and critical than
any that I remember, as a battle seems inevitable, and
under circumstances in which there appears literally
to be ' nulla salus victis/ I only hope Moore, now
that he has taken this step, will not hesitate, but
push on, and attempt to strike some important blow
before Bonaparte can turn upon him.

" You know I approved of the declaration, not of
the style or the Canning-isms in it, but of the thing
done in rejecting an overture which could not, under
the existing circumstances, be listened to, more than
I have reason to believe many of my friends did.
But in the answer to Pinckney, I think Canning has
outdone himself. I am sorry it has not been more
attacked and exposed in our papers.

" So ' all the ladies and gentlemen danced well/ as
Jack Lee said of the figurantes at the opera. This
conclusion of the military inquiry must, I think, give
general dissatisfaction, and furnishes the strongest
ground for some parliamentary proceeding. I do not
understand how Lord Moira, &c., reconcile their con-
demnation of the armistice and convention with their
unqualified approbation of all the generals.

" The Hollands, 1 find, are not coming home. Pray
write whenever you have any news, and have nothing
better to do. — Ever yours, GIIEY."

^ET. 30.] HOME POLITICS. 399

TO EAEL GREY.

"ALBANY, LONDON, April 21, 1808.
" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — The Liverpool and Man-
chester delegates are gone at last, all tolerably well
satisfied, except old Eathbone, who neither got his
speeches out in the Lords nor Commons. The Lon-
don merchants, however, kept him quiet, and the
whole petitioners in a body met and passed a very
handsome vote of thanks to me. The Londoners also
invited me to practise in the Cockpit, where they
have the whole business in their hands, and have
adopted me as Stephen's successor. I have ordered
a copy of the report of my speech to be sent to you
in an office cover. It is tolerably accurate — the four
first and twenty last pages, I am sure, nearly ver-
batim. Stephen is more outrageous than ever. He
has completely quarrelled with me, first, for saying
what I did say, and next, for not preventing its being
published. He says it is an incendiary and per-
nicious speech, and can only do mischief. But the
real truth is that he does not like being attacked, and
he finds Perceval is the only man wrho defends him.
His witnesses all failed, and did more good to us than
to the ministry, which exasperates them the more ;
and George Eose goes about saying he blames him
greatly for not stopping me at every other sentence.
They bitterly repent having allowed our petitions to
be gone into. Burdett gave Stephen an unmerciful
thrashing the other day, and is more wonderfully
improved, I understand, in speaking than could have

400 POLITICS OF THE DAY. [1808.

been thought possible. Paull had only lost £300,
but he was quite ruined. — Ever most faithfully yours,

" H. BROUGHAM."

TO EAEL GEEY.

" MIDDLE TEMPLE HALL, May 31, 1808.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — I ought long ago to
have thanked you for your kind and friendly letter,
respecting both the speech on the Orders in Council
and my plans in general. I am extremely obliged to
you indeed for the interest you take in these matters,
so trifling to everybody but myself. Notwithstand-
ing this, however, I shall so far presume on your
patience as to mention what I feel upon the subject.

" From accidental circumstances I find myself
placed in a situation which enables me to command
a considerable degree of success in the profession of
the law, and however odious that profession is (as God
knows there are few things so hateful), I am quite
clear that it would be utter folly in me to neglect so
certain a prospect. I have, of course, been continu-
ing my study of law, and pleading as diligently as
possible — indeed, it naturally becomes easier and less
disagreeable every day, and in a year or so more, I
doubt not, I shall know more about it than is re-
quisite. But I have resolved, in the mean time, to
risk an experiment, which, I fancy, you will think
not very prudent, and which, I own, is not quite
safe. By means of a special motion at Lincoln's Inn,
I may manage to be called to the bar early in July,

JET. 30.] PERSONAL PROSPECTS. 401

and thus to go the next northern circuit — which I
prefer to any other, as being the largest field, and in
every respect the first thing in that way. I shall do
this at the present moment, because from my recent
intercourse with Liverpool and Manchester folks,
the iron in that quarter is hot, and should be struck
before it cools. I set out with too slender a provision
of law, no doubt, and may very possibly never see a
jury until I have to address it, my stock of practice
being so slender that I never yet saw a nisi-prius
trial. But the points of law are few on a circuit, and
by good fortune none of any difficulty may fall on
me, and as there are no great wizards go the northern
circuit, I may push through the thing with a little
presence of mind and quickness. Besides, nothing
was ever done without risk, and nothing great with-
out much danger. Therefore I have taken my deter-
mination, and shall be ready to set out for York
when the circuit commences.

" In short, being so fairly in for it, I must make
the best of an indifferent bargain, and addict myself
to whatever will carry me upwards at the bar. There
are many openings — no formidable obstacles ; and
one may hope in time to make the profession a little
more like what it used to be of old, when mercenary
views were out of the question, and it was certainly
the finest of all civil pursuits.

" The worst of all this is, that it forces me to give
up everything political, and in prudence should keep
me clear of all party views and connections, for these,

VOL. i. 2 c

402 POLITICS OF THE DAY. [1808.

I daily see, are almost fatal to professional men. Now
here lies my great and only difficulty. I could cease
to think of a seat in Parliament, or, should I ever
obtain one, I could manage to keep such an occupa-
tion very subordinate — that is easy enough ; but to
take no side in questions where my opinions happen
to be all pretty strong, where I cannot help feeling
interested both in the actors and in the subject, would
be next to impossible, cost what it may. So that I
am in this dilemma, that one party stands plump in
my way on every occasion, because I am politically
attached to the other, while that other must of course
in every case look to the interests of such lawyers as
are directly engaged with them in politics ; in short,
do what I can, I am likely to be too much a politi-
cian for one set of men, and too much a lawyer for
the other. This is a real dilemma ; for I need only
hint at Scarlett's case to show what power the Chan-
cellor for the time being has over a man's professional
advancement — I mean by withholding a silk gown.
So strongly does he feel this, that it is quite contrary
to his advice that I think of the bar at all. I have
troubled you much too long with my plans and diffi-
culties to force on the one and to conquer the other.
I believe the step above described to be the only
means, and as such I embrace it without any great
fear as to the result. When I shall once be fairly
started, I must trust to the chapter of accidents for
getting out of the other dilemmas. — Ever yours,

"HENRY BROUGHAM."

JET. 30.] FOX. 403

TO EARL GEEY.

"MIDDLE TEMPLE, June 4, 1808.

" MY DEAR LORD, — I trouble you with a few lines
to say how Fox's book is flourishing. The cry is
loud and universal in its favour."* All classes — poli-
tical, fashionable, and literary — talk of nothing else,
and talk in the same strain. Even Lord Aberdeen —
whom I chanced to meet in company the other day —
was in raptures, though a prodigious lover of kings
and priests, and a pupil of Pitt and Melville — indeed
one of 'Stitis favourites. And Lord Camden says he
read it at a sitting with infinite avidity, and admires
every line separately. You will say this is a proof
of his stupidity, for if he understood it all, he must
necessarily be shocked at some parts of it.

" I expect it will still raise a cry, especially in the
pulpit, and that you will soon see letters to Lord
Holland, and perhaps yourself, by J. Bowles & Co.,
and hear of sermons by Eennel and all manner of
holy animals.t But still the cause of liberty and
liberality of opinion is prodigiously refreshed by it,
and all its inferior supporters countenanced and en-
couraged. As a, party event, too, you are great

* l A History of the early part of the Reign of King James the
Second. With an Introductory Chapter.'

f John Bowles, barrister-at-law, the author of a multitude of pam-
'phlets, chiefly directed against the Whig party, and some of them
especially directed against Fox. Thomas Rennel, Dean of Winchester,
author of ' Principles of French Republicanism founded on Violence and
-Blood-guiltiness,' and other pamphlets of a like tenor. The chief
attack on Fox's book was by the. Right Honourable George Hose.-

404 POLITICS OF THE DAY. [1808.

gainers. It is a rare set-off to such meetings as Pitt's
birthday dinner, where, by the way, the Chancellor
covered himself with ridicule. — Faithfully yours,

" HENRY BROUGHAM."

I wrote the following letter to Lord Grey, partly to
give him some news about Spain, but chiefly to con-
vey to him the disappointment and disgust I was
then suffering under from the spiteful proceedings of
the Government in stopping my call to the bar. It
is difficult to find a reason, much less an excuse, for
a proceeding which I may call unparalleled.. It might
be that the Government had a foretaste of the fate of
their Orders in Council ; but it indicated pretty plainly
to me what I was to look to in the future, and the
kind of injustice I might expect to meet with in my
professional career.

TO EARL GREY.

" MIDDLE TEMPLE HALL, July 2, 1808.
" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — I expected to learn some
news about Spain which might be worth communi-
cating. There is, however, nothing authentic arrived.
Portuguese people have no letters, but believe that
Oporto is freed from the French, and that Junot is
intrenching himself somewhere about Lisbon. There
is a tendency in Spain, no doubt, to rise ; but one can-
not safely trust the flattering prospects held out until
it appears that the insurgents have actually begun
operations, and proved their constancy as well as their

JET. 30.] PENINSULAR WAR, 405

courage; for it is obvious that the former is more
material in a contest which, if it is to do anything at
all, must be of no short duration, and quite unfavour-
able to the insurgents at the outset. As to the wild
story which every man of every party was believing
all yesterday, and I think even to-day, that the in-
surgents have defeated the French in a pitched battle
and killed 12,000 of them, I leave you to say what
sort of evidence would be necessary to convince you
of such a thing, when you recollect the campaigns
of 1795 and 1796, 1805 and 1806, with the best
regulars and leaders in Europe. Meanwhile all is
hope and castle -building here, literally ' batir des
chateaux en Espagne/ People are busy fortifying
the Pyrenees against new invasions of the enemy;
contriving terms of peace which he may not be able
to accept, and which will lead to a campaign in
France; raising a fifth coalition in Germany, and
bringing back the Bourbons. The first act of the
peace, the defeat in Spain, is of course never doubted.
I verily believe at this moment there are scarcely ten
men in London who would give Bonaparte £100
a-year of half-pay to retire to Ajaccio, and live quietly
as an invalid officer the rest of his life. So incurable
a malady is hope, notwithstanding the largest quan-
tities of bitter disappointment which may have been
administered to strengthen us against it. Materoza
is a fine boy of eighteen, very promising, and I dare-
say well born. The other I have not seen, but hear
him well spoken of. Argaelius is with them, whom

406 POLITICS OF THE DAY. [1808.

I knew when he lived here last year and the year
before. He is a sensible and accomplished man, in-
finitely sanguine on the present occasion.

" To drop down to a very trifling subject, I have
been defeated in my plan of being called to the bar
this term. To my great surprise they sent down the
Attorney and Solicitor General, who frightened the
benchers, and leaguing with Saint Allan Park (one
of the greatest knaves in the profession), rejected my
application by a majority of OXE vote. Every one
admits that this is a vile political job, and scarcely
ever before attempted. They luckily cannot easily
prevent me next term ; but I am infinitely injured
by the delay, besides the foretaste it gives me of what
I have to expect in future when I shall stand in need
of a silk gown. — Believe me ever most sincerely yours,

" HENRY BROUGHAM."

TO EAEL GEEY.

'•TEMPLE, July 21, 1808.

" ... It is a very strange thing that the ministers
have contrived to pick out a staff for Spain and Portu-
gal which contains not one man who ever served there,
except Sir H. Dalrymple, who is a mere name. I am
persuaded the Duke of York, after the first success,
will follow with the Guards, and — bring all back
again. It must be admitted, however, that things
are looking very well in Spain, and great things may
follow if they go on in the same way ; but I am no
believer in the duration and steadiness of popular

XT. 30.] PENINSULAR WAR, 407

feelings, and a great believer in regular armies and
well-bred officers.

" I am heartily tired of London and special pleading,
especially the former, everybody being gone out of
town, and nothing remaining but heat, dust, and dul-
ness. I shall shake myself loose in a week or ten
days at furthest, and steer northwards. Pray let
me know if you are likely to be at Ho wick in about
a fortnight or sixteen days, that I may shape my course
so as to find you at home. — Believe me yours very
faithfully, HENRY BROUGHAM.

" I shall write to you to-morrow or next day, and
send you the Portuguese communications which Warre
promises me."

TO EAEL GREY.

"July 22, 1808.

"DEAR LORD GREY, — I wrote you a few lines
yesterday, and mentioned that Warre had promised
me the details, papers, &c., about Oporto. I have now
gone over them, and they are very curious indeed.

" The bishop is at the head of everything, and the
Church is all up in arms. The Chapter and all the
convents have embodied themselves and form a large
corps of stout and zealous soldiers. Part of the town,
all the churches, hospitals, and some of the forts, are
guarded by monks, with cocked hats, muskets, and
their cloaks cut short off. The press is in equal ac-
tivity with the Church. I have run over no less than

408 POLITICS OF THE DAY. £1808.

seventeen proclamations issued by the Supreme Junta
of Oporto in one week. They are very violent, some
of them not at all badly written, though inferior to
the Spanish, and talking much more about religion
and the Church. The ribbons worn by the people,
three of which Warre received, are about Jesus Christ
and the faith, * por lo fee veneer o morir/ &c. The
Spaniards say ' per la patria veneer/ &c. So far
the former are likely to be more zealous and more
rash than the Spaniards. They have too many priests
meddling, and too much fanaticism afloat, to act very
wisely ; but if well supported in the other quarters,
they Avill do much good in spite of it.

" They have got hold of a part of a guillotine, in
possession of the French, which exasperates them,
much. They have marched the French, consul, mer-
chants, soldiers, &c., on board of a ship and sent them
to England; and "Warre's correspondents all state tile
numbers in arms to be 50,000. They are very anxious
for assistance of any and every kind from this coun-
try. So far AVarre.

" The Hollands are still very sanguine about the
whole affair, and I hear you continue to be so too.
But they admit that if the Seville Junta goes on by
itself and does not call a general Cortes, the Arragonese
will not submit to them, and that the whole will be
blown up. They think our Government have very
bad notions on these points, and this is the only thing
which makes them doubt of success. — Yours, &c.

"II. BROUGHAM."

OF
JfC

JET. 30.] PENINSULAR WAR. 409

The conduct of our Government in regard to the
war in Spain, when ministers took no warning by
the disastrous events of the Portuguese campaign —
their treatment of Sir John Moore, placing over him
generals in many respects inferior to him — and other
matters connected with these subjects, had been the
occasion of much discussion and correspondence be-
tween Lord Grey and me. In some of the following
letters he refers to many written by me to him, which,
I regret to say, I have been unable to find. I kept
no copies, and the originals are not among the great
mass of my letters, which my dear and lamented
friend Lady Grey sent to me after her husband's
death, most kindly placing them at my disposal,
and of which kindness it will be found that I have
throughout this memoir largely availed myself. In-
deed the appointment of such officers as were selected
to take the command must have been as offensive to
Sir Arthur Wellesley as it was unjust to Sir John
Moore; for it is undoubtedly the fact that after
Vimiera, and Burrard's command succeeded by Dal-
rymple's, Sir Arthur wrote to Lord Castlereagh, dis-
tinctly stating his earnest desire to quit the army,
and urging as his reason for this step that, after
having been successful as a commander, he could
never serve in a subordinate situation with satisfac-
tion either to the officer placed over him or to
himself.

The following letter from Lord Grey shows his
opinion of the vexata questio9 the convention of Cin-

410 PENINSULAR WAR [1808.

tra, and also what he thought of the conduct of min-
isters and their treatment of Sir John Moore : —

FROM EARL GREY.

" HOWICK, Sept 29, 1808.

" MY DEAR BROUGHAM, — I received your letter last
night. There can be but one sentiment with respect
to the convention, and I believe there has never
existed a case in which the public feeling was so
generally and so strongly excited. It is therefore an
opportunity of attack too favourable to be neglected.
But that it will overset the Administration I am not
sanguine enough to believe. Nothing can do so till
there is a body of men capable of succeeding them ;
and while the Catholic question remains in its present
state, where are they to be found ?

"The leading features of the case are sufficiently
obvious, and the circumstances which led to the delay
of the expedition, and to its being sent piecemeal, as
it was, are all, I think, adverted to by you.

" The folly of sending Sir John Moore to the Baltic,
where it was impossible he could do anything, and
where, by his prudence alone, I believe, we were
saved from a scrape which ministers had in a manner
contrived for him, productive as it was of so heavy
a loss both of time and means, is undoubtedly one of
the points chiefly to be insisted on. With respect to
the choice of a commander, I am in general inclined
to be very tolerant, not only because the attack
coming from us, I am aware of the obvious retort

JET. 31.] AND SIR JOHN MOORE. 4ll

about Whitelock, but because I know the difficulties
which the army list presents to ministers on this
point. In the present case, however, I think there is
a good deal to be said. It is not only that ministers
erred in making a bad choice, but that the cause of it
was an intrigue to give Wellesley a separate oppor-
tunity to distinguish himself. If they had thought
him the fittest man to command in a service of such
vital importance, they ought in a manly way to have
given him the command at once. If not, another
commander should have been selected, who should
have been fully apprised of the views of Government,
and sent from the beginning to conduct operations,
the success of which depended so much on uniformity
of measures, on local knowledge, and, above all, on
the absence of all jealousies amongst the officers at
the head of the army. Looking at the matter in this
view, the conduct of ministers has been as unjust to
an individual as it has been injurious to the public
service. When Sir John Moore came home from
Sweden, they could not withhold the most unqualified
approbation of his conduct. But at the same time
that they made this acknowledgment, you must re-
member how very little pains were taken to conceal
their discontent and dislike of him. Nothing was
omitted to give him disgust, and to make him relin-
quish his command. But not succeeding in this, and
not being able to put Wellesley over him, they deter-
mined to reduce him to the level of Wellesley, by
putting Sir Hew Dalrymple, who had never seen any

413 PENINSULAR WAR [1808.

service, over both, and in the mean time detached
Wellesley with his division that he might find the
opportunity of which he availed himself before the
arrival of any other officer of higher rank. It is not,
therefore, only the fault of having made a bad choice
that is imputable to ministers, but that they did so
for the express purpose of keeping the command from
Sir John Moore, whom the general voice of the whole
army, supported by his former services, would have
pointed out as the man best qualified for it.

" With respect to the details of the expedition, and
its deficiency either in cavalry or in any other article
of necessary appointment, I am entirely ignorant.
But I cannot imagine that the want of cavalry could
have prevented their advancing. On these matters,
however, you have one of the best sources of infor-
mation at hand in Lord Eosslyn.

" With respect to Spain I cannot agree with you.
That a most tremendous battle still remains to be
fought is certain. Bonaparte, whether it be from
choice or necessity, seems disposed to stake everything
on the conquest of Spain, and the effort he will make
is not to be looked at without great solicitude for the
event. But I am not dismayed; and if I was sanguine
some months ago, when you all seemed to pity me for
my folly, I am much more so now, for I think the
situation of Spain much improved. Bonaparte, you
say, was surprised by the resistance. But were not
the Spaniards surprised by the attack \ and when you
recollect that he had in the month of May an army

JET. 31.] AND SIR JOHN MOORE. 4T3

of 105,000 men in possession of all the fortresses, and
of a strong position in the heart of the kingdom — that
the provinces were cut off from the means of com-
munication with one another, were without leaders,
without arms, and subject to every disadvantage
which a people could suffer, and yet that they have
driven that army with a loss of at least 50,000 men
to the frontier, — why are we to despond even if a
great army should be ready to be poured in upon them
under the command of Bonaparte in person? He
has made, and no doubt will make, great preparations.
But the Spaniards have had time also for preparation,
and have secured other advantages which are incal-
culable in their effect. And in whatever way I con-
sider this subject, it appears to me that their means
of resistance and their chance of success are both
infinitely greater as opposed to any army which Bona-
parte can now bring against them, than they were
when he began openly to attempt to enslave them at
the commencement of last May. "With these opinions,
therefore, I cannot approve of the discouraging lan-
guage which you have held in the 'Edinburgh Ee-
view/ and which you hold in your letter. Even if
my own hopes were less sanguine, I would willingly
deprecate you from using such language publicly.
To assist the Spaniards is morally and politically one
of the highest duties a nation ever had to perform.
And to check those feelings whose operation is of so
much importance to the success of our attempt may
do great mischief, but cannot by possibility produce

414 PENINSULAR WAR [1808.

any good. On the passage of which I complained I
will say little, because I confess it is a subject which
I feel painfully. To be accused of abandoning when
in power the principles I had maintained in opposi-
tion, is a severe charge even from an enemy ; but for
a friend to entertain, and to think it necessary to
promulgate that opinion, must inflict a much deeper
wound, the more especially as I had hoped that all
who knew me, and most of the members of the late
Cabinet, must have been convinced that though we
might have mistaken the road, we were sincerely
desirous of peace. To Fox at least that credit has
been allowed ; and it is not one of the hardships that
we have to complain of least, that a separation is
made between him and those who survive on the
question. The truth is that we never departed from
his views; and at the time he wrote the despatch
of the 14th June, the last he ever wrote himself,
he considered the negotiation as having failed. I
have said more than I intended, so will not add
one word more, but that I am ever yours,

" GREY/'

To this I answered immediately, as follows : —

" October 6, 1808.

" MY DEAR LORD, — I find you mistake me a good
deal about the review of Spain, more especially if you
think I ever wrote a word which accused you of
swerving from your opposition principles ; most espe-
cially if you imagine that I ever could fancy a dis-

JET. 31.] AND SIR JOHN MOORE. 4*5

tinction between you and Fox on this matter. In
truth I always thought that the most scandalous piece
of injustice that ever was dealt out to a party, for
the mere dates must have convinced any man that
Fox's death had no more influence on the negotiation
than Pitt's, or any other persons. But I won't trouble
you further on this unimportant matter.

" I write at present to mention my having learnt
with much surprise that the Hollands are going to
Spain in good earnest, a plan which I had all along
viewed as mere talk. Now it strikes me that such
a proceeding will not only hurt Lord Holland in-
calculably, but will seriously injure your party. As
for their returning to Parliament, that no one can
believe ; and certainly a more important session has
not been known as the next is likely to prove.

" I can fancy nothing more certain than Canning's,
&c., gibing and referring to E. Adair's Peterburgh mis-
sion, every time there happens a difference between
our Government and the Juntas. Nor will the country
be slow to blame Lord Holland for whatever goes on
wrong in our communication with the Spaniards.
But leaving that out of view, I am persuaded, fond
as the people of this country may at present be of
Spain, that rambling over there under the present
circumstances will infallibly alienate their confidence
from Lord Holland, or rather, I should say, will pre-
vent them from viewing him as the steady and Eng-
lish sort of man whom they require for a statesman.
I think he will assuredly be damaged by it, and at

4l6 PENINSULAR WAR [1808.

the moment when lie was rising into very great esti-
mation.

"Perhaps you don't think with me, but if you do,
I wish you would write to him and her, to dissuade,
for I know perfectly well that no other person can
attempt it with half the chance of succeeding. — Be-
lieve me very faithfully yours, H. BROUGHAM.

" P.S. — I am greatly indebted to you for your kind
expressions, but suppose you misunderstood me. Any
parliamentary plans would, I believe, do me much
harm for some time to come, and though I should
like to have a share in running down the present
drivellers, yet the satisfaction of doing so, and the
trifling service I could render the party, would scarcely
be a fair inducement to make me interrupt my pro-
fessional pursuits."

TO EAEL GREY.

" TEMPLE, November 25, 1808.

"Mr DEAR LORD GREY, — I have come up quicker
than I intended, from meeting a newspaper at Dar-
lington with a notice that the Cockpit met to-day, and
I knew I had a point of importance to argue. I accord-
ingly came day and night and got here about eight
this morning, when on going to the court I found the
cause compromised.

" I have a letter from Lady Holland, dated 9th, de-
sponding somewhat, and abusing Ward greatly. He
did not sail with them, which, I fancy, was rather be-
ginning unfavourably.

JET. 31.] AND SIR JOHN MOORE. 417

' ' At the Cockpit I had much conversation with St
Stephen, and found his tone about politics greatly
altered and quite lowered. He is melancholy about
the convention, angry at the generals, and has not the
smallest hopes of Spain. I presume he speaks Perce-
val's sentiments to a certain degree. He denies the
meeting of Parliament till after Christmas or the birth-
day, positively. Wilberforce is going to Bath for a
month, so he must have changed his opinion, if he
ever had the one mentioned by Tierney.

" It is singular to see how changed the public senti-
ments about ministers are. Every one of all parties
(and I have seen more Tories than Whigs) admits
that they are damaged to the greatest degree. I
cannot help regretting that none of our friends are
on the spot.

" Canning is on bad terms with his colleagues, talks
loudly against the convention, and indeed washes his
hands of all concern with the expedition, which was
concerted by Castlereagh and Perceval, with scarcely
any consultation of military men. Perceval wrote the
answer to the address (as I always thought). This
you may rely upon, and that Canning disapproved
of it.

" The king and Duke of York violent against every-
thing Spanish and Portuguese, generals, &c. The offi-
cial people despond about Spain.

" Now for the last piece of news which I have just
heard in Kidgway's shop, where a man came who had
been one at the Duke of Portland's, and said that the

VOL. T» 2 D

418 PENINSULAR WAR [1808.

duke had received intelligence of Blake's defeat after
long fighting, but a very complete defeat. The re-
port of the evening is either that he was taken
prisoner or had fled to the mountains. I much fear
the substance of this dismal rumour will prove true.
— Believe me ever yours most faithfully,

" HENRY BROUGHAM."

TO EAEL GREY.

"MIDDLE TEMPLE HALL, 7>e. 2, 1808.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — Knowing that any little
thing one happens to hear in town is worthy of notice
to the unfortunate persons who live in the country, I
just put down what occurs, however unimportant in
itself, when I have a moment of respite from John
Doe and Eichard Roe.

" Touching Spain, I am more sanguine to-day than
I have ever been, which you will not be surprised at
(though most people might), because it is founded on
your own view very nearly. The Spaniards have
been beaten, but certainly after such stiff fighting as
I never had expected. If their spirit continues equal,
or nearly equal, to this last exhibition of it, I shall
liaAre scarcely any fears. Government is still quite as
desponding as formerly. In truth their fears are
founded on their wishes.

" It is quite certain that there was a flirtation, if not
an intrigue, with the Doctor; but Lord Ellenborough is

MT. 31.] AND SIR JOHN MOORE. 419

represented by people who dined with him yesterday
as exceedingly factious and violent.

" Having received a sort of complimentary message
from Miranda, I went to see him — rather to prevent
his coming to see me, than from any wish to make
his acquaintance — but I found him very clever and
entertaining, and frank about his own plans and
secrets, in a degree that is only to be found among
finished adventurers (at least so I have generally
found them).* He is furious at the ministry, though
he seems still to be connected with them ; admits
that he and Wellesley were on the eve of setting out
for South America with an army, when the Spanish
deputies arrived ; curses the folly of this government
in changing their certain plans in New Spain for any
such chances as Old Spain affords ; and denies that an
army is the right way of aiding the Spaniards. He
mixes a good deal of truth with much narrow, Pe-
ruvian, and selfish error on the subject; but I was
struck with one argument on the small numbers of
the patriots. ' Cadiz has 100,000 inhabitants ; it is
said to be full of patriots ; and all Andalusia is open :
yet they have raised a battalion of galley-slaves from
the hulks and prisons of that town ! ' His details of
the French commissariat are curious and frightful. It
is on the plan of the flying artillery, and organised with
infinite nicety and care. Miranda was, you know,
second in command at Jemmappes, and says the sys-

* Don Francisco Miranda, a Spanish soldier and politician of great
renown in his age,

420 PENINSULAR WAR [1808.

tern was formed in that campaign. I should like to
know whether you had any communication with him
when you were in office.

" Sydney Smith found in Yorkshire a sixteenth
edition of Plymley, five cheap ones having been sold
in the "West Biding.*

" The last review — about Cevallos — has given infi-
nite offence here, but in Edinburgh I learn that both
friends and foes are offended.

"The Hollands are retrograde, as appears from
letters. Ward, his uncle says, has arrived at Bath,
but I have not heard from him.

" The faint attempts at defending the convention
and the ministry, which their papers began, have died
a natural death. They now turn their whole force
against the ' Edinburgh Keview/ which every one
ministerial newspaper has now been attacking almost
daily for above a week. They have set on new hands
to this work, some people think Cooke — some Ward.

•"Ferguson's story of the despatch about Moore not
being received till after the 1 7th, turns out erroneous,
as we suspected. The re-embarkation at Mondego is
correct. He (Ferguson) says Wellesley could not
produce his case in Burrard's absence, for it consists
in throwing the whole blame on Burrard's refusal to
allow their pursuit. Burrard is to put all on want of
cavalry. The Duke of York will be with him, I pre-
sume, so here is a new scrape for Government. Charles

* The celebrated 'Letters from Peter Plymley to his Brother Abraham,'
anonymous, but well known to be the work of Smith.

JET. 31.] AND SIR JOHN MOORE. 421

Adam, who brought home L'Oison, says they talk of
the business exactly as the people here do.

" Seeing nobody but dull lawyers, and conversing
only about pleas and issues, I assure you writing a
letter to you is a very great luxury, as it approaches to
tolerable society. This must excuse the length and
unimportance of the present letter ; and the paper and
ink, which make it nearly illegible, must be set down
to the account of the coffeehouse where it is written. —
Believe me, dear Lord Grey, ever your faithful friend,

"HENRY BROUGHAM/'

TO EARL GREY.

"TEMPLE, Dec. 14, 1808.

"DEAR LORD GREY, — I take it for granted the
melancholy accounts given of affairs in Spain by
Moore and Graham in their private letters must have
reached you ; but as they are very important in con-
sidering the whole question, I shall state their sub-
stance in case you should not have heard it. Moore
by letter to Abercromby, of date November 26, says
the army had advanced well and comfortable in every
respect, but that the people were quite indifferent
and torpid, not well disposed to us. He adds that
he hears everywhere of Spanish armies, but sees
none, and that the inactivity of the Central Junta
is quite fatal. Graham (with Castanos) writes to T.
Grenville the same account, and that the Spanish
armies are very small in number. I fear the truth
is that the enthusiasm has partly evaporated ; that

422 PENINSULAR WAR [1808.

the Junta have been too sanguine and supine, that
they have not been half revolutionary enough, and
that the moment is irrevocably gone when the
people might have been made to save the country.
Allen's last letter to Sydney Smith admits that the
Junta has acted with shameful remissness, and that it
childishly thought Joseph's flight was the end of the
business.

" But our ministers are more to blame than even
I had thought, for they squandered away the golden
opportunity, which now appears to have been so
short and so irretrievable.

" The ministry give all up for lost, and seem re-
solved to abandon the nonsensical plan of a stand
in Portugal. A stand in Andalusia may still be at-
tempted. William Harrison (of the Treasury) abuses
them loudly, and declaims against them for blind-
folding the country, and the country for liking to be
blindfolded. He allows all our blunders in the exe-
cution as well as the plan, and cries out for a Span-
ish revolution as the only salvation of Europe. Such
rebellious talk in the Treasury is ominous ; in truth
Ave see at present an odd spectacle — the Government
deserted by all, even its own followers and friends,
\vho only rest its case on the unpopularity of their
adversaries. I trust that the ensuing session will
remove this only prop of the ministry. You have
the game in your own hands, and I doubt not that
both the constituent parts of the great body which you
lead, will agree in such a view of the subject as may

JET. 31.] AND SIR JOHN MOORE. 423

enable your particular branch to regain some of its
former popularity, a thing easy in itself, as well as
highly important to both the party and the country.

Wellesley is raising his head, and ministers too are
going to crow over Burrard. They, and not he, never-
theless, are to blame, but this must really be speedily
enforced in Parliament, otherwise it will be disbelieved
by the country. They are to give him a court-martial.
—In great haste. Ever yours truly,

" H. BROUGHAM."

TO EAEL GEEY.

" December 15, 1808.1

" DEAR LORD GREY, — I snatch a moment, as usual
during dinner, to say that I have just seen H.
Bouverie, who tells me his regiment, which was coun-
termanded yesterday, is re-ordered to-day ; that this
is said at the office to be owing to a telegraph from
Plymouth, announcing from the authority of the
Indefatigable, which was off the Spanish coast, that
Baird, Moore, and Romana are joined ; which minis-
ters believe, and disbelieve the French bulletins at
the same time.

" This seems rather improbable ; but one thing is
certain, every degree of confusion reigns at the offices.
All are at cross purposes, and complain that they
have no head, and no arrangement to help them.
The prevailing belief now is that Mulgrave and
Castlereagh will go by the board; and I heard of
preparations in Canning's office for his departure.

424 PENINSULAR WAR [1808.

" I lament nothing so much as the want of a state-
ment such as I once wrote to you about, and feel my
conscience smite me for suffering even the law to
prevent me from doing it myself. But there is no
help for impossibilities. It will be better done by
debates. — In haste, yours, &c. H. BROUGHAM.

" P.S. — Bulletin from Admiral Young's secretary
at Plymouth.

" News up to December 3d. Junta going to
Toledo. No doubt of Hope and Eomana joining
Moore. Eomana at Seco, having collected 20,000
of Blake's army."

TO EARL GREY.

" December 16, 1808.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — The post is just going ; but
as there are different rumours about the fatal news,
and some deny it, I write this to assure you it is as
bad as possible. A letter from Allen, December 1, 8
P.M. (Corunna), says that advice had just arrived of
Castaiios's total defeat, and Moore and Baird's retreat,
the former to Ciudad Rodrigo, the latter to Gallicia —
' by directions from Castanos himself !! I copy this
literally, with the two (!!). This is the whole letter,
and being to Perry (who showed it to me), I am
confident Allen did not write it rashly.*

" Ronald Ferguson saw the people at the offices to-
day, and Hope of the Admiralty yesterday. They

* Perry, well known as the editor of the ' Morning Chronicle/

JET. 31.] AND SIR JOHN MOORE. 425

believe in the whole of the worst parts of the news,
and say that Government have it in Baird's de-
spatches. Hope says the shipping is ordered round
to Yigo to take in Baird. Ferguson is giving over
his brigade for lost, it being with General Hope at
Madrid. — In haste, yours ever, H. BROUGHAM."

TO EARL GREY.

" WOOLBEDING, January 4, 1809.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — I rejoice greatly on ac-
count of the country that you are coming to town ;
but I must say if your health is one of the causes of
it, as I understood from Petty, I had much rather
have heard of your wintering at Ho wick. I am the
more disappointed at this, if correct, because your
friends had of late been flattering themselves with
the prospects of your complaints being entirely re-
moved.

" I have been here these three days, and return to-
morrow to town ; but having heard from London,
and before I left it, some things which seem authentic,
I shall set them down.

" The regency story is not perhaps true, but I
really believe it had some foundation. It was talked
of at Mansfield's (the chief justice) the other day in
a Tory company, among whom was the attorney-
general, and no sort of contradiction was given to it
by anybody ; only all agreed in lamenting that ' so
excellent a woman as the queen is in private life,'
should allow herself to be so much under the prince's

PENINSULAR WAR. [1809.

influence. I suspect, therefore, that the project was
entertained at Windsor, and went off on some objec-
tion about the Duke of York. I should add that
Lord Robert Spencer's man, Kent (whom he gave an
office to, and who is much about the public offices),
says he heard it still talked of at the Treasury as
a tiling to be brought forward. I miess this to be

o O O

untrue, however. A very odd thing happened the
other day. A report of the king's death prevailed so
much that black rose in price, and the tailors were
all in confusion, buying and running about. It was
spread all over this part of the country as certain;
yet the Archbishop of Canterbury told Mansfield he
never had seen the king better than on Christmas
day. It strikes me as possible that there may,
nevertheless, have been some alarm, perhaps an un-
founded one, among them ; and this would account
both for the talk of a regency among themselves, and
for the strange report of a dissolution of Parliament
which prevailed about the same time.

" I have a letter from Allen at Yigo, dated
December 13. They are going to Lisbon by land,
and expect to winter in Andalusia, riot having
heard of Madrid being taken. But I conclude you
have received letters from themselves by the same
conveyance.

" A few days ago the intention of the ministry
was to defend Lisbon, and sixty pieces of cannon,
with engineers, &c., were embarking, as Ferguson
,'Kssured me. Whether the advance of Baird and

JET. 31.] PENINSULAR WAR. 427

Moore has changed their plan I know not, but the
report among the Guards at Portsmouth is, that they
are going under Spencer to Cadiz. This is a wiser
plan certainly. Indeed, notwithstanding all the san-
guine expectations of the London folks, I shall be
greatly surprised if Moore ventures between Bona-
parte and Soult, at least if the statements of their
force are correct. I hear Lord Grenville is decidedly
of opinion that the whole conduct of Government
must be fully discussed, as he objects to everything
they have done ; and Wickham is, if possible, more
desponding about Spain than ever. But this you have
of course heard directly from Dropmore. — Believe
me, &c. H. BROUGHAM."

TO EARL GREY.

" January 6, 1809.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — . . . The Hollands
were at Oporto on the 26th of December, and give,
I understand, a bad account of the Portuguese, which
can surprise nobody. The ministers affect to speak
with great admiration of Moore's retreat, but their
supporters keep cavilling at him. Lord Melville is
certainly to speak at first against Government, but I
fancy his opposition will be a very qualified one. He
has desired his friends to stay away, and I know several
who have complied. Ferguson was to have gone to
Corunna in the ship which was appointed to convey
the expedition, but it is stopped, and both he and
Harry Bouverie are now at Woolbeding. I presume

428 PENINSULAR WAR. [1809.

the whole are to be sent round to Cadiz. Was there
ever such wavering, childish behaviour yet seen,
even upon ordinary occasions, as the ministers have
shown through the whole of this greatest of all
affairs ?

11 Lord Moira is much praised for his view of the
convention, but some wonder is expressed at his
joining in the vote about zeal, &c. The extravagant
praise of Lord Moira in the ' Courier,' and their con-
stant attacks on ministry, are very curious. Huskis-
son says the ' Courier ' is an unmanageable paper,
and I suppose it looks merely or chiefly to its sale ;
so that its attacks are rather a symptom of public
opinion than of any disunion among the ministers.
—Always yours, most faithfully, II. BROUGHAM."

TO EAEL GREY.

" Saturday evening, six o'clock,
" January 21, 1809.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — I have only a moment to
say that the arrival of Charles Stewart (Castlereagh's
brother) seems a proof that Moore's army is out of
danger ; though certainly the transports had not all
arrived, but were coming into Corunna, and there is
a report that the news brought by Stewart is bad.
It seems to be certain that we have lost considerably
in constant skirmishes ; and that all our artillery is
gone. One account says, all the troops, except one
regiment, had embarked when Stewart came. This
is not true. The utmost extent of the ministerial in-

JET. 31.] PENINSULAR WAR. 429

formation is that the cavalry had embarked. Sense-
less stories are told by people in office, such as Brod-
rick, whom I heard mention, with much exultation,
that the Duke del Infantado had retaken Madrid,
and that Moore was occupying a position, and mak-
ing a stand, a diversion, and I know not what, at
Corunna — and without his artillery ! !

" If he waited three days at Corunna for trans-
ports, Bonaparte must either have been in smaller
force than is supposed, or must have gone to Vigo.
The date of Moore's despatches is January 11.

" The Hollands at Lisbon, on the 4th, only heard
that day of Madrid being taken. H. BROUGHAM."

430

CHAPTER VIII.
f&ome antr Jfamgn ISoItttcs, 1809.

1HE PENINSULAR WAR SIR JOHN MOORE, HIS RETREAT AND

DEATH VICTORY AT CORUNNA INQUIRY INTO THE CONDUCT

OF THE DUKE OF YORK FRENCH AND AUSTRIAN WAR ON THE

DANUBE FRANCE AND SPAIN HOME POLITICS— ATTEMPT TO

FORM A COALITION MINISTRY— SPENCER PERCEVAL AND EARL

GREY CANNING CRITICISMS ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR

IN THE PENINSULA THE PRINCESS OF WALES AND CANNING

— CANNING, CASTLEREAGH, AND LORD WELLESLEY ESTIMATE

OF SIR JOHN MOORE.

"January 23, 1809.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — You will naturally be anxious
about this sad news."* E. Ward and Harrison say
GOO men were killed. Baird died of his shot. Bag-
gage, &c., gone ; though Lord Taget hopes the artil-
lery may be in part saved. But it is admitted that
the debris of the army must come home. 3100 were
embarking safely when he came away. Craufurd and
4000 gone to Vigo, but not heard of. Greenwood
says we lost 5000 or GOOO altogether on the retreat.

f The retreat of Sir John Moore ; his death ; and the luittle of
Coruimji. Sir David 1'aird lost an arm, luit recovered.

JET. 31.] PENINSULAR WAR. 431

Brand * showed me a letter from Graham, t who was
with him, dated 13th January. He states that the
French refused battle when offered at Lugo ; that
the English army is unfit for anything but fighting ;
harassed by all wants, and by disease from climate
and fatigue, and dying in great numbers. Of course
this is before the battles.

" Altogether, I imagine a more disastrous affair has
seldom been known.

" Buonaniti has just received a letter from the Hol-
lands, at Lisbon. They are to go from thence to
Gibraltar. This is, to be sure, just the proper time
for running about from port to port, and seeking any-
thing rather than home. I suppose they are now pre-
pared to believe everything, except the real presence ;
for their frequent disappointments seem never to un-
deceive them, or to lessen their faith. — In haste,

"H. BROUGHAM."

TO THE EAEL GEEY.

" January 24, 1809.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — I understand the despatches
are come, but contain nothing more than Lord Paget
brought. The loss of the army is great on the retreat ;
but its abominable conduct in plundering, murdering,
&c., &c., is much worse. So much for Lord Cathcart
and Copenhagen. This I learn from one who was
with the army the whole way, and an officer of rank.

" The Spaniards, who disliked us at first, of course

*• Afterwards Lord-Dacre. t Afterwards Lord Lynedoch.

432 HOME AND FOREIGN POLITICS, 1809. [1809.

now detest us, in that part of Spain at least. The
information of all our emissaries — Frere, Stuart, Dyer,
&c., &c. — is described as having been ridiculously in-
correct; and the want of information in our army from
spies, &c., is quite unintelligible. My informant says
all the bribes in our military chest could not get the
Spaniards to give any intelligence. Our men plundered
our own ammunition, provisions, &c. Lord Paget lost
his whole property in this way. Three men were just
going to be executed for these things and others, when
the French attacked us, luckily for the culprits. The
army was drawn up to witness the execution.

" Sir Arthur Wellesley says the loss at embarking
was about 1000 ; K. Ward, 600. I believe the former
is nearer the truth.

" The 4000 under Craufurd were heard from at St
Jago ; and it was supposed they could get safe off,
there being no tidings of any French thereabouts.
Junot commanded the attack. He sent back three
women prisoners before the battle ; with compliments
from ' Jun6t and the army of Portugal/ The Hol-
lands are going by land to Seville ; I really wish they
may not get into a scrape, though they do deserve a
good fright.

" Poor Vincent ! What a sudden and melancholy
fate ! They are of course all in great distress.
It was the first thing Lady Kosslyn heard on her
arrival; and you may believe she was dreadfully
affected, though she exerts herself with great forti-
tude. I seriously think Lord Lauderdale should not

JET. 31.] PENINSULAR WAR. 433

put his name to the East India pamphlet.* Do
advise him not to do so, if it strikes you in the same
way. Everybody objects to his writing it at all, but
perhaps that is going too far, though there is some-
thing in it. As to the want of a name, we can easily
puff it into proper notice and supply such a defect.
It might, and indeed must, soon be known; but in
the mean time its whole effect will have been pro-
duced without the impediment arising from the feel-
ings in question. Pray do not expose yourself to cold
in this most dreadful weather. I saw an instance
the other day of the effects. H. B."

Lord Grey had, throughout this period of the war
in Spain, been strongly impressed with what he con-
sidered the gross mismanagement of our affairs, and
the incapacity of ministers. He was persuaded that
Spain would never have ventured to disturb the
French army behind the Ebro, well knowing that
reinforcements were surely at hand, and that while
the Spaniards were suffering under a most feeble
government, our ministers were sending a British
army into the heart of the Peninsula to march to cer-
tain destruction. The case against our rulers was no
exaggeration of political opponents or of party feeling ;
it was clearly proved by the very papers laid before
Parliament by ministers themselves. Their defence

* Perhaps the pamphlet, or rather book, by Lord Lauderdale, called
* The Government of India under the Superintendence of the Board of
Control.' Edinburgh, 1809.

VOL. T, 2 E

434 HOME AND FOREIGN POLITICS. [1809.

was by no attempt at justification, but by blaming or
criticising the measures of the very officers they had
themselves selected for command; and all this time
while they had at their disposal a force amply suffi-
cient to have rescued Spain, if the proper use had
only been made of it at the proper time.

Lord Grey, in April 1809, brought the whole sub-
ject before Parliament, with that great ability which
he of all men best knew how to apply, to make intel-
ligible details of the most complicated description;
but in spite of the dignified eloquence, the admirable
temper he displayed, so peculiarly appropriate in deal-
ing with so delicate a subject, our legislators decided
against him.

The object of Lord Grey's motion was to represent
to the Crown the disgrace which the proceedings of
the Government had brought upon England, and the
injury which the British nation had suffered from the
rashness and mismanagement of ministers, culminat-
ing in the loss of more than 7000 of our bravest
troops, together with their gallant commander, — all
sacrificed in an enterprise conceived without plan,
combination, or foresight, without a single possible
advantage, and as ill-timed as misdirected.

The wisdom of Parliament decided otherwise, and
after a debate, in which Lord Grey was fairly supported
by Lord Moira, and feebly by Lord Erskine, his
motion was defeated by a considerable majority, and
it was solemnly decided that the projectors and con-
ductors of the campaign deserved the confidence of

JET. 31.] . PENINSULAR WAR. 435

the country, and were the most fitting men to be in-
trusted with the conduct of its affairs.

Connected with these disastrous times there was
no subject which more deeply interested and affected
both Lord Grey and myself than the conduct of the
Government in regard to Sir John Moore. His judg-
ment and skill were only surpassed by his unconquer-
able valour ; nothing was more remarkable than the
matchless self-denial which on all occasions rendered
his own interests subservient to his country's good,
and concentrated all his faculties in her service, mak-
ing him a bright example to the most famous warriors
of after times, when the wretched intrigues that sought
to keep him in the background, or to crush him, had
passed away but had not been forgotten, when in
future times it would be remembered that the hero
of Corunna had fought no vain battles, had lost no
trophies, no captives, had abandoned no hospitals to
the enemy, had yielded no post of danger to feeble
allies. Yet this was the man who, endowed with all
the qualities that constitute the most fitting leader of
armies, having successfully held the chief command
in Sicily and in Sweden, was placed under officers one
of whom had never served in the field as a general.

TO EARL GREY.

" TEMPLE, June 19, 1809.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — I write rather to ask how
you and Lady Grey are than from having much to
communicate. Is it true that you are going to Scot-

436 HOME AND FOREIGN POLITICS. [1809.

land? and shall you be there, or in Northumberland,
when our circuit passes through your part of the
country \ Also, will you allow me to give Malthus
(population) a few lines of introduction to you when
he passes by Howick in the course of July on his way
to Scotland ? He writes the serious articles on Ire-
land in the ' Edinburgh Review/

" Of the Hollands you have probably heard lately.
By a letter from Lord John Russell to the Duke, it
appears that they refused to come home in the Ocean,
because she sailed with convoy ; and are waiting for
the ship which carries Lord Wellesley out. She has
not yet sailed ; nor has Wellesley, I believe, left town;
so that if the Hollands are home in a month or six
weeks, it is as much as can be expected.

" One is disposed to doubt this story of the King
of Prussia coming forward ; he is a weak, undecided
character, and he must be certain that, if he fails, he
will lose not only the kind of a crown he now has,

but his very livelihood. thinks it is not to be

expected, and he is rather good authority : he saw
Count Munster on Saturday, who knew nothing about
the reports in circulation (which is pretty decisive as
to them) ; and as for Ompteda coming over (the ground
with many for believing those reports), the reason of
it is his brother having lately gone mad, who is in
the German Legion, and Ompteda comes to look after
his affairs.

" What do you think of the late victory1? for victory
it certainly was, and a pretty considerable one. If it

MT. 31.] WAR IN GERMANY. 437

had been decisive, however, what possibility was there
of Bonaparte keeping his tSte du pout, and being en-
abled to rebuild his bridges ? * The Austrian bulletin
is universally admitted to be a fabrication. Stahrem-
berg (who has never been much elated with the news)
denied it from the first; and Lord Liverpool told
Scarlett the other day that they knew it to be a
French fabrication. This seems to be rather a re-
finement.

" If the victory has not been so decisive as of itself
to turn the fortune of the campaign, it should seem
that upon a series of subsequent operations Bonaparte
is much more likely to get the better in the majority
of instances. But it is no small thing, and I am sure
quite unexpected, to have seen any doubt arise upon
the subject.

" What a pity it is that we had not a large army
in the Adriatic at the time, or even now ! The talk
of sending one somewhere continues ; and I know
that General Leith has received orders to go to Chat-
ham (I think) and report himself to General Hope.
Some weeks ago its destination was certainly the
north of Germany. I suppose now they are waiting
for the event of the approaching battle.

" The cries of the winter are wearing fast away,
and I daresay the kind of apathy which always suc-
ceeds is already begun. I am confident Wardle is dis-
covered to be no wizard, and that Cobbett is seriously

* In reference to the war on the Danube, and the capture of Vienna
by the French in May 1809.

438 HOME AND FOREIGN POLITICS. [1809.

damaged.'" His court-martial business is much against
him, and would probably have been much more if Sir
George Yonge had behaved with tolerable fairness and
prudence.

' You promised to put down anything that sug-
gested itself as hints for some new Plymleys. I
think Sydney Smith will still fulfil his promise to me
on that score, though his soreness upon the attacks
lately made in the ' Quarterly Eeview ' may rather
indispose him at present. I forgot to mention that
General Murray is coming (if not come) home from
Portugal. His wife says it is because nothing will be
done in Portugal for some time ; but others ascribe
it to pique against Wellesley. However, if active
operations were likely soon to take place, he could
scarcely come away for such a reason. — Believe me
ever with the greatest esteem, most faithfully yours,

"H. BROUGHAM."

"HowicK, June 24, 1809.

"My DEAR BROUGHAM, — I am much obliged to
you for your letter of Monday last. We certainly
shall be at home at the time the circuit passes this
country. I have no thoughts of going into Scotland,
and I hope you will give us as much of your time as
you can in your way to the north. I shall be ex-
ceedingly glad to see Malthus.

" From what you say of the Hollands, nothing can

* Colonel Wardle, now less known than Cobbett, was celebrated as
the promoter of the inquiry into the conduct of the Duke of York.

^T. 31.] . WAR IN GERMANY. 439

be more uncertain than their return. Probably the
ship that carries out Lord Wellesley will afterwards
join Lord Collingwood. As I think the state of the
Austrian war, whatever its ultimate result may be,
likely for some time to prevent the sending any suffi-
cient reinforcements to the French army in Spain,
and as this may very probably occasion a second
retreat behind the Ebro, I shall not be surprised to
learn that her ladyship has determined to stay where
she is till after her accouchement, which I suppose you
know is approaching. I had a long letter from Holland
in answer to my speech, or rather to misrepresentations
of my speech, in the newspaper. It contained, in my
opinion, a great deal of false reasoning, and in some
instances rested on falsehoods : upon the whole, it was
nearly in the same strain as the defence of the minis-
ters, though he imputes considerable blame to them ;
and I think it very lucky that he did not come home
in time to announce any of these sentiments in Par-
liament. . . . — Ever yours most truly,

" GREY."
TO EAEL GREY.

"June 30, 1809.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — Lord Eosslyn having pro-
mised to write to you yesterday, I did not, but I find
he has been prevented by interruptions of various
kinds, though he certainly will to-morrow. He is to
have the advanced guard, but does not expect to be
off for some weeks. He denies both the Duke of
York and Burrard, but I am disposed to believe they

440 HOME AND FOREIGN POLITICS. [1809.

are still making a push for the former, although Lord
Chatham is certainly acting as if he were the man,
and nobody can imagine how the report of Burrard
arose. Indeed it is universally disbelieved. Brown-
rigg's going as quarter-master-general certainly looks
very like the Duke of York ; but is there any expe-
dition so certain of succeeding as to make it even
tolerably safe for the present ministers to send him ?
To be sure, Lord Chatham is much worse, but his fail-
ure would not hurt them so irretrievably. Lord G.
Leveson is in the cabinet, and this is perhaps a dou-
ceur to Canning for giving up his opposition to Lord
Chatham or the Duke of York. I have it from un-
doubted authority that he prevented them last year.

"The destination of the force is as uncertain as
when I wrote last. I still think it must be liable to
alteration from the next news of the Austrian opera-
tions ; but it is probably calculated in the mean time
for some specific object ; perhaps Flushing and Ant-
werp. There are two battering-trains. Such a thing
is surely most absurd, unless all possibility of making
a diversion in Germany is at an end.

" Peace between Austria and France is much talked
of, and certainly Stahremberg has been expressing
great apprehensions of this. One should infer from
such an extraordinary step (if it really is taken), that
the late victory was much less considerable than it
appears to have been. Charles Stuart (who is at
JUida) writes the account which he had from the
Primate of Hungary, who was in the battle. This
mnkcs it 35,000. 20 generals disabled, 7 killed, &c.

JET. 31.] PENINSULAR WAR. 441

" It is very unsafe to infer much from Bonaparte's
present inactivity. He did nothing for months after
Eylau and Baylen.

"Malthus leaves Hertford to-day, and I suppose
will call at Howick in the course of a week or ten days.

" I shall write again to-morrow or Monday. Be-
lieve me, &c. H. BROUGHAM."

TO EARL GEEY.

" July 4, 1809.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — There are letters from H.
Bouverie, dated Abrantes, June 1 7. They are stopped
for want of money, and must remain there a week or
ten days. Victor had just sent his baggage, &c.,
through Truxillo, meaning to retreat by that way
to Madrid. I guess Wellesley will be well enough
pleased to let him do so. They complain of Cuesta's
obstinacy, but say his army is more respectable than
any that had appeared among the Spaniards. Mel-
lish had been with despatches to him, and gives this
account. You recollect what a bad one he gave of
Silviera's, which is some reason for crediting his
praises of Cuesta's.

" An intercepted despatch to Joseph Bonaparte
gives Junot leave to return to France, after he shall
have fortified the bridge which commands Saragossa,
planned a fort at Tudela, and sent all the spare artil-
lery to France. This, with many of the other symp-
toms, looks like retreating to the Ebro again until
things are settled in Germany.

442 POLITICS. [1809.

" We are full of Wardle and Mrs Clarke. Best;"- I
hear, denies the statements in Wardle's letter to the
people, and says he wrote him (Best) a note during
the trial, leaving the calling Dodd, &c., entirely to
his discretion. But this looks so like madness in
Wardle that I shall not believe it to be Best's story
until I inquire further about it.

" Johnson the smuggler is about this expedition
as well as Popliamrt This makes for Flushing, &c.,
Antwerp being its destination.

" Lord Percy has been making a fool of himself at
Cambridge, standing against the Duke of Gloucester

O ' o O

as Chancellor. H. BROUGHAM."

TO EAEL GREY.

" July 10, 1809.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — Nothing further is known
of the Expedition, except that everybody seems
agreed that its destination cannot be very distant, or
its object likely to take a long time.J The orders
are for each man to take two shirts only (one upon
his back included), no women, aide-de-camps a single
horse ; short allowance of hospital stores, some say
one pair of shoes only, but this I have not from good
authority. One is disposed still to conjecture Antwerp

* Sergeant Best, afterwards created Lord TVynford, 5tli June 1829.
lie was then Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas.

t Captain Johnson, known as a daring adventurer, an ally of Lord
Cuchrane, and deeply concerned in the alfair of the false news about
the fall of Napoleon, for which Lord Cochrane suffered.

I The Expedition to the Scheldt, sometimes called the Walcheren
Expedition.

JET. 31.] DUKE OF YORK'S CASE. 443

and Flushing ; though many talk of Brest. Brown-
ing leaves town on the 14th, and Lord Kosslyn
thinks it can't sail for three weeks, as they are waiting
for those transports from Lisbon, for which a convoy
had not been appointed on June 5th. The Duke of
York's family are talking loudly against Lord Chat-
ham's appointment, and they really have some reason.
" The trial of Wright v. Wardle has excited great
attention. Wardle says he is quite thunderstruck
with the perjuries of Mrs Clarke, &c. — for that there
is not, from beginning to end, a word of truth in the
story. He is also outrageous against Best, for not
calling Dodd, and otherwise mismanaging his case.
We of the bar generally have a bad opinion of a
man's cause when he begins to throw the blame on
his counsel, but Wardle is to make some public
manifesto immediately, and to prosecute Mrs Clarke,
&c., for perjury. This will rather be funny, I think,
but it will do Wardle more harm than it can do the
Duke of York real good. — Believe me truly yours,

" H. BROUGHAM."

TO EAEL GREY.

" July 12, 1809.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — I am much obliged to
you for your kind letter, by which I rejoice to find
that you disbelieve in the reports of peace at Vienna.
I have done so from the beginning, though I assure
you it is the prevailing opinion here. My notion is
that at present it would be too good for the Austrians.

444 WALCHEREN EXPEDITION [1809.

It would indeed be their salvation ; and Bonaparte
knows full well that he never could expect to see
Vienna again if he left Austria at a moment when
the regular troops have beaten him in the field, and
the people in every quarter are in a state of insurrec-
tion against him. He must fight again, I should
think ; and if he is beat, it will go hard with him,
though perhaps it won't be much worse than mak-
ing peace at present. Negotiation will be always
open, unless he is much more completely defeated
than I fear we have any chance of seeing him. If
he beats the archduke, he will then give him peace,
but not such a one as he must give at present.

" The Eussian army, according to General Ben-
tham (now one of the Navy Board), consists of above
70,000. They are, of course, ill supplied and com-
manded ; but when things are so nearly balanced,
they may turn the scale.

" This foolish expedition, I find, you view in the
same light in which every rational being must see it.
Flushing and Antwerp are certainly the objects (un-
less some unexpected good news should come from
Germany). I don't suppose there is much risk of its
failing ; but the loss of men will be considerable by
the military operations, and the climate at the mouth
of the Scheldt, I understand, is peculiarly fatal at this
season. This will, at any rate, prevent the army
from doing good afterwards elsewhere.

" A letter of Mellish to Ferguson gives a very
favourable account of Cuesta;s army — 24,000 foot

JET. 31.] AND PENINSULAR WAR. 445

and 8000 cavalry. He saw them manoeuvre, fire,
&c., and speaks highly of them; but Cuesta, he says,
is an obstinate, infirm old man. How many of the
regiments he saw one does not know, and I daresay
they showed him the best. — Believe me ever yours
most faithfully, H. BROUGHAM."

TO EAEL GREY.

" CARLISLE, August 7, 1809.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — H. Bouverie writes from
Placenzia, July 12, that the French are moving to-
wards them, and that Wellesley has been at Cuesta's
headquarters concerting measures for attacking them.
Victor's force he states at less than in his last letter,
but I cannot see whether he calls it 30,000 or 40,000.
However, from his saying that the event of the battle
will depend on the Spaniards, and therefore must be
doubtful, I conclude he means 40,000, for he says
our army will amount to 28,000 when joined by
Craufurd'g brigade and the horse-artillery, which they
are waiting for. Our advanced-guard was ordered
to move to meet Victor.

" C. Stuart is arrived in town, much crippled with
rheumatism, &c.* He talks most violently against
the ministers for the whole of their conduct in Spain,
and says that the article on Spain in the last ' Edin-
burgh Eeview' is so true an account of the case
respecting Spain, that the resemblance can only have
arisen from chance. He and I have long lived on
* See above, p. 92.

446 WALCHEREN EXPEDITION [1809.

very intimate terms, Loth abroad (having travelled
together) and at home; but we never agreed on any
subject of politics, or indeed on any other ; so this con-
fession comes from him very reluctantly, and he makes
it witli a bad grace ; but he promises to give me a
great deal of information, to convince me both as
to the behaviour of our Government and the impos-
sibility of anybody knowing the Spanish question
except by pure haphazard.

" I thought these things might interest you. I
send in two separate covers an article on ' Reform/
which Jeffrey has written, but in which, though very
able, he has committed some very great mistakes,
I think. — Believe me, &c., H BROUGHAM."

TO EAEL GREY.

"APPLEBY, August 10, 1809.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — Lord Rosslyn writes to me
as follows : ' Many circumstances have concurred to
render the reduction of Flushing much more diffi-
cult than / expected, and infinitely more so than was
calculated upon. Huntley (who was destined for a
separate service to secure the island of Cadsand) has
hitherto been unable to effect a landing, and I believe
he has shown great good sense and discretion in not
attempting it. My division is the only one left on
board. They speculate on the reduction of Flushing
in ten days, and I am persuaded that nothing can or
will be attempted till that is over/ He adds that he
expects to be in England before the middle of Sep-

JET. 31.] AND PENINSULAR WAR. 447

tember, and that lie has seen nothing hitherto to alter
any opinion or view he had, before joining the expe-
dition. You know he had a very poor opinion of it.

" Ward is unexpectedly arrived in London, and says
the Hollands were about to embark in the Lively.
This agrees with Miss Fox's account. She had a
letter from Lisbon of the 1 6th of July, saying they
were to embark in the Lively, the "Wednesday fol-
lowing. I suppose they are now in England, unless
some change of mind has again happened.

" Whishaw writes from town that no sort of elation
is expressed at the capture of Walcheren, which was
so confidently expected that it scarcely attracts the
least attention.

" I shall be glad to hear what you think of Moore's
correspondence, after you have had time to read it*
It gives a melancholy picture of the prospect in Spain,
and I much fear the south is not greatly better. I
expect to hear particularly about this from Charles
Stuart. — Ever most faithfully and sincerely,

"HENRY BROUGHAM."

TO EARL GREY.

" LANCASTER, August 11, 1809.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — The following I copy from
a letter I have just received from Charles Stuart :

* Narrative of the Campaign in Spain by the Army commanded by
Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore, with original letters. By James
Moore, Esq. London : 1809.

Reviewed by Lord Brougham, ' Edinburgh Review,' October 1809,
Article 14.

448 PENINSULAR WAR. [1809.

* The whole of our misfortunes in Spain may be as-
cribed to the loss of the two precious months during
which the French were behind the Ebro, when our
ministers were solely occupied in discussions respect-
ing that blockhead Sir Hew Dalrymple. During
those months no communications took place with
Spain. I never received one line from Government,
and those beasts the Junta neither sought nor received
advice. In short, Spain was as thoroughly forgotten
as if it were at the bottom of the sea. I had indeed
been told we should not interfere in the formation of
the government, — a determination originating in the
desire of ministers to shelter themselves from future
blame in case of misfortune, and tantamount to the
abandonment of a child at three years old by its
parents, with directions to provide for itself in what-
ever mode it may think most expedient/

" After some remarks on the necessity of our inter-
fering, of which he maintains the whole Spanish nation
would have highly approved, the letter proceeds : —

" ' Wellesley's victory is a great thing as far as
relates to the abstract proposition of one Englishman
beating two Frenchmen, but with respect to the
Spaniards serves only to prove them useless allies in
their present state. It will do little for Spain, or even
for the security of our army, if he is not able to ad-
vance to Madrid, and to direct the population of that
capital. Indeed he must go there if only to obtain
provisions, horses, &c., whether to retreat or go for-
ward. He will find nothing at Talavera. Marching

JET. 31.] PENINSULAR WAR. 449

forward is preferable, because if lie retreats he must
abandon wounded, artillery, &c., for want of means
of transport. If he goes to Madrid, however, he must
first drive the enemy from Toledo, and stand another
action on the Guadarama, where they will probably
make a last effort to save the capital. Having gained
Madrid, he may retreat on La Mancha, if attacked
by a superior force.

" ' With respect to Austria, I fear she merely gives
us breathing time. I think Bonaparte will leave the
emperor Bohemia, Moravia, and part of Austria;
Poland, Hungary, and the south are probably gone.
The archduke's miserable indecision has ruined that
country ; the soldier is good, the emperor excellent,
but has not the courage to check the evils arising
from his brother's influence. I am not quite sure that
peace has taken place, though it probably will be the
result of the present negotiations. My only hope
rests on Stadion's continuance in office, and until I
see his dismissal I shall be sure they have not com-
plied with Napoleon's demands.* The emperor
certainly opposed the armistice, but could not pre-
vent it; indeed he appears to have had very little
to say in the events, and subsequent to the affair of
Wagram.'

" I thought this letter might interest you. — Most
faithfully yours, HENRY BROUGHAM."

* Johann Philip Karl Joseph Stadion, Austrian statesman j born
1763, died 1824.

VOL. I. 2 F

450 PENINSULAR WAR. [1809.

FROM JOHN WHISHAW.*

"Saturday, August 19, 1809.

" DEAR BROUGHAM, — I am much obliged to you
for your letter, which I have just received, and which
was very acceptable, as I have been for some days
very desirous of knowing your address, supposing the
circuit to be ended.

"The Hollands arrived last Saturday in good
health and spirits, all of them looking very well,
indeed much better for their journey. I went to
them early this week, and am now there again, stay-
ing for a few days. Their views of Spanish affairs
are extremely rational — i.e., considerably desponding.
They properly consider the question as in a great
measure disposed of by the event of the Austrian war ;
but they think it will be a conquest difficult to be
retained, and inconvenient and embarrassing to the
conquerors. Except in Biscay and among the mer-
chants in some of the port-towns, there is, properly
speaking, no French party. But there is in many
places a great languor and indifference, and disposi-
tion to side with the strongest party. Still there
remains in the great body of the nation an excellent
spirit, which deserves to be animated and called out
by better leaders. The Junta appears to be feeble-
ness itself, too numerous for an effective or strong
Government, and too few for any purposes of popular
representation ; for indeed they are in other respects
altogether unfit. They are divided into committees

* See above, p. 371.

JET. 31.] PENINSULAR WAR. 45 1

of finance, war, interior government, &c., subject in
important points to the control of the whole body.
Old Jovellanos is an excellent and amiable man, of
enlarged views and the most patriotic dispositions;
but he is quite unfit, both by his temper and habits,
for political management and intrigue, — even that
portion of it without which no government can be
conduct ed.* His influence, of course, is not very con-
siderable; and though there are some others, parti-
cularly Garay, the secretary of the Junta, and Calvo, of
good talents and dispositions, with more activity than
Jovellanos, yet, upon the whole, ihefeebles and pro-
crastinators may be said to prevail. So much for
their civil affairs. With respect to military talents,
the want of them is sufficiently apparent in the whole
scheme of their campaign, and almost in every battle
that has taken place. Of all their generals, Blake,
one of the most unfortunate, is supposed to be their
best. Cuesta is much beloved by the soldiery, bra.ve
and regardless of personal danger; but he is near
seventy, of a violent temper, and of no military
talents. They are anxious at Seville to get rid of
him, and to supply his place by Albuquerque, a young
man of high rank and great spirit, but without any
military character.

" With respect to Portugal I have heard them say

* Don Gaspard Melchior de Jovellanos (or properly Jove-Llanos),
born 1744, died 1811, a statesman and author. He translated part of
Milton's * Paradise Lost' into Spanish. His name frequently appears
in the political and literary correspondence of the time, though it is
now nearly forgotten.

452 PENINSULAR WAR. [1809.

little, except that the Government is most contemp-
tible, and things in the most wretched state. The
Spanish colonies in America are exceedingly well-
disposed to the new order of things in the mother
country (Buenos Ayres only except ed), and have fur-
nished large supplies.

" The Hollands are no believers in the original
treason of Morla, and the deep plan for delivering up
Madrid, so much talked of in the account of Moore's
campaign. He is a great coward, and was probably
frightened into submission, and afterwards went en-
tirely over to the French cause.'" Charmilly also was
a mere adventurer, and highly improper to be trusted
by Frere ; but no spy or traitor. In these opinions
they were confirmed yesterday by Charles Stuart, who
dined at Holland House yesterday. We had also at
dinner the new Secretary at War (Lord Palmerston),
who was silent and reserved, as became a Cabinet
minister and man of fashion.

" But it was still apparent, notwithstanding his
discretion and reserve, that they have no great hopes
from the Scheldt expedition. It is generally under-
stood that this is more a concern of the king than
the ministry, his Majesty having been gratified with
the nomination of the staff in return for his acquies-
cence iii the appointment of Sir A. Wellesley to the
chief command in Spain.

* Don Thomas Morla, born 1752, died 1820, a Spanish officer, with
an adventurous personal career, which subjected him to many accusa-
tions. A brief and distinct account of his strange career, by M. Adrien
<ie Lui'aye, will be found in the Nouvelle Biographie Generale.

;ET. 31.] PENINSULAR WAR. 453

" Ward is returned to London, but I have not seen
him, nor do I think myself sufficiently acquainted
with him to put myself in his way. I hear that his
accounts of Spain are very unfavourable; and he
reports of Jovellanos (whom he met dining at Frere's)
that he is ' about the standard of a second-rate Scotch
professor/ This judgment alone would be decisive
against him at Holland House; but there seemed
previously to be a complete rupture between the
parties. They say that he was only four days at
Seville, passed the rest of his time in travelling to
Grenada and other places, but saw no people except
innkeepers and muleteers. I am sorry to hear that
the 'Edinburgh Keview' joins against the sinking
cause of the Eeformers, who unfortunately (poor
people) are very harmless and inefficient, and very
unlikely to do much good or harm of any kind. —
Yours most truly, J. WHISHAW.

" P.S. — If you will let me know where you are to
be found, I may possibly, if I hear anything, send
you a few lines before I leave town, which will be
about the latter end of next week/'

Soon after his return from Spain, I received from
Ward the following letter : —

FROM JOHN" WILLIAM WARD.*

" 1 CHESTERFIELD STREET, Sept. 14, 1809.
" MY DEAR BROUGHAM, — I should not have been

* Afterwards fourth Viscount Dudley and Ward, Secretary of State

454 J- W. WARD [1809.

so slow in answering a letter you wrote to me imme-
diately after my return if I had known your direction.
You were then upon the circuit, and until you got
fairly out of those borean regions, and quite clear of
the company of Alan Park, there was no telling in
what direction to fire a shot with any certainty of
hitting you."'" If indeed, during the late gales, I had
seen any old lady sitting upon a broomstick, and
riding in the storm, I should have considered myself
as having found the safest, quickest, and most regu-
larly official messenger, the proper Correo di Gabi-
ii'jte of your satanic majesty. But failing of that
mode of conveyance, I was obliged to wait till I heard
that you had at last ceased to walk to and fro upon
the face of the earth, and had found, for a time at
least, a resting-place. Waiving, however, for the
present all discussion as to who is the evil principle,
or rather, as to what is the form he now inhabits, we
shall agree upon this at least, that there never was a
moment when he was more triumphant. His second
campaign in Spain, in which one would have imagined
that it exceeded even his powers to persuade any

for Foreign Affairs in Canning's Government in 1827, when lie was
created Earl Dudley

* James Alan Park, Justice of the Common Pleas, author of the
well-known standard law-Look on Marine Insurance. The followin^

O

rhymes used to he sung when his health was drunk on grand nights, on
the northern circuit : —

James Alan Park
Came naked stark
From Scotland ;
Now hath he cares,
And breeches wears,
In England.

JET. 31.] AND THE PENINSULAR WAR. 455

dozen of the descendants of Eve (formed by his influ-
ence into a Cabinet) to engage his advance into the
heart of the country — his vision of a victory with
which he deceived Sir Arthur at Talavera — his re-
treat without provisions through Portugal — and, above
all, his grand expedition to Walcheren, under his own
general, my Lord Chatham, — have, without a single
exception, fulfilled his views, and carried his glory to
the highest pitch. As to poor old Oromades, ' II dort
comme un ivrogne ; ' and I don't see any reason to
hope that he will ever again cut the least figure in
life.

" I have returned from Spain, not confirmed in my
original opinion about it, for it needed no confirma-
tion— it could not be stronger ; but astonished beyond
measure that a contrary notion could ever have been
entertained by a reasonable man. Were any well-
educated person to assure me that, upon mature con-
sideration, he believed in the story of the seven
sleepers, I should not be more puzzled. And, doubt-
less, of all people the 'l^po^tXot are the least able to
assign a reason for the faith that is in them. Of late,
indeed, they have a little lowered their tone ; and I
understand from the Spartan general that it is now
the fashion to say that though they cannot indeed
contend in the field with the French, and though
Bonaparte will in all probability get military posses-
sion of the country, yet it will take him six hundred
thousand men (I use words purposely, because if I
employed numerals you might suppose I had in a

456 J. W. WARD [1809.

hurry put a cipher too much) to accomplish it in the
first instance, and half that number to retain what he
lias got afterwards. Now, my own opinion, I confess,
is, that in a very short time he will be as completely
master of the Peninsula as he is of Holland.

" The people of property will soon find out that it
is much better to enjoy it under a new dynasty, and
protected by the powerful arm of France, than to
go on with a hopeless struggle under the auspices of
such blockheads as for the most part compose the
Junta.

" The people of talents will go, like O'Farel, Morla,
and Cabarrus, to the highest bidder, which is sure to
be the Government of France.""" As to the populace,
it will follow the higher orders, from which it never
for long together estranges itself. As to the religion,
it is always in the power of the French to bag the
lower, and, of course, most numerous class of the
clergy, by the spoils of the fewer and richer. Church
property is very unequally divided in Spain, and the
poor ecclesiastics look with envy and hatred at the
wealth of the great bishoprics and overgrown chap-
ters. Joseph, too, will probably go through some
grievances, and pay some public respect to saints'
relics, &c., such as will convince the people that he
is a mighty good Catholic as well as a victorious and
beneficent sovereign. Hatred, then, to the French,

* Francois de Cabarrus, properly a native of France, was born in
r.ayniiiH', but connected with Spain, where he set his mark as a finan-
cier—burn 1752, died 1810.

JET. 31.] AND THE PENINSULAR WAR. 457

is all that will remain as a principle of insurrection.
Now, after all that has been said, this cannot be a
very violent feeling in a nation which allowed itself
to be bequeathed, with almost as little ceremony as
an old woman would bequeath her china jar, to the
great grandson of the King of France, only a century
ago, and has continued ever since in most loyal obe-
dience to him and his descendants.

" Besides, the French are great masters in the art
of conciliation, which we hardly ever try, and in
which we never succeed. By wise laws and a vig-
orous administration of them, they will ameliorate
perceptibly the condition of every class of society.
People soon acquiesce in an order of things from
which they derive actual benefit ; and I should not
be at all surprised if in a couple of years the sub-
missions were complete, Fernando VII. forgot, and
the Junta and the English (who will have been long
since sent to the devil) looked back to with nothing
but contempt and dislike.

" Dry* is in London. He came over in the same
ship with Lady Westmoreland ; so you may easily
imagine what discussions they must have had upon
metaphysics and theology. He is, as usual, in a
state of rampant atheism, teeming with publications,
and completely satisfied with the wisdom and energy
of his own diplomatic conduct. Adieu; I have
twenty more things to say, but it grows late. — Yours
always very truly, J. W. WARD.

* Sir William Drummond.

453 PENINSULAR WAR. [1809.

" P.S. — From all I can hear, I am really inclined to
think that there will be a partial change, and that
my poor friend Castlereagh will be made a victim."

TO EARL GREY.

"BROUGHAM, Sept. 17, 1809.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — Charles Stuart tells me he
has been urging Canning to look after South America,
and received for answer from Bagot that nothing
whatever in that quarter was in contemplation.
Stuart is quite furious against them all — for nothing
more than the Scheldt expedition and Wellesley, not
on account of the event, but even if it had suc-
ceeded. He believes that they were persuaded by
the Duke of Brunswick's acts to send the army to
Hanover; however, according to Lord Eosslyn's ac-
count, that or any other scheme is now out of the
question, the army being quite unfit for service.

" Lady Rosslyn (who is here) desires her love
to Lady Grey and you. She expects Lord Eoss-
lyn to arrive in town immediately. His plan is to
set off for Scotland as soon as he has been at Court.
He is particularly anxious to see you, which will
prevent him from coming round by this place. So
he will probably be at Howick soon after you get this
letter. — Most faithfully yours,

" H. BROUGHAM/'*

The following letter is from Mr Perceval to Lord

Grey : —

JET. 32.] PROPOSED COALITION. 459

""WINDSOR, September 23, 1809.

" MY LORD, — The Duke of Portland having signi-
fied to his Majesty his intention of retiring from his
Majesty's service, in consequence of the state of his
Grace's health, his Majesty has authorised Lord Liver-
pool, in conjunction with myself, to communicate with
your lordship and Lord Grenville, for the purpose
of forming an extended and combined administration.

" I hope, therefore, that your lordship, in conse-
quence of this communication, will come to town, in
order that as little time as possible may be lost in
forwarding this important object; and that you will
have the goodness to inform me of your arrival.

" I am also to acquaint your lordship that I have
received his Majesty's commands to make a commu-
nication to Lord Grenville of his Majesty's pleasure.

" I think it right to add, for your lordship's infor-
mation, that Lord Castlereagh and Mr Canning have
intimated their intention to resign their offices. — I
have, &c." (Signed) "SPENCER PERCEVAL."

To this Lord Grey returned the following answer :

LORD GREY TO MR PERCEVAL.

"HowicK, September 25, 1809.

" SIR, — I have this evening had the honour of re-
ceiving your letter of the 23d, informing me that in
consequence of the Duke of Portland's intention of
retiring from his Majesty's service, his Majesty had
authorised you, in conjunction with Lord Liverpool,

460 POLITICS. [1809.

to communicate with Lord Grenville and myself, for
the purpose of forming an extended and combined
administration; and expressing a hope that, in conse-
quence of this communication, I would go to London,
that as little time as possible might be lost in forward-
ing this important object.

"Had his Majesty been pleased to signify that he
had any commands for me personally, I should not
have lost a moment in showing my duty and obedi-
ence by a prompt attendance on his royal pleasure.

" But when it is proposed to me to communicate
with his Majesty's present ministers for the purpose
of forming a combined administration with them, I
feel I should be wanting both in duty to his Majesty,
and in fairness to them, if I did not frankly and at
once declare, that such an union is, with respect to me,
under the present circumstances, impossible. This
being the answer which I find myself under the neces-
sity of giving, my appearance in London could be of
no advantage, and might at a moment like the pre-
sent be attended with much inconvenience.

" I have thought it better, therefore, to request that
you will have the goodness to lay my duty at the
feet of his Majesty, humbly entreating him not to
attribute to any want of attachment to his royal per-
son, or to a diminished zeal for his service, my declin-
ing a communication which, upon the terms proposed,
could lead to no useful result, but might be of serious
detriment to the country, if, in consequence of a less
decisive answer from me, any further delay should

JET. 32.] PROPOSED COALITION.

take place in the formation of a settled government.
—I have, &c." (Signed) "GREY."

FROM EARL GREY.

" HOWICK, September 26, 1809.

" DEAR BROUGHAM, — I hope you will have attri-
buted my long silence to the true cause, my not
knowing where to direct to you.

" Being uncertain whether you may still be at
Aberystwith when this arrives there, I shall only
write two lines. But I cannot help thanking you for
your letters, and telling you that I last night received
a message, as you will before have heard reported.
But as it contained only a proposal to treat with the
present ministers on the ground of forming a com-
bined administration, I did not hesitate in sending
back an immediate and decisive refusal. I will send
you a copy of Perceval's letter to me and of my
answer, when I can be assured of their reaching you,
if you wish to see them. Till then, also, I will defer
sending back Whishaw's and Ward's letters.

" I have not time for more at present. — Ever yours,

" GREY."
TO EARL GREY.

"ABERYSTWITH, October 3, 1809.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — I received your letter
last night, and am greatly obliged to you for the in-
formation contained in it. Had I known what the
nature of P/s letter was, I never should have enter-
tained a moment's doubt as to the answer it was to

4^2 POLITICS. [1809.

receive. I confess I exult not a little in your victory
over these miserable intriguers, whose folly is nearly
equal to their meanness, and who seem to be quite as in-
capable of managing their own affairs as of governing
the country. The motive of their message it is very
difficult to unravel, but (as it is utterly impossible
that they could have any hopes of their wretched offer
being listened to) I presume it may have been sent in
compliance with the injunctions of the Court, whom
they may have made to believe that it was a fair offer
of a coalition. The answer will open their eyes on
this point ; and indeed it is not impossible that the
courtiers may have joined in the offer without much
hope of your accepting it, meaning to come down
with other terms should you refuse. One thing is
clear, with the country it can do them nothing but
harm if they stop short in their advances, and try to
go on themselves. It is (and must be universally
considered so) a plain avowal of their weakness.

"And now (supposing there is no further advance
made to you) the difficulties which led to the mes-
sage are at least as great as before. I am no believer
in Perceval and Eldon taking in Lord Melville; and
the former, at least, must be averse to Wellesley, from
his saint connections. But even if those feelings are

o

overcome by the impending danger of leaving their
offices, what do they gain ? Lord Wellesley is use-
less in the House of Lords, or nearly so ; and neither he
nor Lord Melville brings them one atom of weight in
the House of Commons. Their grand difficulty is the

JET. 32.] PROPOSED COALITION. 463

loss of Canning, which can only be supplied in one
way — viz., by Canning repenting and agreeing in some
patchwork with Melville or Wellesley. My convic-
tion of his baseness is so entire that this would not
surprise me, nor would it, I own, greatly spleen me.
I dread infinitely his being joined with the opposition,
and am the more alarmed, because I hear that Lady
Holland is intriguing very busily to bring this about.
When I recollect her bitter hatred of him, this amuses
me greatly. She is much under Lord Gr. Leveson's in-
fluence, and I doubt that he and Frere will endeavour
(if it's Canning's plan to join the Whigs, or to threat-
en such a junction) to make some offer come from
Holland House. I wish you would keep yourself and
the Hollands on their guard against any such danger.
If anything were wanting to expose Canning's utter
shabbiness, his late conduct is sufficient. It is a fact
that he was dirty enough to take Lord G. Leveson's
seat in the Cabinet as the price of holding his tongue
about Castlereagh for three or four months. This
seems ground for impeachment with respect to the
public ; but what shall we say of his duplicity, his vile
falsity towards Castlereagh in this whole business ? —
Believe me ever most faithfully, H. BROUGHAM."

PROM EARL GREY.

" HOWICK, October 10, 1809.

" MY DEAR BROUGHAM, — I received your letter
last night, and now enclose, according to your desire,
in this and another cover, copies of Perceval's letter,

464 POLITICS. [1809.

and of my answer and Lord Grenville's. You may
keep them, as I have other copies.

" I agree entirely in all the opinions you express of
one of the ex-ministers. Holland is not acquainted
with them, and I hope will be on his guard against
such intrigues as you describe.

" I have thought the line taken by the ' Morning
Chronicle ' in some instances rather impolitic. I can
see no advantage to be derived from sparing one more
than another, either of the ministers who stay in or
of those who go out ; and as to the grounds of the
quarrel, I think it impossible for any man possessed
of honourable feelings to deny that Castlereagh was
greatly injured by the conduct of his colleague.

" I am inclined to believe that Perceval was foolish
enough not to be aware of the certain rejection of his
proposal, and that he made it in the hope and expecta-
tion that it might lead to negotiation at least, which,
if unsuccessful, might furnish him with a successful
appeal against us to the public. His courage in tak-
ing upon himself the Government at such a time and
under such circumstances, I confess, surprises me; but
I am not one of those who think it must be destroyed
at the meeting of Parliament, and who doubt whether
it can last even till that time. It is not weaker than
Addington's appeared to be; and there is neither a
powerful and united party under a Fox in the opposi-
tion, nor the secret intriguers in correspondence with
a Pitt in the ministry.

" I expect Sydney Smith here in a few days.

JET. 32.] PROPOSED COALITION. 465

" Lady Grey desires to be most kindly remembered
to you. — I am, dear Brougham, ever yours most truly,

" GREY."
FKOM EAEL GEEY.

" HOWICK, October 22, 1809.

" DEAR BROUGHAM, — I have to thank you for two
letters since I last wrote.

" You already know how completely I agree with
you with respect to the most conspicuous of the ex-
ministers. If there is any disposition towards him in
any of our friends (I rather think you have been mis-
taken with respect to Lady Holland), it cannot be too
soon or too strongly counteracted. The impossibility
of our joining, without the greatest discredit on public
grounds, a person so deeply responsible for the whole
conduct with respect to America, and for the Spanish
and Walcheren expeditions, not to advert to what he
did both when we went out and at the commence-
ment of the succeeding Administration, needs only to
be stated to be universally felt and acknowledged.

" Why all this is suppressed in the ' Morning Chron-
icle/ and why, on the contrary, that paper seems rather
to favour his cause, and is become the vehicle of his
explanations, I cannot conjecture. I am sure if it is
intended to serve us, by gaining a new ally against the
present ministers, it is, as I have already stated, as
bad in policy as it is indefensible in principle.

" Indeed I think the leading articles in the 'Morning
Chronicle/ though some of them, considering the view

VOL. I. 2 G

466 POLITICS. [1809.

they took of the subject, have been well executed,
have not in general taken the most advantageous
ground. The impossibility, without a dereliction of
all public principle, of joining those with whom not
only we had not approached to any agreement, but
with whom our differences were much increased by
all that has happened since they became ministers,
and who have now to render an account to the country
for the series of crimes and follies which have dis-
graced and nearly ruined us, was, in my opinion, the
ground on which our declining all communication
was not only the most justifiable, but the plainest and
the most easily understood and felt by the country.
To all the other objections of our not being called
upon personally by the King, &c. &c., there are
answers more or less good, but to these there could be
none. I have ventured to say this, because in one
of your letters you gave a hint that in the interval of
leisure from your professional business you might
give some attention to these matters.

" I do not see that Perceval has yet made any
progress in filling up the vacant offices. The ap-
pointment of Till lately, that office,

which is one of the most important, and requires
great experience in the business to which it relates,
was not made subject to party changes. But now
we have a minister who is bold or unprincipled
enough not only to put the Government in a state in
which it can decide upon no one point, not even
upon the retention or evacuation of Walchcren whilst

JET. 32.] PROPOSED COALITION. 467

our men are rotting there like sheep, but who ven-
tures to commit the department on which our safety
principally depends to the most incompetent hands.
It really now looks as if Perceval would not be able
to make out his arrangement ; but ultimately, I am
convinced, the Catholic question will furnish the king
with the means of forming a Government, which he
may call his own. There are differences between any
Government that can now be formed on that footing
and Addington's ; but the latter was, in my opinion,
dissolved ultimately, not so much by the power com-
bined against it in Parliament, as by internal treachery
and cowardice. GREY."

TO EAEL GEEY.

" October 28, 1809.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — I presume you take the
'Morning Chronicle;' but in case you don't, I may
mention that there is a very excellent attack on
Canning in to-day's paper, by whom I know not ; but
I do know that Perry has been undeceived about
Lord Holland's unwillingness to have Canning at-
tacked. Lord H. suspects Sheridan to have given
the tone that has been so justly complained of.

" I have been writing for the ' Edinburgh Eeview '
an article on Moore's Expedition ; and if it is not a
satisfactory exposition of the ministers and Frere, as
well as of poor Moore's case, it is not owing to want
of pains, for I have seldom felt more interested in
anything. I have been perpetually regretting that I

468 POLITICS. [1809.

had not any tolerable report of your speech, as, in
fact, the subject is the very same. Had that speech
been published, I should not have done much more
than make great extracts from it. If you write soon
to Lord Lauderdale, pray tell him how I am occupied,
as an excuse for my not having written to him since
I came to town. I am sure with him it will be a
sufficient one. I have a letter from a friend of mine
(Dr Eyre) on the medical staff at Walcheren, dated
October 19. He says the cold and dry weather for a
short time made the sickness abate, but it returned
with the fogs ; and they sent home that day 2000
sick, including two physicians : he adds that the
fever was too many for the seven physicians who re-
mained, and that, without reinforcements, they must
surrender the moment they are attacked. They
expected six or seven thousand, chiefly Germans — an
idea having gone abroad that their constitutions bear
the climate better ; but Eyre denies this, and affirms
that a German regiment which they had, suffered
more than any other. The enemy's guns from 8.
Beveland had that morning fired on our vessels, and
cleared the Sloe Passage of them.

" Perceval (as Erskine says of a higher personage)
don't get on. Milnes, who was sent for, declined,
saying his friends thought him too young, but in
reality because he had a very well grounded fear of
taking an office and being forced to speak. Castle-
reagh has been offered an English peerage, presidency
of the Council and Board of Control, all together, and

JET. 32.] THE MINISTRY. 4^9

refused. There was a story yesterday that Eose was
to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, and 'young
Saunders' to go back to the Board of Control. It
is extremely gratifying to your friends to perceive the
universal satisfaction which your refusal has given,
and the very great increase of popularity and influence
arising from it. The manner of it has been especially
approved of, and that in quarters and in parts of the
country where you would least suspect it. I am con-
fident if Lord Grenville had maturely weighed the
thing he would have done the same, but one of you
having done so, it was of less consequence. — In haste,

"H. BROUGHAM."

TO EARL GREY.

" TEMPLE, October 30, 1809.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — When I wrote the other day,
I believe I forgot to mention what Stahremberg says
about the treaty. It seems when Bonaparte first
made his propositions, they were peremptorily rejected,
the emperor saying he had 300,000 men in arms.
Stahremberg thinks, had the terms been insisted on,
he certainly would have fought, and almost as cer-
tainly would have been beaten. The terms were, the
cession of Carniola,. Carinthia, and Styria, Trieste (of
course) and Fiume, a very little of Austria, and some
circles of Bohemia (to Saxony). If he has got much
better terms, as may be presumed, he is not badly off,
everything considered ; for I own I was prepared to
see him cut down at least as much as the foregoing
terms amount to.

470 POLITICS. [1809.

" There is no news, that I have heard at least. The
opinion seems to gain ground of Wellesley taking
office. I own I have a greater opinion of his cowar-
dice, but after the name of the thing for a few weeks
he would be no great accession to them.

" My compliments to Lady Grey, and congratula-
tions on Lady Hannah's marriage :* and believe me
ever most truly yours, H. BROUGHAM.

" P.S. — If anything particular occurs to you as to
the Spanish question and Moore, pray give me a note
of it, as it won't be too late to insert it."

TO EARL GREY.

"TEMPLE, Nov. 9, 1809.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — I have heard nothing
new since I last wrote. I suppose the Hollands have
told you that Canning is quite in despair at Lord
Wellesley having abandoned him. The Duke of Port-
land also declared off; it is believed by some with
the intention of rejoining the Cavendishes. Lord
"Wellesley said, in the usual East Indian style, that ' he
could not subscribe to the notion of the First Lord
of the Treasury being in the House of Commons, as
that would be signing his own degradation/ or some
trash of this sort. Canning seems now only to have

* Hannah Althea, married first, in 1807, to Captain Bettesworth,
killed in action off Bergen, May 1808 ; and, secondly, in Oct. 1809, to
Edward Ellice, afterwards Secretary to the Treasury in Lord Grey's
Government, 1830.

JET. 32.] THE MINISTRY. 471

Lord Granville Leveson, and Dog Dent, who is bark-
ing very loud.

" You have also heard, I suppose, that Perceval
wrote to the Duke of Northumberland, and offered
Lord Percy a seat at the Treasury, which mollified
the duke, though he declined it.

" Lord Grenville seems to have some chance at Ox-
ford. The letters to-day are flattering. It is said
Eldon can't succeed, and this is itself a victory.
" A strange report of peace, and Lord Wellesley going
to Paris, has been circulated for some days, and I hear
it begins to be believed in the city. It seems impos-
sible; but may arise from Bonaparte having made one
of his usual offers at this stop in the war.

" Best moved for a rule for a new trial in Wardle's
business to-day. It was with some difficulty granted,
but this only brings the question of a new trial to a
discussion, and I am satisfied it will then be refused.
Some of his affidavits were material, but I should
think Messrs Dodd, Glennie, Sir Eichard Phillips, &c.,
won't stand a cross-examination. In that case War-
die is better off without a new trial. The bar are
now, I find, against him ; and the judges, especially
Bailey, shamefully and officiously so. — Ever yours,

" H. BROUGHAM/'

FROM EARL GREY.

"HowiCK, Nov. 11, 1809.

" MY DEAR BROUGHAM, — I have been longer than I
ought to have been in acknowledging your last letters,

472 POLITICS. [1809.

for which my excuse must be that I have had, as I
now have, little or nothing to say after having thanked
you for them.

" I am delighted at your having undertaken the
review of Moore's book, as, without a compliment, I
know no person in every way so well qualified to do
full justice to this discussion. Nothing occurred to
me on this subject that I thought likely to be over-
looked by you, or I would have written immediately.
I take it for granted the infamous article in the ' Quar-
terly Review ' will not escape you.

" Sydney Smith passed ten days here, and enli-
vened us extremely. I am only afraid that he found
us extremely dull. He talks of writing something in
the spring, and I hope he will not be too idle to keep
his resolution.

" No previous speculation could have hit upon any-
thing like the combination of the present ministry,
yet I am not one of those who are so confident in the
impossibility of its standing. As far as I can judge,
the public feeling is not much attacked by it. It is
true, people in conversation lament the present state
of affairs, and speak of the ministers as entitled neither
to respect nor confidence. But there it ends, and we
gradually accustom ourselves to things when they
have taken place, which at a distance we should have
declared it impossible to submit to. The disasters
of Spain and AValcheren are now talked of with the
calmness of history ; and if, at the meeting of Parlia-
ment, it shall be found that the business of the country

JET. 32.] THE MINISTRY. 473

has gone on under these men for three months in its
usual course without any new calamity, I do not think
you will see much disposition to take active measures
for a change. Even if the state of the House of Com-
mons should prove, as Castlereagh would say, unsat-
isfactory, I should not be at all surprised if the Court
were to succeed, as I hear they already threaten, in
appealing to the people — in which I see our friends
the Catholics are doing all they can to assist them.

" I certainly shall be in town two or three weeks
before the meeting of Parliament, which I reckon I
shall be by leaving Howick the end of next month,
or quite the beginning of January. In the mean time,
pray let me hear what you pick up. Has Grenville
any chance ? Oxford must be much changed if he
can surmount both the influence of the Court and the
cry of No Popery. — I am, dear Brougham, ever yours
most truly, GREY."

TO EARL GEEY.

"TEMPLE, November 15, 1809.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — I received both your let-
ters— indeed I am in the Albany almost every day.
But I regret your having taken the trouble to write for
the purpose of rectifying the mistake ; and though I
am delighted to hear from you, I should be very scru-
pulous about writing to you if I thought you stood
on so much ceremony as to acknowledge the receipt
of every letter or note. It is quite unnecessary.

" I have just heard that Lord Lansdowne died

474 PENINSULAR WAR. [1809.

last night, but I cannot say whether it is so for cer-
tain. My authority is Taggart the apothecary.

" All our friends still talk of Lord Wellesley's com-
ing into office as certain. I suspect it not to be quite
certain. He may be scared by the view of things
when he arrives, having hitherto had only Perceval's
flattering account of it, and they may disagree about
the offices.

" I am sorry to hear you have the measles among
you, though of a gentle kind. — Believe me yours
truly, H. BROUGHAM.

" P.S. — I finished the review of Moore before term
began, and am in daily expectation of the sheets,
which I shall send you. The short notice of your
speech, which you will find in it, is no sort of com-
pliment, for I can appeal to many witnesses whether
I did not admire it as much as possible at the time
and in private.45"

" Wardle has got (cunningly enough) a hold over
the ' Morning Post/ He has commenced suits enough
to ruin it, and keeps them hanging over its head.

" There are letters from Harry Bouverie of the 26th
October. They speak slightingly at headquarters of
the Duke of Parque's affair."

* Article on "The Conduct of the War" in the * Edinburgh Review'
for October 1809 ; reprinted in Contributions, 297. It is called the
review on Moore because the first title at the head of the article is " A
Narrative of the Campaign of the British Army in Spain commanded
by His Excellency Lt.-Gen. Sir John Moore, &c. By James Moore,
Esq."

JET. 32.] CANNING AND CASTLEREAGH. 47$

TO EAEL GEEY.

"Nov. 16, 1809.

"DEAR LORD GREY, — The news of Lord Lans-
downe's death, you see, is confirmed. He never ex-
pected to live longer than to about this time, since he
was last attacked.

" His death makes the ultimate co-operation of Can-
ning almost unavoidable. Indeed, take it how you
will, that most disagreeable consummation is likely to
happen. At first, he must be attacked, no doubt, for
the late campaign ; but as soon as that is over, he will
vote and speak against the ministry, and that is such
a step towards being with the opposition ! Then a
little delay, all the while acting together and being
civil. In short, nothing but your getting speedily
into office can prevent a coalition of this odious sort.
A year's opposition on the same benches would almost
make it unavoidable.

" The shabby fellow has, I hear, laid the blame of
the late business with Castlereagh on the poor Duke
of Portland, now he is dead, and his sons say the
statement is not fair. It must soon appear. I shall
send it immediately under an office cover. — Yours, in
great haste, H. BROUGHAM."

TO EAKL GEEY.

"November 20, 1809.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — I enclose the article in this
and two other covers. Do not take the trouble to
return it. You will observe that it is very incorrectly

4/6 PENINSULAR WAR. [1809.

printed, never having been looked over. It was sent
me in case there should be any errata in the sums
and dates. Not a word of news to-day, except that
Lord Grenville's friends continue very sanguine. I had
a singular confirmation of the account, which I must
have mentioned some time ago, from Wellesley's army
— viz., that the wounded and sick (1900 in number)
were four days left to themselves before the French
came up, Wellesley having, with a very unusual
want of calculation and arrangement, supposed the
French to be at hand. An officer just arrived, whom
I examined on this point, broadly denied it altogether;
and on asking him more particularly, he said they
left Talavera on the 3d, and they received letters
dated the 5th, which stated the French to be twelve
leagues (forty miles) off. By inadvertency he had
forgotten that this exactly proved niy statement.
Had not a depot of chocolate-cakes been found, the
wounded must have starved, for the Spaniards left
them to themselves.

" A friend of mine (physician to the forces) is just
come from Walcheren. He says 7000 have been
brought over sick, and 5000 sick remain. 1500 are

O '

nominally fit for duty, but half of them can barely
crawl about ; and on the jubilee they mustered with-
out firelocks, from weakness. II. BUOUGHAM."

FROM EARL GREY.

"HowiCK, Nov. 22, 1809.
" MY DEAPW BROUGHAM, — I am exceedingly obliged

JET. 32.] PENINSULAR WAR. 477

to you for your letter, and for the sheets of the ' Edin-
burgh Keview/ which I received by the last post."*
I read them to Lady Grey last night, and I am sure
it will not be less gratifying to you to receive her
applause than mine. I think it a clear and excellent
exposition of all the transactions of the campaign.
If I were disposed to criticise severely, I should per-
haps say that it was better as a political paper than
as a critical review; but if this does not interfere
with the general object of the publication, the objec-
tion is of no importance. There is one point on
which, as I believe you are aware, we are perhaps
not quite agreed, — I mean on the policy of beginning
in Portugal. I still am inclined to think that that
was the best operation if it had been properly and
rationally conducted. There is one other point, too,
on which I could have wished you had been fuller,
and that is on what is the strongest plea of the
ministers — viz., that the diversion created by Moore
saved Spain at the time, and afforded the means of
all the subsequent resistance that has been made.
Nothing, in my opinion, can be more false than this.
It did indeed create a diversion, which drew off Bona-
parte with his main force for three weeks or a month.
But being then free from all uneasiness with respect
to any British army, which for the purposes of the
campaign was annihilated, he had champs libre for
his further operations against the Spaniards; and
he would have made short work if he had not been

* See p. 474, note.

4/3 PENINSULAR WAR. [1809.

called off by Austria. This, in truth, was the real
diversion. These are, however, minor objections, not
worth the paper I have wasted on them, particularly
when the whole is so good. By your compliment to
me I feel much gratified, being confident that it is
sincere, though I must attribute it more to your par-
tiality than to any merit of my own.

" What you say of the situation of Canning is too
true. The evil, however, is, I trust, at some distance ;
and, contrary to the usual maxims of prudence, I am
in this case unwilling to look at it before it forces
itself upon me.

" By the way, I must revert to the Spanish busi-
ness to state a fact which I wish I had known before
your review was finished. It is now ascertained that
Lord Wellington's army was starving in the midst of
plenty. The expression used to me from the most
indisputable authority is, that there were provisions
in the country, not only for an army of 30,000 men,
but for the host that Sir Eobert Wilson advanced near
Madrid, where he found abundance of everything, and
the same when he retreated through a country which
had been twice passed by British and French armies.
The fact is, that small patrols of ten and twelve men
— too small to attract notice, but sufficient to keep
back the peasants — scoured the country, and the con-
sequence was what you have seen with respect to our
army. This, it is true, is not saying much for Lord
Wellington; but I am quite convinced of the fact,
and you probably will not find much difficulty in be-

JET. 32.] CANNING'S POSITION. 479

lieving it, after what you have told me about the sick
and wounded.

"I am very anxious to see Canning's amended
statement. Lady Grey desires to be kindly remem-
bered to you. — I am, dear Brougham, ever yours most
truly, GREY/'

TO EAEL GEEY.

"TEMPLE, November 29, 1809.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — I wrote you a few lines
relative to Wardle's business. I find the impression
very general against him, which, from my dislike of
him and his whole gang, I do not at all lament. He
seems to be a shuffling fellow as well as a great cox-
comb, and his political conduct is of the very worst
description, founded on trick and quackery, and ulti-
mately doing good only to the ministry by weaken-
ing all effectual opposition.

" Talking of shuffling naturally brings to one's mind
Canning. It is confidently said that his letter to
Lord Welles] ey, lying for him at the office, will pre-
vent Lord Wellesley from joining the ministry. I
don't quite think so, though I cannot help fancying
that Lord Wellesley's taking office is not quite so
certain as the ministers suppose. He has not seen
their whole case, for he has had it only from them-
selves, and must find them much weaker than they
represent themselves. If this does not make him
shy of joining them, it will at any rate, one should
think, make him extravagant in his terms, and lead
to more squabbling and bargaining.

480 HOME POLITICS. [1809.

" I dined yesterday at Kensington, and the princess
produced Canning's statement, which was read aloud,
and pretty fully discussed. She affirmed it was
quite satisfactory, and vindicated Canning entirely ;
and asked me bluntly enough if I did not think so
too ; which obliged me to say I thought it quite the
contrary, and that it left Canning altogether in
the wrong. Drummond very gallantly came to my
assistance, and Lord Henry Fitzgerald took the same
side as far as he durst. The only other person there,
Lady Charlotte Lindsay, was of the same opinion, and
the princess had all the defence to herself. She abuses
every one of the ministers, chiefly Eldon, Lord Liver-
pool, and Lord Camden, and is canvassing for Lord
Grenville as hard as she can.

" Canning's statement is plain, and not either
clearly or forcibly written. It is carefully castigated
by some discreet person, who has kept out everything
like a Canningism. It praises the Duke of Portland
in extravagant terms ; among other epithets it calls
him a great patriot. But this is general, and in the
detail it throws much of the concealment on him.
Canning positively denies that he ever wished Castle-
reagh to be turned out, and asserts that he only
wished for a change in the war department, or rather
in one branch of it. He was put off from day to day
by his colleagues, who proposed various expedients,
to which he successively agreed — first, that part of
the war correspondence should be transferred to the
Foreign Department, and the Board of Control joined

JET. 32.] CANNING'S POSITION. 481

to what remained of Castlereagh's office ; and that
among other parts of what remained under Castle-
reagh, should be comprehended the Scheldt expedi-
tion. To all this Canning agreed, though he thought
it might not prove ' satisfactory to the public feel-
ing/ meaning, I suppose, the Board of Control part
of it, after the recent business of the writership. Soon
after this, upon pressing the execution of the above
arrangement, they told him they had thought of
another which would be better. He does not say
what, but he agreed to it. On pressing this, he was
again told that they had given it up, and recurred
to the first plan, to which he again agreed ; and so
on they went, putting him off from time to time.
One plan was that Lord Camden was to resign, and
Castlereagh to have his place ; and it was proposed to
Canning that Lord Wellesley should have the War
Department in that event, he (Lord Wellesley) hav-
ing been detained in England by illness. Once the
king ordered him to say nothing. In short, Canning
must, at the very least, admit that he behaved with the
utmost possible weakness ; but even that would not
do, for he can't account for his never having written
to Castlereagh himself ; nor can he explain the mani-
fest inconsistency of making such a fuss, God knows
why, about turning Castlereagh out of the manage-
ment of some part of the war, and consenting to his
conducting the most important part of it ; for it is
remarkable that he acquiesced in the plan which left
the Scheldt business in Castlereagh's department, and
VOL. i, a H

482 PENINSULAR WAR. [1809.

for no other arrangement. This statement is
not to be published. If I can get a copy I shall
send it, but I scarcely expect it. They say they are
resolved it shall not get into the newspapers ; but I
don't see how they can prevent this. In a few days
you will probably see it in that shape.

" Give my best remembrances to Lady Grey, and
Lady Rosslyn (if she is with you when you get this) ;
and believe me ever yours most faithfully,

" H. BROUGHAM."

" Mrs Bouverie says they have had a man from
Oatlands, and another from Windsor, lately at Wool-
bed ing, and the fashion of both places is to talk of

you in the most extravagant manner."

TO EARL GREY.

"Nov. 30, 1809..

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — As the statement was in
all the newspapers I did not send you one. I am ex-
tremelv Gratified indeed with what you sav, and no

«/ o */ */ J

less with what Lady Grey is good enough to think of
the article about Sir John Moore, having the greatest
possible respect for her judgment and taste, in common
with all who know her. I entirely agree with you
about the diversion ; indeed it is quite manifest from
the dates. The Hollands, though in general approv-
ing much of the article, object on this ground, that
they consider the diversion to have saved Spain.
Nobody agrees with them, and I have given notice

MT. 32.] THE MINISTRY. 483

that I am going down to battle it with them next
Saturday. I have not seen any of them for many
weeks, but received a letter to the above effect. I
was so anxious to supply the omission pointed out
by you (which is really a material one), that as
soon as it struck me I wrote to Jeffrey, but it was
too late.

" Lord Wellesley does take the Foreign Office.
This Drummond has just had from Hamilton (the
Under-Secretary) at the office. They were not sure,
however, for Lord Harrowby was to have gone back
had he refused. The king not coming to the levee
yesterday looks monstrously like some hitch in the
intrigue ; and I guess Lord Wellesley will make terms
about the distribution of offices, which some folks
won't like — e.g., his brother in the War Depart-
ment.

" I was at the annual election of the Eoyal Society
to-day, which generally brings together a very courtly
set. The alteration of tone was very striking. Every
one talked of the new ministry as mere shift, and it
is hard to say whether Canning or his late colleagues
were most blamed. — Believe me yours truly,

" H. BROUGHAM/''

TO EARL GREY.

" TEMPLE, Dec. 4, 1809.

"MY DEAR LORD GREY, — I have just seen two
letters from Lord Blantyre to Charles Stuart (his
brother), whom I will desire to send them to you

484 PENINSULAR WAR. [1809.

to-morrow. The army at Badajos is, I think, as
badly off as that at Walcheren. They buried 700
in two weeks, and the sickness increased on them.
Blantyre's regiment, which is not strong (42d), had
230 sick and 10 officers, and buried 14 in a week.
Their melancholy is great, and no one can figure the
reason for their lingering there, as there are healthy
positions in the neighbourhood. Blantyre is far from
being either factious or croaking, and is one of the
most judicious and honest men I know. Indeed 1
have the greatest regard both for his opinions and
himself, and trust his account implicitly from know-
ing him well.

"The article on Moore, I most sincerely rejoice to
find, is doing some good. It is very popular, and is
giving infinite offence to the Canning school ; but
Lord Harrowby stands up for it in a surprising
manner, considering who are attached to it. The
Hollands have expressed much satisfaction at its fair
treatment of Frere. His case must be very deplor-
able when that article is thankfully received by his
defenders. I take it for granted James Moore won't
be satisfied, because scarcely any one in his situation
would be so with anything except unmixed praise;
but I am convinced the ground taken in the state-
ment alluded to is the best for his brother's defence.
But I wish you could learn what Lauderdale thinks,
and whether he is satisfied, for he is a warm defender
of Moore. I should like to know his feeling about it.
— Ever yours truly, H, BROUGHAM."

JET. 32.] LORD GREY. 485

FEOM EAEL GEEY.

"Ho WICK, Dec. 9, 1809.

" MY DEAR BROUGHAM, — . , . Waithman, I
see, has been attacking me, and, as is usual with those
gentlemen, on a ground previously formed by their
own misrepresentation/* I wish there had been some
friend of mine at the meeting to have told them that
I was quite as much at war with the patriots of this
class in 1792 as I am now, and equally denounced by
them ; that this did not prevent me, nor would it
now, if, through their aid, a dangerous attack was
aimed at the liberty and safety of the people, from
standing forward in defence of the law and constitu-
tion ; and I should only expect in return for it what
I received in that instance — great professions of gra-
titude at the time, and another denunciation on the
first opportunity ; and that in the very speech, and, I
believe, the very sentence, to which Waithman alludes,
as you probably may remember, I professed the same
attachment to the cause of moderate and constitu-
tional reform which I had always manifested, and
censured only the fashionable cant, which appears to
me equally irrational and unprincipled ; that there is
no difference in public men, and no advantage to be
expected from any change of ministers.

" Lauderdale has never mentioned to me your article

* Waithman, the popular alderman. His name is frequent in the
newspapers of the period, but has dropped from the biographical
dictionaries.

4S6 PENINSULAR WAR. [1809.

iii the ' Edinburgh Review;' but I think it impossible
that lie should not admire it, and, as a friend of
Moore's, that he should not be, upon the whole, ex-
tremely gratified by what you say of him. I have,
however, put the question to him directly, and will
let you know his opinion. I agree with you in think-
ing that indiscriminate praise is seldom advantageous,
as it is hardly ever just, and that poor Moore's repu-
tation is much more effectually served by a fair and
candid discussion of the whole question — not support-
ing the points on which his conduct may appear some-
what doubtful — than it could have been by unqualified
panegyric. Admiring Moore as I do in the highest
degree, and thinking that what has appeared has
proved him to be not only one of the best officers this
country ever produced, but as a man to have possessed
the most amiable heart combined with a lofty mind
and independent spirit, I do not feel at all dissatisfied
with the manner in which you treat the question of
his advance from Salamanca. I should certainly have
been disposed to give more weight to the motives
which determined him to take that fatal measure as
being such as it was almost impossible for human
nature to resist ; and perhaps the cause might have
been a little more pointedly fixed to Frere's interfer-
ence, by showing the very moment, almost, at which
his resolution appears to have been changed ; for on
the morning of the 5th he wrote to Baird that he
continued his intention of retreating; and afterwards,
when in the course of the same day he sent his counter

<<ET. 32.] LORD WELLESLEY. 487

orders, he expressly states in his letter to Baird that
notwithstanding his doubts of the resistance of the
Spaniards, he feels himself the more bound to give it
a trial, as he has just received a representation from
Frere against the retreat. . ., , — I am, dear
Brougham, ever yours most truly, GREY."

TO EAEL GBEY.

" December 14, 1809.

" MY DEAE LOED GREY, — I have just seen Drum-
mond, who was with Lord Wellesley the night before
last on diplomatic business, and he talked for an hour
against the whole management of Spanish affairs,
which, he added repeatedly, ' I shall state in the
Parliament ' (cursed coxcomb !) This, however, is a
new proof that Canning and he are not one. The
Princess of Wales yesterday abused the Wellesleys
much — another proof. They say only Perceval will
be in Parliament at the opening ; but that is saying
only their whole strength will be there.

" I forgot to say t'other day, in answer to your last
letter, how well I remembered the passage in your
speech alluded to. I have repeated it a thousand
times in answer to the mountain ; but I think them
excessively unfair and even tricky in their way of
stating things, and one can't help recollecting that
when you were in office they said nothing of this
kind.

" Creevey talks very moderately and candidly about
Wardle's affair. He seems to think the execrable

488 LORD GRENVILLE AT OXFORD. [1809.

speech of Alley may have had an effect against him,
and that his character may be somewhat bettered by
the argument on the writ of error in the former action.
It certainly may ; for bad as Wardle's case seems to
be, I am convinced it was not so desperate as that
first of asses made it; and no doubt the people at large
will be staggered by the dilemma that either Wardle
is in the right, or he is guilty of about a hundred
gross and wilful acts of perjury. However, he is
irreparably injured. Last night at ten, Lord Gren-
ville's friends at Oxford were very sanguine. This is
the bulletin at Sir Watkin's. I bet on Lord Eldon,
for the reasons mentioned in my last. — Believe me
yours faithfully, H. BROUGHAM."

489

CHAPTER IX.

CONGRATULATIONS ON THE ELECTION OF LORD GRENVILLE AS
CHANCELLOR OF OXFORD - INFLUENCE ON THE " CATHOLIC
CLAIMS" — QUESTION OF GOING INTO PARLIAMENT — CONFLICT-

ING CLAIMS OF LAW AND POLITICS — DUKE OF BEDFORD'S OFFER
OF A SEAT - 1 ACCEPT, AND AM RETURNED FOR CAMELFORD —
FIRST SPEECH ON WHITBREAD's MOTION AGAINST LORD CHAT-
HAM, IN REFERENCE TO THE SCHELDT EXPEDITION - FLOGGING
IN THE ARMY, AND CASE OF THE HUNTS - JEFFREY AND THE
REVIEW — LORD ERSKINE — THE REGENCY QUESTION — MINIS-
TERIAL DIFFICULTIES — TO SERVE UNDER LORD GREY ON A
" SUPPOSED EVENT " — JOHN ARCHIBALD MURRAY— THE PENIN-
SULAR WAR — SEAT FOR CAMELFORD NO LONGER AVAILABLE,
AND QUESTION OF CONTESTING WORCESTER IN THE " POPULAR"
INTEREST — PROSPECTS OF CONTINENTAL POLITICS.

HAVING just received from Oxford the result of the
contest for the Chancellorship, in which Lord Gren-
ville defeated Lord Eldon and the Duke of Beaufort,
I lost no time in communicating the joyful intelli-
gence to Lord Grey.

TO EAEL GEEY.

" December 15, 1809.
" Lord Grenville, 406
Lord Eldon, 393

Duke of Beaufort, 238

.
/

((UNIVERSITY

V, OF

490 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1809.

" Grenville's, chiefly non-residents ; Eldon, fellows
who never leave Oxford, and have no influence.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — I give you joy; never was
any victory more important or more ominous to the
Court. It is better than a majority in Parliament,
because it is more permanent and general; it gives
' No Popery ' a death - blow ; Toryism and twaddle,
and illiberality of every kind, such a shake as it can
scarcely recover ; it will even make Oxford a more
liberal place, and affect the minds of those who are
educated there for years to come. Perhaps the
Church is now in some danger ; its influence, hitherto
exerted always for the worst purposes, will now be
diminished or turned to good account. This victory is
felt, from what I can perceive, by both parties equally.

" I forgot to say that the Duke of Cumberland
called three times on Courtenay (son of the bishop),
who stood neuter, to persuade him to vote for Lord
Eldon, but he did not. — Believe me yours, &c.,

"H. BROUGHAM."

TO EARL GREY.

"December 16, 1809.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — C. Stuart (Blantyre) is just
arrived in my chambers from Oxford. The joy is
unbounded ; the hurrahs were quite indecent in the
room. The Eldonites had the mob rather with them ;
and the Bishop of Oxford and others were insulted
by ' No Popery ' proceedings in the streets. So sure

JET. 32.] EARL GREY. 49 1

were the Eldonites of carrying it that they had their
letters of congratulation written, and blanks left for
the numbers. Mills, the messenger, was in waiting
to carry the news to "Windsor. Christ Church has
239 votes ; of these actually voted 184 ; of which for
Grenville 113, Eldon 38, Beaufort 28.

" You know how unpleasant such a symptom must
be at Court. The new dean, after promising to
be neuter, exerted himself against Lord Grenville.
Stuart saw a letter from the Duke of Cumberland's
aide-de-camp to a voter stating that * he was ordered
to say that the duke would consider himself as laid
under the greatest personal obligations by his voting for
his most particular friend Lord Eldon ; that he would
be considerably obliged by his remaining neuter, if
he could not possibly vote for Eldon ; and that he
would always be ready to show his gratitude in
either case/ The man (Cook of Yorkshire) voted
for Lord Grenville, and wrote a short and cool
answer. This is one of many instances ; it makes the
triumph more complete. The Duke of Beaufort's
friends rejoiced almost as much as if their candidate
had won ; and one of the Somersets told Stuart that,
though they might not have voted for Lord Grenville,
nothing on earth could have made them vote for
Eldon. — Yours ever, H. BROUGHAM."

TO EARL GEEY.

" WOBURN ABBEY, January 2, 1810.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — I have this moment received

492 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1810.

your letter, and I hasten to assure you that I did
not misunderstand the motive of your letter to Lord
Ponsonb}7. I understood your opinions, as then
expressed, to be confined to the question of taking
office without having the power conceded to you —
proposing measures for the settlement of the Catholic
grievances — the more enlarged view you may take of
the question is scarcely of less importance ; and it is
with extreme regret that I find myself obliged to
differ with you as to the policy of bringing forward
the Catholic claims under present circumstances.
The fundamental principle on which the question
itself rests, is in no degree affected by the resolutions
of the Prelacy, however much those resolutions may
be condemned ; and in conceding to the Catholic
population of Ireland what we have always main-
tained they have a justly substantial right to demand,
we do not preclude ourselves from guarding and
protecting the Established Church by every possible
security which its most zealous friends can require.

" I cannot help thinking that if you refuse to bring
before Parliament, and support with all your power,
the petition of the Irish Catholics, you are throwing
away one of the few remaining means you have left
of saving the country in the very perilous crisis in
which we are placed. If you irritate the Catholics of
Ireland by refusing to bring forward their unanimous
petition, they will not stop to inquire into the causes
of that refusal ; but the great body of the Catholics
will look to France alone for that relief, which they

JET. 32.] LORD ROSSLYN. 493

will say is denied to them by every party in England.
A refusal from Lord Grenville in particular would
come under a very suspicious colour, so immediately
after his election to the Chancellorship of Oxford.

" I have written my opinion shortly, and in accord-
ance with your desire. — Ever truly yours,

"H. BROUGHAM."

Among all the friends whom* I consulted on the,
to me, difficult question, whether I should give up the
profession of the law and take to politics, or attempt
to combine the two, there was no one who took a
greater interest in the subject, on whose judgment I
more entirely relied, or whose opinion I valued more
highly, than that of my esteemed friend Lord Ross-
lyn. Towards the end of 1809, I had an intimation
that a seat might be offered for my acceptance by the
Duke of Bedford. I stated this to Lord Eosslyn, with
all the pros and cons that had occurred to me, and I
received from him the following answer : —

FROM THE EAEL OF ROSSLYN.

" EDINBURGH, January 7, 1810.

" MY DEAR BROUGHAM, — You impose upon me a
very difficult task, for it is almost impossible to offer
any advice or opinion without some preliminary ex-
planations.

. " You must first settle with yourself to what ob-
jects your inclination leads you, and how far your
judgment will allow you to sacrifice solid advantage

494 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1810.

to the more brilliant allurements of power, and re-
putation, and distinction.

" I have no doubt, that if you continue to work in
your profession only, that you must make a great for-
tune, and come to the head of it ; but, in so doing,
you submit to great slavery, and you forego a great
many of the greatest gratifications, to the enjoyment
of which you are sufficiently alive. If you go into
Parliament, and devote yourself to politics, which
most probably you then will do, you have the most
favourable opportunity opening to you from the
present state of the House of Commons in general,
and that of your own party in particular ; and there
is no office in the country to which you may not look
in a short time without any presumption on your
part, or any disposition to compliment on mine ; but,
in pursuing that line, you will probably be two-
thirds of your life in opposition ; and if your private
fortune and expectations be equal to the expenses
which now or hereafter you may wish to incur, you
will, like Fox, be standing in the full enjoyment of
high consideration and great fame.

" I have not overlooked the middle course to
which alone your letter points, and to that I should
less object if I thought you were sure of being able
steadily to pursue it, and not to be seduced into
abandoning the profession entirely by the persuasions
of your friends, and the temptations which the pre-
sent state of politics must hold out to your vanity
and ambition.

ALT. 32.] LORD ROSSLYN. 495

" The business of the Cockpit will remain, but
that may depend upon the war. There are, however,
causes enough to last through some years of peace—
perhaps as many as we can reasonably hope to see in
our time.

" The circuit you will retain, and if you get to the
head of it rapidly, which, if I am rightly informed,
you may expect, the situation of Solicitor-General
opens to you easily, and with few competitors. It
would be too long to enter into all the calculations
and possibilities of legal promotion within a given
time if your friends are in power ; but it is obvious
enough that being once Solicitor-General, all the rest
is smooth and easy.

" With respect to the King's Bench, I know not
how far Parliament will interfere — it did not with
Dunning;* but I have generally observed that those
who took great leads in Parliament, have for the
most part attached themselves to Chancery, and there
certainly it did not much impede the business of
Thurlow, or my uncle Chancellor Loughborough ; but,
on the other hand, the profits were less considerable
than of those who worked hard in the King's Bench.
You will go into Parliament with advantages that no
modern lawyer has tried; with a fund of political and

* John Dunning, a celebrated lawyer, born at Ashburton, Oct. 18,
1731; Solicitor-General, 1767 ; member for Calne, 1768; April 8,
1782, created Baron Ashburton, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan-
caster, by Lord Shelburne; died, August 18, 1783. He had married
Elizabeth, sister of Sir Francis Baring, Bart., whose son Alexander, in
consequence of this connection, took the title of Ashburton in April
1835, Dunning' s peerage being then extinct.

496 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1810.

commercial information more than adequate to the
possible demand upon it, and sufficient to weigh
down all those with whom you may have to contend.
Your occasional preparation for parliamentary busi-
ness will therefore be easy, and occasion less distrac-
tion. You will certainly sacrifice something of profit.
If you really adhere to the resolution of continuing
earnestly to seek professional practice, and if you
can keep to that steadily, I should have no difficulty
in advising you to accept the offer. If, however, you
feel uncertain of your own powers of resistance, or
likely to yield to the innumerable solicitations and
temptations with which you will be assailed, I should
think that every prudential consideration ought to
deter you.

" In deciding this question, it does not appear to me
that you determine for future offers as well as this.

" There can be no doubt, even if you refuse, that
you may and will have other offers ; but I am clear
that if you refuse this, you ought not to accept for a
long time any other ; because, except your situation
was materially changed, and you came into Parlia-
ment as Solicitor-General, you never can take any
scat under circumstances so favourable.

" You will now come in without any decided
leader to the party, in a state of the House of Com-
mons the most favourable to the display and the suc-
cess of talents, with no very powerful opponent to
bear you down; and with the opportunity (from the
eagerness expressed by all your principal friends to

JET. 32.] REPRESENTATION OF CAMELFORD. 497

have you there, perhaps more for their own purposes
than considering your advantage) of seeming to sac-
rifice your own interest to the general cause of the
party.

"It is always a great advantage, especially in your
situation, to begin in opposition. If I did not begin
to see a possibility of our friends getting into office, I
should not hesitate to urge you to accept. For the in-
terruption to your profession in your present state of
practice, while you continue in opposition, I should
not much fear, setting always against it the good to
be derived from success and celebrity, which I rate
very highly.

" To conclude, I would advise you to accept, form-
ing and declaring your resolution to adhere to your
profession, and your intention to attend as constantly
as your legal avocations would permit, but not be-
yond that point.

" You have what I advise ; but probably you will
have decided before you receive this. I have only to
add, that when you become Secretary of State, it will
be prudent to seal your despatches. Your letter came
to me open, and certainly unmarked by wax or wafer.
-Yours truly, E."

" H. BROUGHAM, Esq., Albany, London."

The following is an extract from a letter, dated
January 2, 1810, from the Duke of Bedford to Lord
Grey : "I write in very great haste, for they are
waiting for me to go out shooting. The subject is

VOL. i. 2 i

498 IN PARLIAMENT. [1810.

one on which I am so very anxious that I could not
delay writing for a single day. I expected Lord
Ponsonby here to shoot, but he remained in town to
see you. If you are disposed to come and look at us
when you have secured a house, seen Lord Grenville,
and found a leisure day or two on your hands, you
will find us here till towards the meeting of Parlia-
ment; and, of course, delighted to see you. — Ever
yours very faithfully, BEDFORD."

" I hope soon to be able to offer the vacant seat at
Camelford to Mr Brougham ; but do not mention it
at present."

Having written to the Duke of Bedford, and with
every expression of gratitude accepted his offer of a
seat, I received from him the following very hand-
some letter : —

FROM THE DUKE OF BEDFORD.

" WOBURN ABBEY, January 12, 1810.

" MY DEAR SIR, — It affords me much pleasure to
learn from Lord Holland that you accept the proposal
I made to you through him.

" The entire confidence I have in your attachment
to those political principles which have uniformly
guided my own conduct through life, and the advan-
tages I anticipate to the party with which I act, as
well as to the country, from the exercise of great and
acknowledged talents in a just cause, in the crisis of
unexampled difficulty and danger in which we are

JET. 32.] WHITBREAD'S MOTION. 499

placed, combine to make this arrangement peculiarly
gratifying to me.

" The writ will be moved on the first day of the
session, and perhaps it may be necessary to give you
the trouble of a journey to Camelford.

" In the mean time I must beg of you not to men-
tion the circumstance to any but your own confiden-
tial friends, as from the particular state of the borough
of Camelford some inconvenience might arise from
the name of the candidate being prematurely known.
— Believe me to be, with very sincere regard, yours,

" BEDFORD."

On the 2d of March 1810, Whitbread brought for-
ward the motion of which he had given notice, of
a vote of censure on the Government, but especially
upon Lord Chatham, who had been commander-in-
chief of the expedition to the Scheldt, for having,
without any communication with his colleagues in the
Cabinet, or any intimation to his brother officer, Sir
Eichard Strachan, who commanded the naval force,
laid before the king a narrative of that expedition,
carrying it as far back as January 1810.

Lord Chatham had requested the king to keep this
communication a secret; and in pursuance of this
request the narrative remained in the king's posses-
sion, secret and concealed from the ministers.

This proceeding of Lord Chatham was properly
characterised by Whitbread as a most unconstitutional
abuse of the privilege of access to his sovereign ; and

500 IN PARLIAMENT. [1810.

as being, in its tendency, most pernicious to his Ma-
jesty's service, and to the general service of the State.
The debate was adjourned from the 2d to the 5th
of March, and on the latter day I made my maiden
speech in support of Whitbread's motion.

I had no reason to be dissatisfied with my speech,
which was favourably received, as indeed first attempts
usually are ; and I was afterwards told that my argu-
ments had assisted to produce the defeat of ministers,
who found themselves compelled to agree to Whit-
bread's motion.'*

The following letter was written most kindly by
Homer to my mother : —

"HOUSE OF LORDS, March 6, 1810.

II MY DEAR MRS BROUGHAM, — You will naturally be
very anxious to have some account of Henry's speech
last night, which I had the pleasure of hearing. The
manner in which he spoke was in every respect most
parliamentary, and gave all his friends the most
complete assurance of the success he will have in the
House. His language and delivery were perfectly
suited to the style which the House requires, and he
showed himself to be in complete possession of it. It
was well judged to begin with a speech which was
extempore, and to give this proof of what he can do,
before the great opportunity of which I trust he will
avail himself upon the Walcheren inquiry.

* The speech will be found in Cobbett (XVI. 7, *».), where it occu-
pies four columns.

JET. 32.] CASE OF THE HUNTS, SOI

"I have stolen a few moments from my clients
here to send you this little account, which I think
you would expect from me. — Believe me, dear Mrs
Brougham, ever most sincerely yours,

"FRA. HORSTER."

During this my first session in Parliament, I took
part in several other important questions, and chiefly
on the abuse of flogging in the army and navy; but
no motion was made upon the subject. A strong
opinion had been expressed, both by myself and
others, that some restraint should be placed upon the
sentences of courts-martial, and the subject had much
occupied both Parliament and the public.

In the year before, the Attorney-General thought
fit to prosecute several persons, and the contributors
to several newspapers which had somewhat violently
taken up this matter, and Mr Cobbett had been sen-
tenced to a heavy fine and two years' imprisonment.
It was generally understood that the subject was next
to forbidden in consequence of these prosecutions,
and especially of Cobbett's severe punishment. Con-
sequently, when the case of the Hunts came on for
trial in 1811, there was no expectation of an acquittal;
and I, acting as his counsel, had little or no hopes of
saving him, although his publication was free from
the violence of Cobbett. I, of course, exerted myself
to the uttermost, and all the more for the strong ex-
pression of opinion which I had delivered in Parlia-
ment. My gratification was extreme when I found

502 CORRESPONDENCE. [1810.

how my defence was received by all who heard me,
and I began at the trial to entertain some hopes.
The jury retired and were locked up for two hours.
Having left the court, I heard on leaving the
Temple of our success ; and though far enough from
ascribing it to my exertions, I considered it as of vital
importance to my professional station, and had some
hopes that a like success might attend the other case
which was to come on at Lincoln, where I went on a
special retainer. The disappointment was great at
our failure there ; for the author himself having been
acquitted, there seemed little doubt that the printer
might have the same success.*

FROM MR JEFFREY.

"EDINBURGH, March 19, 1810.

" MY DEAR BROUGHAM, — I have been annoyed for
this last fortnight with my old nervous malady, which
puts me in dread of apoplexy or palsy, and at all
events really unfits me altogether for any sort of
mental exertion. I am a little better now, chiefly,
however, by force of spending my whole time in idle
exercise of the body, and consequently you have my
excuse for not writing, and the reason of my having
nothing satisfactory to write about, both at once be-
fore you. As to my arrangements for next number, I
am sorry to say that they are in very little forward-
ness. For my own share I think of making an article

* See the " Case of John Hunt and John Leigh Hunt," 22d January
1811 — Speeches of Lord Brougham, i. 13.

JET. 32.] JEFFREY. 503

on my * American friend's ' view of the genius ' and
Kesources of the French Government/ &c. — rather,
however, on the title than the book, the greater part
of which is filled with insignificant details of finance.
I have not yet meditated the general subject, but it
is easy to see that it is larger, and lets into many im-
portant speculations in foreign politics. If you think
anything is to be made of this, give me some hints
and caution. I shall also do some poetry, I think,
and any light thing that comes in my way. I have
got very little positive promise of contributors, but am
in treaty for several. Can't you suggest some theme
for Playfair, or a job for Mill? or anything safe and
popular for Smith ? I have not been able to find out
the haunts of this vagabond priest ; but I hope he
is not forgetful of me : since the new arrangement
don't pay, I find him much more tractable than for-
merly. I shall write you again, as soon as I am in a
better state of preparation. In the mean time, what
I am most anxious about is your own contribution, on
which I depend more completely perhaps than at any
former period. Do you take the Catholics ? at all
events I hope the responsibility and something else
political — at such a moment as this it is really throw-
ing away your great powers to employ them on any-
thing else. Do let me know about this as soon as
possible. The quid, the quando, and the quantum.

" I believe I asked you before whether you knew
any dull Whig, who could read Gifford's Life of Pitt
and note the lies and blunders. It is so base and

504 CORRESPONDENCE. [1810.

silly a book that I think we should take some notice
of it,

" You must go back to the Walcheren debate. I am
myself more and more convinced that it will be by
far the most important and most critical debate, not
for the members only, but for the country, that has
taken place in our time ; and every effort should be
made, and every nerve strained, to bring it to a right
issue. If the resolutions are lost by 40 or 50, I look
upon Parliament as irretrievably lost in public esti-
mation, and all hope of anything but a Court Govern-
ment gone, for this reign at any rate, and probably
for ever.

" Your speeches are sadly reported in the papers I
see, but I hear what I expected of them from better
authority. You have begun with perfect prudence
and good judgment, and I know will go on with
glory.

" As for his Highness of Gloucester, what shall I say ?
Present to him my humble duty and acknowledg-
ments for the honour of his favourable opinion, and
say that I consider it is by far the best omen for the
country which late times have shown, that such per-
sons as he should approve of such sentiments as we
have been called on to make public. You must take
the turning of this on yourself. I take it for granted
you do not want an ostensible or separate note.

:' I am not coming to town this spring ; both your
reasons and my own engagements forbid it. If I hear
that Smith is come home, and my head continues un-

JET. 32.] LORD ERSKINE. 505

serviceable, I have thoughts of going for ten days to
York; but, except this, I shall be at my post cer-
tainly.

" Murray sets off for London, I believe, in a day or
two.

" There is nothing new here, at least I cannot tell
you anything of it, for writing even so much has made
me so giddy that I scarcely see the letters. — Ever
very truly yours, F. JEFFREY/'

FKOM LOED ERSKINE.

" 2 UPPER GROSVENOR STREET,
April 14, 1810.

" DEAR BROUGHAM, — I dare not make any observa-
tions to a person of Mr Jeffrey's most excellent taste
and judgment. I have no doubt his candour will
lead him to compare them with the ordinary plead-
ings at the bar in former times, and he will see the
usefulness of maintaining the rank and character of a
profession so inseparably connected with the safety of
the Government and the liberties of the people. I
am sure that this result will be exemplified in your
future life ; you have given ample proof and earnest
already.

" It must be remembered in what utter contempt
the press was fallen, and to what dangers it was ex-
posed, when I came to the bar in 1778 ; and I flatter
myself that the speeches collected by Kidgway in
their chronological order, will show its ascending pro-
gress, both in the preparation for the Libel bill and

506 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1810.

after it passed. The short interval was most favour-
able for exertion; because I have often thought that if
the alarms of the French Eevolution had come upon
us before the press was established, it would have
been beat down for ever.

" Many attempts were made by the Crown to crush
me and to shake my business, but every conspiracy
of that kind came in aid of it ; and it has, I hope,
operated, and will operate, as a useful example in the
impression that time-serving and subserviency to
judges is not the road to the Woolsack. In looking
them over, I have this satisfaction, — I do not see that
from the zeal of the moment I have distorted the law,
the application of which should be just and universal
— by which I mean the law as I understood and still
understand it. Whatever faults, however, may appear
in them, they were delivered in the course of duty,
and are not moved by me ; the publication is not
mine.

" With many thanks for the kind interest you have
taken in them, I ever am most faithfully yours,

" ERSKINE."

TO EAEL GEEY.

" BROUGHAM, Odoler 23, 1810.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — I am ignorant of what is
going on. I ought to except, however, the bulletins
which Ward sends to Lord Lonsdale, and of which I
saw his last yesterday. It is in the highest spirits ;
represents Massena as doing exactly what was to be

&T. 33-] EARL GREY. 507

wished, and Lord Wellington as having, from the be-
ginning of his retreat, resolved on fighting at Torres
Vedras. Ward adds that the battle is to be a grand
and decisive one, and that the accounts from Welling-
ton and his staff are such as to make every one very
sanguine. They have no fears of the Portuguese.
Massena has advanced without horses or guns (! !) ;
he has a barren country in his rear as far as Coimbra,
and Trant is there in force. The people at Lisbon, even
Cochrane Johnston, quite confident. Such is the
statement of this renowned witness, whom Lord
Lonsdale seemed to believe implicitly, forgetting, I
presume, Austerlitz, or supposing that a battle not
yet fought is more easy to describe correctly than
one already lost.

"As for Trant's affair, it seems either an exaggera-
tion, or that he took what Massena meant to get rid
of. The latter seems playing a pretty brisk game, and
I own myself a little staggered by his movement. It
argues a great confidence of succeeding. As for the
affair of Buzaco, which we call a victory, it seems only
that the French, instead of surrounding and destroy-
ing our army, drove it back 70 miles, which was the
next best thing for them to do, and that for this suc-
cess they paid very dear.

" A friend of mine just returned from Madras (a
colonel in the king's service), who has been here, tells
me very unpleasant things of the business in that
quarter. Lord Minto's conduct seems to have been
uniformly foolish, and to have dissatisfied all parties.

508 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1810.

Even Barlow lias more adherents and approvers.* It
would be a very pleasant thing to me if I could take
Ho wick in my way to town next week ; but the dis-
tance and the dreadful weather, with a bad deafness,
make it impossible, so I must forego it. — Believe me
truly yours, H. BROUGHAM."

On my return to London for Michaelmas term, I
wrote as follows to Lord Grey.

TO EARL GREY.

" TEMPLE, Nov. 4, 1810.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — I have little to say about
anything at present, for nobody talks of any subject
but one, and on that one the falsities and idle ru-
mours are so numerous that the safest rule an uncon-
cerned spectator can lay down for himself is, to believe
nothing at all. The idea of the king having had an
apoplectic attack seems pretty generally current ; and
if so, Haslam, I understand, says his other complaint
is incurable.

" But one reason for my, at least, doubting the
whole story is, that at Michael Taylor's (where I
passed a day on my way to town) they had heard no-
thing of it. Another story, not inconsistent with the

* Sir George Barlow, whose administration in India was an exciting
topic in its day. On the death of the Governor-General, Lord Corn-
wallis, in 1805, Barlow, in terms of a provision for such an event, was
appointed to the office provisionally, and next year he received a formal
commission as Governor-General. The mutiny of Vellore, and other
unpropitious events, occurred during his administration.

^ET. 33.] REGENCY QUESTION. 509

former, is, that the malady arises from a running hav-
ing stopt. But, as I said before, one's faith should
be in abeyance for some weeks. It is, however, no
matter of doubt that were you to come into office
in any way at this time, you would succeed to
a pretty inheritance of blunders and misfortunes.
Among other parts of your succession would be the
fine position of Torres Yedras ; the vigorous govern-
ment of Sir G. Barlow ; the post of Lord Minto in-
trenched behind 96 paragraphs ; the Scheldt, &c. &c.
However, I need not say anything to you to lessen
the inclination for office, as I am confident your bitter-
est enemy never seriously accused you of it. — Yours
faithfully, HENRY BROUGHAM."

Towards the close of this year, that very interesting
and most difficult question of the regency occupied
the attention of ministers and of both Houses of
Parliament.

The mental malady of the king — produced, as was
generally believed, by anxiety caused by the alarming
illness of his favourite daughter the Princess Amelia,
and by grief at its fatal termination — became so serious,
that early in November ministers were compelled to
announce that Parliament could not be prorogued,
the king being unable to sign the commission for
that purpose, and Lord Eldon having (most pro-
perly) refused to affix the great seal to the commission
in the absence of the sign-manual. The continued
illness of the king rendered further prorogations

510 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1810.

necessary from time to time until the middle of
December, when Perceval in the Commons announced
the determination of Government to follow the prece-
dent of 1788. He accordingly gave notice that on
the 20 tli December he should propose the adoption of
the three resolutions of 1788, Ponsonby expressing his
concurrence in the two first, but that he should offer
the most strenuous opposition to the third. It Avas
undeniably the duty of Parliament to find some
remedy for the difficulty caused by the incapacity of
the third branch of the legislature to exercise its
functions ; and it was proposed to do this by following
the third resolution of 1788, giving, under the sanction
of Parliament, the royal assent to a bill to be passed
by the two Houses, there being no possibility of ob-
taining the assent of the Crown, cither personally or
by commission. This meant that the two Houses
assumed to themselves the absolute power to legislate
— an assumption the more monstrous because it pre-
tended to be the act of all the branches of the lemsla-

o

turc. If this could be done, the two Houses might
make war or peace, alter the coinage, create peers, and
perform any act which the principles of our constitu-
tion vest in the sovereign alone. The difficulties were
great, but unquestionably the least unconstitutional
mode of proceeding was by an address involving any
conditions or restrictions, which acceptance would
render valid and binding on the party addressed.
Lord Grey had been present in the Lords and took
part in the debate of the 15th November; but family

JET. 33.] REGENCY QUESTION. 511

matters obliged him to return to Howick, where he
remained during the rest of the session; accordingly,
he asked me to keep him informed of the proceedings
in both Houses, and hence the following letters : —

TO EAEL GEEY.

"Monday, Dec. 17, 1810— half-past five.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — The House is just over.
Perceval is to move the three resolutions of 1788 on
Thursday. Ponsonby gave notice in a very proper
manner of opposing the third. Sheridan spoke much
in praise of the prince's letter and forgot the matter
of it, conceiving it to be on the general point ; which
gave Perceval an opportunity of sneering at and
throwing him on his back.

" The absence of the Grenvilles from the House
(though I suppose accidental) is much remarked.

" Perceval is to state whether any, and (if any)
what, restrictions are to be proposed, before he moves
the resolutions.

" Adam called on him to say so now, and he re-
fused.

" The examinations were not read. — H. BROUGHAM.

" The post is just going."

TO EARL GREY.

" December 18, 1810.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — I should apologise for
the horrid scrawl I sent you yesterday. It was writ-

$12 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1810.

ten within a minute of the post going. I mentioned
that the ministerial folks were remarking the absence
of the Grenvilles. I have since learnt that Lord
Temple is laid up with the gout.

" No one can tell what Perceval means to propose ;
probably he himself can tell as little as anybody.
There is, in all likelihood, a difference between the
Wellesleys and him, and we shall then have a com-
promise— that is to say, very few restrictions, just
enough to save the principle, as it were. If our
friends manage wisely, they will enter their protest
in the form of a single debate in each House, and then
do nothing to protract the discussion. The prince's
continued neutrality, however, is mischievous, and
will affect the divisions. Sheridan said, pretty ex-
pressly (though in a parenthesis), that he only spoke
for himself. It seems odd, however, that he should
have spoken at all, if he did not expect the prince to
stir ; for in the former debate he said nothing.

" I have been confined for ten days with a bad cough,
which has prevented me from hearing anything or
seeing anybody, so that I only can speak to what
I observed last night.

" Canning's friends seem a little puzzled, and the
general impression of the committee who examined
the physicians is said to be much less sanguine than
before the examination. I take it for granted some-
body has sent you their report, but I shall send it by
this post if I can ; if not, by to-morrow's. — Believe
me ever yours truly, H. BROUGHAM."

JET. 33.] EARL GREY. 513

TO EAEL GEEY.

" HOUSE OF LORDS, Wednesday, six o'clock,
December 19, 1810.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — The Lords are nearly con-
cluding their conversation. Lord Liverpool has told
nothing more than Perceval did ; Wellesley is there,
but has not spoken. Lord Spencer stated his opinion
very strongly, and Lord Grenville also spoke, and
very well — first abusing the delay, and then on the
question of right, and the course of proceeding, and
on that alone, repeating his doctrine of 1788, with
some very bad reasons, one of which Lord Lauder-
dale refuted, or rather, promised to refute, and showed
how he should do it.

" Lord Holland is up. H. B."

TO EARL GREY.

"December 28, 1810.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — I have just received your
letter, having been out of town for a few days. They
say this last paroxysm has been touch and go ;
indeed he must die before many months are over ;
and the next fit may very possibly carry him off.
All the doctors (including the doctor"*) have made
but a poor figure, and there ought to be no delicacy
in saying so, in either House.

" I am going to the House of Lords ; and if there
is anything worth noting before the post goes I shall
add a P.S. In the mean time, I wish to God Lady

* Lord Sidmouth.
VOL. T. 2 K

514 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1810.

Grey's confinement were well over, both on her own
account and yours, and that you were safe in Port-
man Square. — Believe me, &c.,

" H. BROUGHAM.

"P.S. — House of Lords, six o'clock. — Lord Carlisle
began the night by an attack on the physicians and
ministers, for the discrepancy of the report with
the bulletins and statements, and suggesting a re-

' OO O

examination, but made no motion. Lord Liverpool is
up ; he began with stating hopes, &c., of recovery, and
is going on exactly as if there had been no paroxysm
two days ago. But they all look d — — d miserable,
the Chancellor in particular. Lady Holland is in the
place at the bar. Lord Castlereagh is to rat, having
luckily voted in the Irish House of Commons with
the majority."

TO EARL GREY.

"December 29, 1810.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — The debate and division last
night, I should think, will decide the restriction ques-
tion, unless the bulletins are much more favourable
than can lie expected. There were seven, including
Lord Grcnville, who voted with the ministers ; with
him were Lords Carysfort, Carrington, Stafford,
Buckley, and two others. Boringdon and Roden
also wen1 with the ministers, and are to vote against
the restrictions. This makes a difference of eighteen.
Lord Grosvenor also will vote against the restrictions,

JET. 33.] EARL GREY. 515

though he was not there last night. This leaves
them seven of majority, of which I wish them much
joy, as I do of Lord Grenville's vote when accom-
panied with his speech, by far the most violent he
ever made against them. He never called them
ministers, or even ' noble lords/ but ' those people,'
' those men,' and ' those persons/ And, among
other things, accused them in plain words of ' for-
gery/

" They were very much cast down upon the whole,
and the symptoms of ratting are manifest. Lord
Alvanley voted with opposition. He said at White's
that he had told the Duke of York, ' If you rat, 111
rat too/ The duke holds his proxy. There is to be
a city meeting ; and our friends are very confident
of carrying instructions and resolutions, which have
been prepared and sent to them.

" However, I look to Windsor for the results — in
fact speeches and meetings are of no moment now —
the bulletins must decide it.

" There must be some mistake in Ward's account
of Castlereagh's having voted in 1789, for he was not
in Parliament. However, it is said, he still means to
rat. Lord Holland made an excellent speech last
night, as I hear from all quarters.

" I only heard the few words which he spoke to
explain why you were absent, which he did very
properly. Anybody who could even think of asking
you to come up must be mad or worse. I shall be
very anxious till I hear that all is well.

516 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1810.

" The bulletin to-day is somewhat better, but they
say the difference is quite insignificant ; and the
Duke of Clarence says he is as ill as ever. They have
fears of apoplexy, the determination of blood towards
the head having been violently felt in the jugular,
&c. If this is true, the first nausea or retching may
carry him off.

" Young Fitzgerald (of the Irish Treasury) has
resigned ; and lie and Peel and Lord Desart are going

o ^ o o

a tour to America to await better times. So now
you have all my news. — Believe me ever very truly
yours, H. B."

TO EAEL GEEY.

"December 30, 1810.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — You will see by the news-
papers what to-day's bulletin is. Private accounts,
which I understand may be depended upon, say that
the 'good night' means four hours' sleep at first and
the rest very disturbed ; his being no better evidently
means worse, both from the known language of the

* O O

bulletins — and even if he were really no worse, that
would be worse every succeeding day. I fear we
shall still be beat in the Commons, at least if a
material change don't take place. The princes are
using their influence. One man whom I know well
told me t'other day he was to vote with Perceval on
Monday, as he had done on the last occasion. He
is under the Duke of Cumberland's influence; and
notice of this being conveyed to the duke, my friend's

EX. 33.] COURT POLITICS. 517

vote is now to be with us. He was assured (I
presume to induce him, or save his honour) that the
prince had declared to the rest his resolution of
having the same ministers when the king recovers
that the king now has. I wish he would, but it is, I
fear, quite impossible.

" Burghersh tells all manner of things about the
armies, as that Lord "Wellington can annihilate Mas-
sena whenever he pleases, only it will cost 7000 to
10,000 men, so he is to wait till he learns that re-
inforcements are coming, and then he will fall upon
him.

" A good thing happened at the Lords' debate.
Lord Wellesley took the King of Sweden there on
purpose to hear him speak (at least to see him speak).
So he was seated on the single chair to the right of
the throne, and an alley was made through the crowd
that he might have a view of Wellesley; but, as usual,
he could not contrive it, and sat silent. I suppose
you have heard the Duke of Sussex's introduction to
the king : ' Comment vous portez-vous, M. le Comte,
ou, si vous voulez, votre MajesteY

" In case anything very material occurs to-morrow
(Sunday) morning, I shall send a letter in such a way
that you may get it on Tuesday evening, if you send
to Alnwick. — Yours, &c., H. BROUGHAM.

" Lord Stafford did not vote with Lord Grenville,
which alters the calculation by two/'

5lS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1811.

TO EARL GTIEY.

" Thursday, six o'clock, Jan. 3, 1811.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — I am just come from the
House of Commons. Perceval stated that Lord
Grenville had refused to issue the money required
(under the last Appropriation Act) by warrant of the
Treasury ; that the Crown lawyers had given their
opinions that, taking the practice and the act together,
the warrant was illegal ; but that money being wanted,
and the Clerk of the Privy Seal (Larpent) refusing to
join Lord Westmorland in the risk of being hanged,
Perceval found it necessary to do it by warrant, which
being disobeyed by Lord Grenville, lie was forced to
apply to Parliament ; so moved for the warrant and
correspondence (including the opinions), and is, at
Tierncy's desire, to make Larpent write a note for the
sake of bringing his refusal before the House. The
papers will be printed to-night, and the question is to
be discussed to-morrow. Fine fruits of their delays,
and still more of the glorious precedent of 1788,
which seems, in every view, full of absurdity.

" In the Lords the same proceedings nearly took
place.

" The king is supposed worse, and all the under-
lings in office seem very desponding.

" I trust Lady Grey continues well : and am, in
great haste, &c., II. B.

" Romilly almost destroyed Canning last night-
nothing was ever better done ; and but for an un-

^ET. 33.] COURT POLITICS. 519

lucky misunderstanding afterwards — which, I hope,
will do no harm — it would have been quite complete.
Nothing has happened more agreeable during the
whole discussion. Don't believe a word of what the
newspapers say of Sheridan's speech. It was a com-
plete failure. He is quite done, and has nothing left
but his mischief.

"The Master of the Bolls'* was very powerful
indeed."

TO EARL GEEY.

"Jan. 27, 1811.

" DEAE LOED GEEY, — I am quite ashamed of my
delay in returning an answer to your very friendly
communication. In truth, I was apprehensive that I
should have found myself compelled to say no ; and
the temptations which you had held out to me were
so strong that I could not make up my mind all at
once to resist them. Some circumstances which after-
wards occurred, and which you are apprised of, de-
layed this answer still further ; and I knew that while
Ward continued undetermined, my delay could make
no difference. He has now given you his answer;
and if you continue to think that I can be of any use
in the event to which you alluded, I am at your
orders. I will thank you, however, not to mention
this, unless where it may be necessary, as the thing
being known might injure me professionally, in case
circumstances should render any further arrangements
unnecessary, which seems at present not very unlikely.

* Sir William Grant.

520 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1811.

" I need scarcely repeat my thanks to you for
giving me the opportunity of ' serving under you '
in the supposed event. Indeed this forms by far the
greater part of the allurement. The office in question,
I am quite sensible, is infinitely above my pretensions,
which are small enough in every sense of the word ;
but I should value it almost wholly from its connec-
tion with your department. — Believe me, with the
greatest esteem, most faithfully yours,

" HENRY BROUGHAM.

" I need scarcely add that should anything occur
rendering it desirable for you to prefer somebody else,
I must insist on your being on no ceremony with me ;
indeed I had just as lief contribute my mite to your
department without the name and appointment."

FROM J. A. MURRAY, ESQ.

"EDINBURGH, Feb. 26, 1811.

" MY DEAR BROUGHAM, — The exultation of your
friends is great; and the humiliation of your enemies
—if you have left any behind you here — must be in
proportion.

" The accounts of your speech, and the verdict —
which, like a victory, is the substantial proof of a good
general — have given us more delight than anything
that has of late happened in these bad times.

" I was almost the only person who had any tidings
of it yesterday. Homer had written me five lines
before he went into the House of Lords, in which he

JET. 33.] COURT POLITICS. 521

said that "Westminster Hall still rang with the elo-
quent speech which you had made, and that even
Park, Garrow, and Dampier (though not very partial),
mentioned it with great praise.

"When he concluded his letter, the jury was still
deliberating. Charles Stuart added an appendix, and
told me of the verdict. I think it a great victory for
the public, for the prosecution of libels is carried too
far, and it is a great object that it should be checked.

" You are the first person since Erskine who has
done so, and you have now a much higher situation
than any ministry could give you. Public affairs
seem to be in a most desperate state, and the imme-
diate recovery of the king seems to be the best thing
that can happen.

" I will not take up your time with Edinburgh
gossip, when you must have a great variety of busi-
ness.— Ever yours truly, JOHN A. MURRAY/'

TO EAEL GREY.

"March 10, 1811.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — I have not broken in
upon you with letters while you were in such anxiety
as I heard you were suffering for some time past.
But I am extremely happy to learn that your alarm
is over, and I think you may not be the worse for a
little interruption on indifferent subjects.

" You observed, of course, the division on Wardle's
motion,* which has completely done his business.

* See above, p. 471.

522 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1811.

The newspapers, however, did not tell that Burdett
treated him with the most marked coldness and
distance, and hit him some pretty hard knocks in
the course of his speech. It is also material to men-
tion that among those who voted against him were
Folkestone, Hanbury Tracy, Crcevey, and Brand. I
was not present, having purposely gone away before
it began, as it had a connection with a trial for a
libel in which I was counsel.

" I have seen a man (Gell) who returned yesterday
morning from Lisbon. He has been in Spain and
Portugal for some months, and reports that the
French, since their reinforcements of 20,000, amount
to 70;000 or 75,000, and that they don't apprehend
in the army any further reinforcement for the present.
He adds, however, that nobody but Lord Wellington
knows anything for certain, and that he keeps all he
knows to himself. They are not alarmed either in
the army or at Lisbon. At Lisbon, bread, &c., is
only double its price in ordinary times, and they
don't complain. They are supplied from Barbary.
There was a story of Badajos being relieved, but he
did not believe it. The French are -not in want of
food. They have a large space open to them; but
beyond that, are hemmed in so that they cannot send
a courier with any reasonable prospect of his reaching
his destination. This man is a strong partisan of
Wellington.

• The impression made on my mind by Perceval's
manner last night was that he would be very well

JET. 33.] COURT POLITICS. 523

pleased to have a report of the committee, or a vote
of the House, to prevent him from giving the mer-
chants the money they want. It was clear that they
did not venture to let Pole speak when "Ward put the
question.

" I shall go to the circuit about the end of next
week. In case you are coming up, and pass near
York, pray let me know the time that I may have
the chance of seeing you. I am first going special to
Lincoln, but shall be at York after Tuesday.

" I trust Lady Grey is not the worse for the anxiety
you have all been suffering, and which I have felt on
all your accounts very sincerely. — Believe me most
faithfully yours, H. BROUGHAM.

" I dined the other day with the little princess
at Kensington. She asked three or four times for
you, and expressed the greatest desire to meet you
again.

" She also spoke with great delight of Whitbread's
last speech/'

TO EABL GEEY.

"July 23, 1811.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — Finding you are at Southill,
I fire this after you in the hopes that it may reach
you before you set out. What I wish to apprise you
of is a few particulars touching the late debates in
the House of Commons, which the newspapers could
not tell.

" All the prince's friends voted against us regularly

524 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1811.

on eveiy question. Except on the regency, they have
never attended so zealously.

" Sheridan both voted and spoke. After saying
he should only vote for sending it to a committee,
Tierney gave him a severe licking, which Sheridan
did not like, and complains bitterly of. Jekyll voted
with us once, which was very handsome. Adam
never appeared the whole week, but has, I under-
stand, a very strong opinion with us. William Lamb
was always there some part of the debate, but never
at the division. He durst not vote either one way or
another. Pierce, governor of the bank, was under
the gallery, and the Duke of Cumberland sat by him,
flirting for two hours one night. In short, the whole
Carlton House interest has been most actively exerted
— with what views I think it not very difficult to
guess.

" The king is certainly a little better ; the private
accounts say so ; but the danger is not over. The
physicians differed from each other so much on Satur-
day, when examined by the Lords' Council, that no-
body can tell what their opinions are : no two spoke
the same language. They have to-day had a Council
at Carlton House, and resolved to prorogue; and one
motive is, that something about the bank bill may be
said in the speech. Perceval's wife told a person
whom I know that the prince, in putting off the
dinner at Perceval's, added, ' Be the event what it
might' (of the king's illness) 'he should dine with
him/ This story of Seville turns out a humbug, and

JET. 33.] PARLIAMENTARY PROSPECTS. 525

Wilson says, eThe ministers are prepared for Lord
Wellington's retreating/ He denies that Soult is
gone to the southward. — Yours ever,

" H. BROUGHAM."

TO EAEL GEEY.

"LANCASTER, September 6, 1811.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — What I chiefly trouble
you for at present is in order to lay before you for
your consideration and advice an offer which has just
been made to me of (I use the words) c coming in
upon the popular interest, in the most independent
manner and at a small expense, for the city of Wor-
cester,' in the event of a dissolution. ' Coming in,' of
course, means having a chance of being returned, and
a certainty of undergoing a most troublesome and
laborious contest. ' A small expense ' is afterwards
explained to mean 'about £1500,' which I take for
granted may be extended in fair interpretation to a
good deal more.

" Now, certainly, I feel the propriety of making
this attempt, if it should be at all consistent with
prudence in a pecuniary point of view ; but I have
no thousands to throw away. On the contrary, I
have been buying land. Nevertheless, I should be
disposed to go a certain length, because it would
undoubtedly be extremely desirable for the party
both to extend somewhat its popular interest, and at
all events to secure another seat. At the same time
I feel that I might by such a movement risk the ter-

526 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1811.

mination of my connection with the Duke of Bedford,
in the course of which I am sure I have never ex-
perienced for a single moment any more restraint on
my conduct than if I had been member for West-
minster— indeed a great deal less. (This is one of
the circumstances which I have stated in my answer
to the above offer, because the mention of ' independ-
ent manner' seemed to call for such an explanation.)

" When I say it might risk such a termination, I,
of course, mean that my present seat might be filled
up, and new connections formed, which could not
easily be broken to make way for me in the event of
my afterwards being thrown out ; so that I should
be anxious for some explanation on this head before
embarking in such a scheme. These, however, are
matters which a party cannot avoid looking into;
and it is neither their duty nor their interest, as I
think, to neglect such opportunities.

" Having stated the case to you, I shall now men-
tion what I have said in return. A former letter
having miscarried, I was forced to answer those
which came last without delay ; but for that reason I
declined giving a definitive answer. I explained the
matter of ' independence ' as above stated. I also
plainly told them that a very moderate expense was
all I either could or would encounter ; and I added,
with respect to principles, that I am a very sincere
and warm lover of liberty, and entertain the utmost
hatred of every kind of oppression ; and that I am
generally friendly to reform, differing, however, with

JET. 34-] PARLIAMENTARY PROSPECTS. 527

such reformers as will only listen to wholesale plans ;
and preferring, chiefly on the score of practicability,
a more gradual change. Of course I have had no
answer ; but when one arrives, I take it for granted I
must make up my mind ; and therefore I beg you to
give me your early assistance and advice. If you
write on or before Tuesday, address to ' Lancaster ; '
if later, to ' Brougham/ If you think that I ought,
in the first instance, to write to the Duke of Bedford,
perhaps it would be better that you should do so as if
I had communicated through you, my connection with
him having been through you. But of this you are
the best judge. — Excuse the trouble of this, and be-
lieve me ever most sincerely, H. BROUGHAM."

TO EAKL GEEY.

" BROUGHAM, Sunday, Oct. 13, 1811.

" MY DEAR LORD GREY, — I have just received your
letter, and rejoice greatly at its being written by
yourself, as the accounts I had received made me
apprehensive you had been a good deal pulled down
by your attack. I had great hopes, however, that
there was some imprudence in the case (which I find
realised), and particularly counted upon oysters and
stale beer — two things against which I warn you,
from experience — having been almost killed by the
former and bottled porter at Venice some years ago,
after a bad voyage from Ancona, which had disturbed
my stomach.

" Conceiving you were still too unwell to be trou-

528 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1811.

bled, I did not write to inform you of the fatal com-
munication having come from the Duke of Bedford ;
but I begged Lord Kosslyn to let you know, as he
seemed to expect you in Scotland. I was not at
liberty to tell the reason of the change ; but as you
have learned it from another quarter, I may now say
that the duke assigns no other cause than the sale of
Camelford, which he has nearly completed. I believe
him most implicitly, and it gives me the greatest
satisfaction ; for it refutes all the other reports which
I had heard, and never credited, nor, indeed, thought
of. It also makes me disbelieve what I had recently
learnt, and what this very post has brought me a re-
petition of from another quarter, that a year ago he
had resolved upon a change. I am sure had he taken
any such resolution he would have communicated it
to me long since — for instance, at the time (February)
that I wrote to him desiring his approbation pre-
viously to taking office under you. Nay, even if he
should have formed the resolution, and concealed it,
I will have recourse to any supposition rather than
entertain the slightest doubts of his intentions ; and
will at the utmost only set it down to the account of
his shyness, being as thoroughly convinced of his
perfect fairness and liberality as I can be of any
man's. I am sorry for the sale of Camelford on his
account as well as my own. It proves his difficulties
to be more considerable than I had imagined. I am
sure, however, that no difficulties can induce him to
part with it to a Tory.

JET 34.] COURT POLITICS. 529

" You may easily believe that as soon as I received
the duke's letter I set about making inquiries, both
as to "Worcester and seats of a different description.
Ward informs me that Bromley having started on the
same interest on which it was proposed to me to stand,
that is out of the question; but he is to make further
inquiries. He seems to think he is to be out of Par-
liament himself, by virtue of Curwen's wise bill ; for
though he is willing to give £5000, he can get nobody
to take it. This, I own, amazes me, nor can I quite
credit it, if he has made a fair trial. Of course he
wishes this to be concealed. Thank God, I always
entertained a due horror of that most foolish if not
pernicious act, though I own I rather expected to
see it negatory than mischievous — rather evaded,
than used to give the Treasury a monopoly.

"Ward says that Frederick Lamb thinks Lord
"Wellesley is rising fast with the prince, and I can
answer for George Lamb (who has just been here)
having the worst opinion of his friend. Michael
Taylor is in doleful plight ; he must either give up
Parliament or his party, unless the prince acts right.
What he is to do I presume not even himself knows,
certainly not the ministers. The Lowthers, who hear
regularly from them, are quite at sea about it. One
can scarcely believe in his going altogether wrong,
till it happens. The ministers believe in a skirmish
in Spain, but that the Liverpool story is false.

" Your illness prevented me from calling your at-
tention to that abominable book of Trotter's, of

VOL. I. 2 L

530 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1811.

whom I always had the very worst opinion, though
he has now contrived to exceed it. Of course he must
be chastised in the ' Edinburgh Review/ and I expect
Jeffrey here to-morrow or next day, which will enable
me to concert the matter advantageously. But mere-
ly chastising him is not enough, for it is proper his
facts should be controverted; and as I know some of
them to be utterly false, it seems fit that these should
be singled out as specimens to throw a discredit on
the whole."'"

" It strikes me that you and Lord Holland should
read the book and mark what occurs to you, which
being communicated to me may be made the proper
use of. It is too delicate to trust even Jeffrey with,
so I intend to give him general reasons for begging
he will leave it wholly in my hands. And I know
he will, as a matter of course. When I first saw the
extracts I was on the point of taking post and going-
over to confer with you, and indeed I doubt if any-
thing but your illness would have stopped me ; but I
am grown somewhat cooler now, notwithstanding
the ' Courier ' of t' other day, which I send in case
you may not get that newspaper. It will show how
much the thing merits a speedy notice.

" This is already too long a letter for an invalid,
so I. only beg my best remembrances to Lady Grey ;
and believe nie ever yours truly, H. BROUGHAM.

* A ' Letter to Lord Viscount Soutlnvell,' hy J. B. Trotter, late pri-
vate secretary to the Ili^ht Honourable Charles James Fox. — See 'Edin-
burgh Review' for April 1801), p. GO.

JET. 34.] PARLIAMENTARY PROSPECTS. 531

"I have not said anything to Lord Holland, nor
heard from him on the subject of Trotter. I was afraid
of Lady Holland intermeddling and doing mischief."

TO EAEL GREY.

"BROUGHAM, October 14, 1811.

"MY DEAR LORD GREY, — Having written fully
yesterday, I have only to acknowledge the receipt of
yours to-day, and to thank you heartily for the kind
interest you take in the concern in question. If /
could point out any way in which you (or indeed
anybody) were likely to remedy the evil, I should do
so without scruple, but the case if not hopeless is
pretty nearly so, to all present appearances.

" This day's newspapers contain an account of
Camelford having been sold, and that the purchaser
is a Mr Carpenter of Mount Tavy. I suppose it was
necessary to conceal matters ; if not, I certainly have
not had very long notice, for it was in common circu-
lation before I heard of it. This, of course, I did not
know when I told Lord Rosslyn that I was at liberty
to mention the reason to him.

" In one particular you can greatly oblige me, by
giving me your free and candid opinion whether it is
incumbent on me, in point of delicacy towards the
Duke of Bedford (to whom I lie under great obliga-
tions), to offer to go out at once, and leave unfettered
the bargain, which he does not by his letter appear to
have finally concluded. This step would certainly
make some difference in it, and I certainly should not

532 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1811.

be the less disposed to take it, from the circumstance
of his never having hinted at such a thine;. It might

o Do

be a convenience to him, and would (as far as I at
present can perceive) do very little harm to me, or
rather the contrary, as a single session is not worth
speaking of, and would indeed render my return to
parliamentary practice still more difficult than the
two sessions already elapsed have at any rate made
it. I should thank you to turn this matter in your
mind, and let me know what occurs to you. — Ever
most truly yours, H. BROUGHAM."

TO EAEL GEEY.

"TEMPLE, Dec. 3; 1811.

" DEAR LORD GREY, — I have seen scarcely any-
body, except Alexander Baring, who was here yester-
day. He gives a curious account of some things,
which, I have no doubt, will interest you. He is a
very accurate man, and has better foreign correspond-
ence than anybody, and has lately seen Russell, the
new American Charge d' Affaires, who has come from
Paris.

" First, then, Baring holds it to be next to certain
tli at in spring there will be a rupture between France
and Russia, and that Sweden is not with France. He
says he knows that Bernadottc, not long since, said,
' Moi, j'aimc la France jusqu'au Rliin/ But this is
only a sample of his evidence. He is quite convinced
of these things. Next, he has seen returns of all the
French forces, and it results from thence that there

JET. 34.] CONTINENTAL POLITICS. 533

are only 85,000 men of the French army, exclusive
of the German allies (of whom one -tenth in the
hospitals), to the east of the Khine. This includes
Germany, Poland, &c. ; but is exclusive of 20,000
at the camp near Utrecht. These, however, can't
be considered as disposable; and it is exclusive (of
course) of 20,000 more at Boulogne. These are, I
apprehend, more disposable. To proceed, Murat and
Bonaparte are on bad terms, and the latter recently
sent Murat notice that he must make preparations to
receive General Perignon as commander-in-chief in
the kingdom of Naples. He sent him with 10.000
French troops — picked corps. Murat's answer was,
' He should receive them at the frontier with 20,000
Neapolitans/ However, he has thought better of it,
and let them and Perignon in.

" Next, Bonaparte lately demanded of the Emperor
of Austria a passage for a corps from Dalmatia to
Poland through the Austrian state, and the emperor
in a very civil but firm letter, written with his own
hand, explained that he could not, and gave his
neutrality as the reason. Bonaparte received this
letter when in private with the empress and Segur
(a confidential officer of his household), and, turning
round, said to his wife, ' Votre pere est un f—
bete ! ' This was told by Segur to Eussell ; and
Baring don't wish it to be mentioned.

" The above circumstances I should not have de-
tailed but for the more than common authority of
Alexander Baring. Such things are so easily fabri-

534 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1811.

cated that they are of no kind of value in general ;
but in this case, I imagine, there must be some foun-
dation for them, and think it right to put you in pos-
session of them, as I am sure that Baring, though he
mentioned them in confidence, would wish it. He is
to show me Eussell soon. — Ever truly yours,

" H. BROUGHAM."

APPENDIX OF NOTES.

I. (p. 7.)

DAVID STUART ERSKINE, Earl of Buchan, was one of three remark-
able brothers, the others being Thomas, the Lord Chancellor, and
Henry, or Harry, as he was usually called. Lord Euchan was born
in 1742, and died in 1829. His career was eccentric rather than
great. He was renowned for extreme egotism, and the relics of this
propensity exist in a multitude of portraits of him, presented by
himself to the universities and other public institutions in Scot-
land.

His two brothers figure at some length in the foregoing pages.
Lord Chancellor Erskine naturally has a place among them from
his eminent position. The notices of Henry Erskine are most
valuable, as contributing to rescue from obscurity one whose abilities
were far greater than his fame. Many thought him a man of higher
powers than his great brother, but he worked in a more limited
sphere, which gave him but a small place in the history of the time,
and his abilities did not take the direction of literature, so as to leave
a memorial by which posterity might estimate them.

II. (p. 7.)

In the days of Principal Robertson, descent from a Highland
family was not so attractive and interesting as it would be deemed
in the present day. Little is said of his Highland connection either
by himself or his biographers, but it seems clear that his family
were cadets of the House of Struan or Strewan in Perthshire. This
family was the chief of the Eobertsons, or the Clandonachie, as they
are called in Highland history. The believers in traditional High-

536 APPENDIX OF NOTES.

land genealogy have the choice of admitting that they obtained the
title of Donachie as descendants of the " gracious Duncan " slain "by
Macbeth, or of accepting from the historian of the " martial achieve-
ments of the Eobertsons of Strowan" this account of the great
progenitor, from whom the family took their Celtic patronymic,
" Duncan, second son of Angus, Lord of the Isles, in the Gaelic
language was called Donoch Eavir Machines na Coalich — that is,
Duncan, the fat or corpulent son of Angus of Cowel, and his poster-
ity were called Clandonachy." They had their share in the wild
history of the Celtic tribes in Scotland, and produced one remark-
able chief in comparatively modern times — Alexander, known as
the poet-chief. When a youth of eighteen or so, he fought under
Dundee at Killiecrankie. He appeared again in "the fifteen,"
bringing 500 followers to Mar's army. He was taken prisoner at
the battle of Sheriffmuir, but he escaped, and joined the Jacobite
refugees in France. When a third opportunity opened in " the
forty-five," he was approaching eighty years of age, and not well
fitted for field duty, but he appeared on the scene, and his cor-
respondence shows much zeal and activity in the cause.

There is an octavo volume with the title " Poems on various sub-
jects and occasions, by the Honourable Alexander Eobertson of
Struan, Esq. Mostly taken from his own original manuscripts.
Edinburgh : Printed for Charles Alexander, and sold at his House
in Geddes Close, where subscribers may call for their copies." It is
understood to have appeared about the year 1750, but the absence
of date, and the other peculiarities of the title, may have been caused
by the risk to those concerned in the publication of a work full of
Jacobitism left by one of the chiefs of the insurrection. It was
noticed for other defects besides its politics — a lubricity of a broad
frank character, beyond the licence of the age. The chieftain poet
belonged to a set of scholars who Avorshipped the classical models.
Whatever followed these was deemed legitimate literature ; and as he
addressed himself to Chloris, Strephon, and Lydia, he treated them
as they had been accustomed to be treated by his masters. These
effusions at the same time mix oddly with others more congenial to
Scotland and the period, — " The hundred and nineteenth psalm
paraphrased, addressed to my worthy friend Duncan Toshach of
Monyvard," and " An ode to the Trinity in the time of temptation."
There is a later edition of these poems stripped of their offensive

APPENDIX OF NOTES. 537

classicalities. It, also, is undated, with the title, " The History and
Martial Achievements of the Eobertsons of Strowan — as it is selected
from the works of the best historians that have written of the origin
and valiant achievements of this honourable family and their
descendants — and the Poems on various subjects and occasions by
the Honourable Alexander Eobertson of Strowan, Esq."

Many of the letters of the poet-chief of the Clandonachie relate to
the secrets of the insurrection of 1745. Even when they bear on
matters evidently of danger and difficulty, they have the easy reck-
lessness of a wayward genius. Take as a specimen the following,
addressed to the titular Duke of Atholl, better known as Tulli-
bardine: "My Lord Duke, — I need not prompt a man to be
honest who makes nice conscience of wronging the king. Few
people scruple in that part. I have been cursedly used by your
Grace's relations, though I am sure they were not properly related to
your Grace. My ever honoured duke — you take me. If you don't,
I refer you to Neil MacGlashan for half a pair of spectacles — for
he can tell what he sees as well or better than, my lord, your ever
faithfull humble servant, Air. Eobertson of Strewan. Oct. 18,
1745. God direct you and your good-natured frailty." This brief
document sprawls over three large pages, because it is written in
characters varying from one to three inches long. In another letter
he says, — " It seems a difficult point for me to put both orders in
execution, unless, as the man said, I can be in two places at once
like a bird." So this Irish idea of unity in time and place is older
than the age of Sir Boyle Eoche, who has generally the merit of its
invention. Many letters by the poet-chief are in a collection of
manuscripts in the Advocates' Library called " The Struan Papers."
Others are in " Jacobite correspondence of the Atholl Family dur-
ing the EebeUion, 1745-1746," printed for the Abbotsford Club.

III. (p. 15.)

Gilbert Stuart had a literary fame in his own day, but he is
more known in the present for that ferocity of personal rancour and
wild dissipation which gives him a conspicuous place in Isaac
Disraeli's ' Calamities of Authors.' He obtained his reputation
solely by a trick of style. He was accomplished in the balancing
system of the period, learning both from Johnson and Gibbon,

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538 APPENDIX OF NOTES.

without lapsing into the absolute mannerism of either of them. Now
that this style has become unpopular, there is nothing to induce
people to read his many historical works. They were written
chiefly to rival and supplant the standard works of the day, and
with the idea that he would accomplish this by the mere force of
genius without research. Much of his hatred was expended on
Dr Robertson, but much more on Dr Henry, the respectable author
of the ' History of Great Britain.' David Hume had written a
good-humoured review on this book, though it professed to be a
rival of his own history. His desire to get it inserted in a magazine
over which Stuart exercised some influence brought out the follow-
ing paroxysm of literary fury : " David Hume wants to review
Henry, but that task is so precious that I will undertake it myself.
Moses, were he to ask it as a favour, should not have it — yea, not
even the man after God's own heart. I wish I could transport
myself to London to review him for the monthly ; a fire there and
in the critical, would perfectly annihilate him. Could you do
nothing in the latter ? To the former, I suppose, David Hume has
transcribed the criticism he intended for us. It is precious, and
would divert you ; I keep a proof of it in my cabinet for the
amusement of friends. This great philosopher begins to dote.
To-morrow morning Henry sets off for London with immense hopes
of selling his History. I wish sincerely that I could enter Holborn
the same hour with him — he should have a repeated fire to combat
with. I entreat that you may be so kind as to let him feel some of
your thunder. I shall never forget the favour. If Whitaker is in
London he could give a blow. Paterson will give him a knock.
Strike by all means. The wretch will tremble, grow pale, and
return with a consciousness of his debility. I have a thousand
thanks to give you for your insertion of the paper in the ' London
Chronicle,' and for the part you propose to act in regard to Henry.
I could wish that you knew for certain his being in London before
you strike the first blow. An inquiry at CadelTs will give this.
When you have an enemy to attack, I shall in return give my best
assistance, and aim at him a mortal blow, and rush forward to his
overthrow, though the flames of hell should start up to oppose me."
— Calamities of Authors, ii. 67.

APPENDIX OF NOTES. 539

IV. (p. 15.)

James Keay entered the Scotch bar as a member of the Faculty
of Advocates in 1794 ; he died in 1837. He was in his latter years
a leading counsel in full occupation among the orators of the period.
He was noted for the precision of his pleading, and young lawyers
were recommended to study his speeches, as models to be more
safely followed than those of the more celebrated advocates of the
period. He was a Tory or Conservative, but took no further share
in politics than to give his vote and countenance to the candidate
on his own side.

V. (p. 30.)

The " Translations and Paraphrases of several passages of Sacred
Scripture" were first printed at Edinburgh in 1745. The intro-
duction states that " these poems which are now printed and trans-
mitted to Presbyteries by Act of Assembly, are partly collected
from the pious and ingenious Dr Watts, and from other writers,
with such alterations as appeared to fit them more for the present
purpose ; and partly furnished by ministers of the Church. The
use for which they were intended required simplicity and plainness
of composition and style. The committee who prepared them
chiefly aimed at having the sense of Scripture expressed in easy
verse; such as might be fitted to raise devotion, might be in-
telligible to all, and might rise above contempt from persons of
better taste." Of the authorship we are told that " nineteen were
by Dr Watts; three by Blair, the author of ' The Grave;' three by
William Eobertson, minister of Greyfriars and father of the his-
torian; two by Dr Dgddridge; and one by Mr Eandal of Stirling."
— Cunningham's Church History of Scotland, ii. 596. Any one
desirous of seeing this primitive collection will find it extremely
difficult to get access to a copy of it, and not easy, even among
Scotch Presbyterians, to find any one aware of its existence. It
may be hoped that the interesting incident in the text may draw
attention to this obscure department of devotional literature. In
the year 1781, the collection was recast, and appeared in the con-
dition in which it is still used in the Presbyterian churches, with
the title, " Translations and Paraphrases in verse of several passages
of Sacred Scripture, collected and prepared by a Committee of the
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in order to be sung

540 APPENDIX OF NOTES.

in Churches." The one heard by Lord Brougham was much altered
from the original as composed by his ancestor; and on a comparison
of its two shapes, it may be doubted whether the alteration tended
to the Assembly's original design of " simplicity and plainness of
composition and style." The original stands thus : —

"John, xiv. 1-5.

" Let not your hearts with anxious thoughts

Be troubled or dismayed ;
But trust the Providence divine,

And trust my gracious aid.
I to my Father's house return ;

There numerous mansions stand,
And glory manifold abounds

Through all the happy land.

If no such happy land there were,

The truth I'd have declared ;
And not with vain delusive hopes,

Your easy minds ensnared.
"Now in your name I go before,

To take possession there ;
And, in the land of promised rest,

Your mansion to prepare.

But thence I shall return again,

And take you home with me ;
Then shall we meet to part no more,

And still together be.
Thus whither I am bound you know,

And I have shown the road ;
For I'm the true and living way,

That leads the soul to God."

VI. (p. 31.)

Principal Robertson's interest in the drama, and his inclination
to countenance it anywhere out of that theatre which he had ab-
jured, is curiously shown in an interesting letter, hitherto unpub-
lished, by his close friend Dr Carlyle of Inveresk. The letter
comments on a paragraph in a newspaper now, of course, for-
gotten. In ' The Edinburgh Daily Advertiser ' there appeared the
following account of laying the foundation of a new parish church
at Inveresk : —

" The Duke of Buccleuch (patron of the parish), Major-General

APPENDIX OF NOTES. 541

Sir James St Glair Erskine, the Eev. Dr Carlyle, Charles Stewart,
Esq., &c. &c., assisted lately in laying the first stone of the new
church, Inveresk, East Lothian, Scotland. Sir James S. Erskine,
as Grand Master, addressed the duke in a short but pertinent
speech on the occasion. He was answered by his Grace, who also
addressed the magistrates of Musselburgh. The meeting con-
cluded, as all such meetings do, with good eating and drinking in
the Town Hall. Dr Carlyle, the respectable clergyman now
mentioned, must be rapidly verging to his hundredth year.
Above fifty years ago the Doctor's age had exceeded forty years,
when he assisted as one of the dramatis personce in the first
rehearsal of the ' Tragedy of Douglas' at Inveresk, where the Doctor
has since resided as clergyman. The rehearsal now noticed was
memorable on account of the assemblage of certain eminent
literary characters who gave their cheerful aid to the establish-
ment of the fame of their friend Home, the ingenious author, still
living, we believe. Among the others who composed this meet-
ing as actors in the play were the following four celebrated
characters : David Hume the historian, "William Eobertson, Dr H.
Blair, and Dr Adam Ferguson."

This paragraph was sent by Caroline, Marchioness of Queens-
berry, and daughter of the Duke of Buccleuch, with an inquiry as
to its accuracy. Dr Carlyle's answer — the original of which is
in the possession of the Earl of Home, who has kindly permitted
it to be copied — is as follows : —

"The paragraph in the 'Daily Advertiser' of September 25
may be partly true, but there are mistakes in it that tend to mis-
lead the publick mind in a matter of importance, and should there-
fore be corrected.

*•' The first rehearsal of the ' Tragedy of Douglas ' was not at
Inveresk, but at the lodging of Mrs Sarah Ward in the Canongate,
and was designed to make her fully apprehend the author's mean-
ing. The dramatis personce were —

" Lord Eandolph, Dr Eobertson ; Lady Eandolph, Dr Ferguson;

" Glenalvon, David Hume ; Anna, Dr Blair \

" Old Norval, Dr Carlyle ;

" Douglas, John Home.

" The rehearsal was not completed. The audience were Patk.
Lord Elibank, Lord Milton, Lord Kames, Alexr. Wedderburn,

542 APPENDIX OF NOTES.

Esi|. ; Jas. Ferguson, Esq., junr. of Pit four, and suchlike; with Mr
I >ii^es and Mrs Ward.

" The company, all "but Mrs Ward, dined afterwards at the
Griskin Club, which then met at a tavern in the Abbey."

'•'Mr Digges" and "Mrs Ward" were professional actors of
celebrity in their day.

VII. (p. 40.)

John Clerk of Eldin, the elder, died at an advanced age in 1812.
lie was for sonic years a Baron of the Exchequer in Scotland. He
had an early passion for the life of a sailor, but circumstances did
not permit his indulging it, except in the study. His celebrated
work on ' Xaval Tactics,' concerning the theory of the breaking
of the enemy's line, was first printed for distribution among his
private friends. It was published in 1790, and a second edition
appeared in 1804. There is a memoir of Clerk and a commentary
on his system by Professor Playfair in the eighth volume of the
'Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.' His son John,
who was for some time a judge of the Court of Session, had a
reputation in his day of a different kind. He was a wit and pun-
ster, but he carried these accomplishments into the range of wild
and sometimes indecorous buffoonery. There was something
peculiarly national in his sallies, and they were always watched
for and reported with avidity. Perhaps no man in his day in
Scotland was more popular, except Scott. When he became a
judge of the Court of Session in 1823, he took from the paternal
estate the title of Lord Eldin, saying that the difference between
him and the Chancellor was "all in my i." He died in 1832.
Many characteristic notices of him will bo found in ' Peter's Let-
ters,' Lockliart's ' Life of Scott,' and Cockburn's ' Life of Jeilrey.'

VIII. (p. G7.)

In the long debate in the Commons in March 1809, on the
motion for taking into consideration the minutes of evidence in the
inquiry as to the conduct of the Duke of York as commander-in-
chief, Lord Folkestone addressed the House on the 10th, following
Mr Leach. This speech was remarkable as containing an indignant
remonstrance against efforts to shield the duke, by crushing some

APPENDIX OF NOTES. 543

of the humble witnesses who gave testimony against him. Canning,
who is spoken of as praising the speech, was severely handled in
it. It will be found in Hansard, xiii. 299.

IX. (p. 87.)

In the roll of members of the Speculative Society there is
entered : —

"316. Henry Brougham. Admitted, November 21, 1797; ex-
traordinary, December 2, 1800 ; honorary, April 19, 1803.
Essays : — Political Remarks on the Union ; The Balance of
Power ; Indirect Influence of the People ; Influence of Na-
tional Opinion on External Relations ; An Examination of
certain Plans that are at present entertained of cultivating
the Crown Lands in the Ceded Islands."

The third essay has been preserved. It is written in a bold,
peculiar hand, in which one would at once recognise the germ of
the peculiarities which distinguished it in later life, though it is
naturally far more legible.

The subject afforded scope for the rhetorical powers the author
had been cultivating, and the following conclusion will perhaps be
sufficient to show that he had done so with success : —

"Before concluding these few desultory observations, it may not
be improper to take notice of a consequence which will perhaps
occur to some as deducible from them. It may be said that if the
measures directly taken by a government — the laws, for instance,
which are passed, — only derive force from submitting to the assim-
ilating power of the constitution, it becomes a matter of little
consequence strenuously to exert those rights of opposition which
a popular form secures. Thus, it is acknowledged that laws, if too
severe, are not put into execution — if too mild, their bounds are apt
to be exceeded; and if they arm any one branch with power hostile
to the spirit of the constitution, there is no fear of that power being
exerted. But it should be remembered that the laws have an
indirect influence themselves — that though arising from circum-
stances, they react in their turn — and that they may gradually lead
to a state of things in which the controlling power of the whole
body may be much impaired. It is no doubt true that whilst we
retain that general diffusion of knowledge for which this age and

544 APPENDIX OF NOTES.

these countries are so eminently distinguished, and, above all,
whilst those impressions of freedom remain which have produced
such mighty effects in the situation of modern Europe, we have no
reason to dread the establishment of those despotic governments
which debase our species in other climes. But it is no less true
that there are degrees of freedom, and that a people maybe cajoled
out of its most valuable rights by sinking into a careless security,
whence it may not be roused till too late for its peace. In the
mean time, so long as there remains that watchful jealousy of the
prerogative which seems to be naturalised in Great Britain, and
whose vast importance to her liberties may be estimated by the
unremitting pains that have been taken to lull it asleep, we may
rest assured that no Court intrigues, no ministerial influence, no
majorities in parliamentary forces, not even standing armies them-
selves, shall prevail against our happy constitution. That consti-
tution consists, not in statutes, for these may be repealed — -nor in
charters, for these may be revoked — nor in forms, for even these
fences may be broken through, — but it is installed in the hearts of
those whose fathers shed their best blood for it. And along with
that inheritance, they received the swords which had been drawn
in its defence. And these swords were accompanied with the
solemn injunction of the great American patriarch — an injunction
which they still keep in mind, however they may on some occa-
sions have neglected it — ' ]STot to unsheathe them for the purpose
of shedding blood, except it be for self-defence, or in defence of
their country and its rights, and in the latter case to keep them
unsheathed, and prefer falling with them in their hands to the
rel incjuishment thereof. ' "

X. (P. 91.)

A sketch of Lord Brougham by an eyewitness, at this period of
his life, is found in a quarter where it would scarcely be looked
for : ' A Visit to Germany and the Low Countries, by Sir Arthur
Brook Faulkener.' He says: " Brougham was then distinguished
for the same gift of sarcasm which has since made him the terror
of the senate; yet was he one of the best-humoured fellows breath-
ing— full of fun and frolic." And coming to particulars, Sir
Arthur tells the followirg story : —

APPENDIX OF NOTES. 545

" A party of us had supped in the rooms of a Dr Parry, the
brother of the circumnavigator. After supper, as we were crossing
the South Bridge, we chanced to be witness of a very disgraceful
scene — a mob of idle scoundrels (most of them bakers) beating an
unfortunate woman with a brutal ferocity. It was impossible to
stand by and not make some attempt towards her deliverance.
The tumult, in place of abating by our interference, grew frightful.
All the watchmen within hail were about our ears in an instant,
and, in return for our chivalry, lodged us all fast in the watch-
house. The Chancellor possibly never found himself in a position
less congenial to his taste and habits ; but even here a mind so
avaricious of knowledge was not to be unemployed. Among our
associates in this vile prison, which was filled with the refuse of
both sexes, an old soldier sat cowering over the embers of a fire
that ' taught light to counterfeit a gloom.' He had campaigned it
in the American war ; and with this hero our embryo candidate
for the Woolsack picked up an acquaintance, and continued
during the whole space of our durance extracting all he could
on the favourite theme of his martial exploits — the names of the
several officers under whom he served, the amount of the forces
opposed to each other in particular engagements, the scene of
battles, position of the combatants, skill of the manoeuvres, ad-
vantages, reverses ; in short, everything that was likely or not
likely to come within the veteran's ken was asked and responded
to. So passed our night, until it pleased Aurora to leave her saffron
couch ; when, by Brougham's interference, we were set at large by
a sort of general jail delivery." — I. 246, 247.

XI. (p. 91.)

There is an amusing confirmation of this incident in the local
literature of the day. The author of the condemned play made a
frantic appeal to the world against the condemnation, with no
better effect than to confirm the justice of the sentence and widen
its publicity. In the collection of some of the curious in literature
there may be found a small volume, with the title, ' St Kilda in
Edinburgh, or News from Camperdown ; a Comic Drama in Two
Acts, with a Critical Preface. Edinburgh, 1798.' The piece de-
serves all that is said against it in the text, and more. According
VOL. I. 2 M

546 APPENDIX OF NOTES.

to its clumsy plot, a lovely damsel from St KUda finds herself
unprotected in Edinburgh, because her brother and lover are in
Admiral Duncan's fleet. An old profligate begins his plots against
her by starting a report that the Dutch have been victorious and
are on their way to Edinburgh. Suddenly the brother and lover
appear on the scene. They bring officially the news of the victory
at Camperdown ; they have both been promoted from before the
mast to be commissioned officers ; and they act the deus ex machind
in putting everything right.

Robert Heron, the author of the play, had a literary career of
his own. The eclipse of his dramatic ambition might perhaps have
been mentioned with more sympathy in the text had his sad history
been known to the author. It was too obscurely wretched to come
naturally in the way of a man with a great career ; but it served to
help Isaac Disraeli to a picture for his * Calamities of Authors.'
Heron had a ready pen, such as it was, and was prepared to under-
take any task. It was his misfortune that when he found himself
master, or likely to be in the course of time master, of a hundred
pounds, he set up his carriage and troop of footmen, as one whose
fortunes were in the ascendant. Among his multifarious literary
achievements, one was a history of Scotland in six volumes. It
is suggestive of the amount of research that . might suffice for his-
tory-writing at that period, that a great part of this work was
composed from such materials as the author could command in a
debtor's prison.

XII. (p. 92.)

In the journey described in the narrative (p. 92 et seq.),tla.e author
had for his companion, Charles Stuart, eldest son of Sir Charles
Stuart, who was the fourth son of John, third Earl of Bute. Lord
Brougham's travelling companion, not only on this excursion, but
afterwards in the tour he took in Sweden and Norway, was per-
haps the most intimate friend he ever had ; a friendship in no way
impaired by the wide difference of their political views.

XIII. (p. 108.)

This letter, apart from its other attractions, is a substantial ad-
dition to our scanty literature relating to St Kilda. A century
earlier — in 1 698 — we have ' A Voyage to Saint Kilda, the remotest

APPENDIX OF NOTES. 547

of all the Hybrides or Western Isles of Scotland,' by M. Martin,
Gent. If we are to believe both accounts, the inhabitants had
grievously degenerated in civilisation since Mr Martin's visit, as
the summary of contents will suffice to show, announcing an ac-
count of " their genius for poetry, music, and dancing ; their sur-
prising dexterity in climbing the rocks and walls of houses ; diver-
sions, habit, good language, diseases and methods of cure, their
extensive charity, their contempt of gold and silver as below the
dignity of human nature, their religious ceremonies, notions of
spirits and visions, &c. &c." For notices of more recent visits to
St Kilda, see ' The Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland,' by
John Macculloch, 1824, vol. ii. p. 168 ; and 'A Voyage Eound the
Coast of Scotland and the Isles,' by James Wilson, 1847, vol. ii.

XIV. (p. 130.)

The accuracy of this sketch of social and political life will not
be obvious to those whose knowledge of the country is limited to
the Denmark of the present day. That the leaders of Danish
society pay an extreme homage to Court decorations and etiquette
is generally believed; but we are not accustomed in the present
generation to think of their king as absolute and irresponsible;
but so he was towards the conclusion of the eighteenth century.
The term used by the author to estimate his capacity for personal
government is strong, but it only concurs with the evidence we
otherwise have of the intellectual condition of King Christian VII.
The whole will be found in harmony with several letters from
Denmark printed in ' Memoirs and Correspondence of Sir Robert
Murray Keith, K.B., Envoy Extraordinary and Minister plenipo-
tentiary at the Courts of Dresden, Copenhagen, and Vienna, from
1769 to 1792,' 2 vols. 8vo, 1849. Sir Eobert was British am-
bassador to Denmark during the affair of Count Struensee ; and
his correspondence gives much light on this and on other matters
referred to in the text as events of recent occurrence.

XV. (p. 226).

He " passed advocate " on 1st June 1800. To " be called to the
bar " is not the technical expression in Scotland. The reception
into the profession was, and still is, of the old academic character.

548 APPENDIX OF NOTES.

After certain private examinations by committees of the Faculty of
Advocates, there is a public " disputatio," where the candidate for
honours, as in the old universities, publicly defends certain theses
or propositions before all comers. The theses opened to impugn-
ment must be from the Pandects. His public impugnment and
acceptance are thus entered in the Faculty Minutes : "1st June
1800. Mr Henry Peter Brougham, eldest son of Henry Brougham,
Esq., of Brougham Hall, was publicly examined in Title 5, Lib.
III., Digest. De Negotiis Gestis, and found sufficiently qualified."

XVI. (p. 237.)

Charles Hope, Lord Advocate in 1801, and Lord President of
the Court of Session in 1804 ; died 1851. The speech on the
powers and duties of the Lord Advocate will be found in Han-
sard's Debates for 22d June 1804. It has been severely com-
mented on as announcing dangerous and unconstitutional doctrine.
The Lord Advocate of the day had written a vehement letter to
the sheriff of a northern county, denouncing the conduct of an
employer who had dismissed a man for deserting his service to
become a volunteer.

It was a period of panic about invasion by the Boulogne arma-
ment, and the gravity of the Lord Advocate's letter lay in the
steps which he directed the sheriff to take against the employer
" on the landing of the first Frenchman." Hope in his defence of
his successor cited the instances in which executive officers in
extreme emergencies had taken extreme measures on their own
responsibility.

XVII. (p. 247.)

Somewhere about the year 1856, Sydney Smith's daughter Saba,
the wife of Sir Henry Holland, compiled a memoir of her father.
This was not published, but she most kindly sent me a copy. I
have already referred to Smith's not very accurate account of the
origin of the ' Edinburgh Review.' I have no further desire to
criticise or to find fault with Lady Holland's book ; but I lately
laid my hands on a letter I received from Sir David Brewster,
which relates to a matter connected with Sir Isaac Newton, a name
at all times quite as interesting to me as to Sir David.

APPENDIX OF NOTES. 549

Lady Holland, in the pedigree she gives of her father, makes the
following statement : " My father's grandfather married a Miss
Barton, whose mother was half-sister to Sir Isaac Newton (the
only ancestor the Smiths ever had, but one not lightly to be passed
over)," p. 8. From the pedigree thus set out, it appears that Sir
Isaac Newton's mother, married as her second husband, Mr Bar-
naby Smith, and their daughter married Dr Barton, whose daughter
Catherine married Mr Oilier, Sydney Smith's maternal grandfather.
Now, according to Sir David Brewster, this marriage with Mr
Oilier is a mistake ; for the Catherine Barton in question married
a Mr Conduitt. Here is what Sir David Brewster says on this
subject : —

" BRIDGE OF ALLAN, June IB, 1856.

" DEAR LORD BROUGHAM, — Nothing ever surprised me more
than the dream of Sydney Smith, that he was descended from
Catherine Barton, Newton's niece.

" Having accidentally got a sight of the first edition of his Life,
I sent to Sir H. Holland two pedigrees of Newton's family, one
fuller than the other ; and in consequence of this the pedigree was
suppressed in the next edition ; but Lady Holland was still scep-
tical, and I put her in communication with Mr Cutts Barton, the
descendant of a half-brother of Mrs Conduitt ; but though he gave
her a choice of making out her connection with several Catherine
Bartons, yet no connection whatever has been traced between the
two families.

"Mrs Catherine Barton's history from 1700 till the time of her
death is so well known that Lady Holland will find it impossible
to establish any connection with her, or indeed with any other
member of Mr Smith's family.

" I have not felt it a duty to subscribe to Newton's monument at
Grantham, on the ground that it should be a national tribute to his
memory. — I am, dear Lord Brougham, ever most truly yours,

"D. BREWSTER."

Miss Barton was a witty and very handsome woman, greatly
admired by Lord Halifax, who left her at his death in 1715 a large
legacy, and also an annuity of £200 — leaving to her uncle, Sir
Isaac Newton, £100, "as a mark of the great honour and esteem
he had for so great a man." On the 24th of August 1717, Miss

550 APPENDIX OF NOTES.

T>:irtnn married Mr Conduitt of Cranbury, in Ilampsliire, member
of rarliaiiu-iit, and much valued by Xewton. Their only child
Catherine, bom in 1718., married, in 1740, Mr Wallop, afterwards
Lord Lymington. From one of her daughters the Portsmouth
family are descended. There can therefore be 110 question that if
Mr Oilier did (as nobody denies) marry a Miss Barton, it was not
Catherine the1 niece of Sir Isaac Xewton.

I am equally persuaded that Sydney Smith himself would never
wilfully have claimed this connection with Xewton : he was far
above any such pretensions, unless upon sure grounds. From all I
ever knew of him he would not only have objected to, but would
have laughed at, his nephew's foolish weakness in dropping the
most respectable, and in their case distinguished, name of Smith,
and assuming that of Vernon, merely because his father Debus
married a Miss Vernon of Hilton, but who no more represented
the Vernons of Hilton than she represented the Plantagenets.

XVIII. (p. 250.)

I)r John Thomson, born at Paisley, 1705; died at Edinburgh,
1840. He was called by his contemporaries "the most learned of
physicians ;" and the discursive character of his scientific acquire-
ments rendered him valuable to the body of young men in Edin-
burgh, who, at the beginning of the century, were ambitious of
adding physical science to their acquirements in law, politics, and
general scholarship. In January 1800, writing about the condi-
tion and prospects of "The Natural History Society," he says:
"Various plans of relief were proposed, and I at last suggested the
turning the Society into a chemical society, that should provide
itself with an apparatus and occasionally make experiments. The
proposal has since been talked of among the members, and is, I
Relieve, universally approved of. In mentioning it to llorner, he
proposed an alliance with tin; Academy of Physics. Brougham, in
the meantime, came home, and has entered keenly into our views.
. . . . Perhaps I am too sanguine; but I conceive that if I
can give to the infant society a good organisation, it may become
an institution which you will have pleasure in patronising. We
shall be able to draw into it all the young men of the place who
have any turn for physical researches. It is proposed to meet in

APPENDIX OF NOTES. 55 1

summer. Brougham is to write you in a day or two. He looks
well, and his present appearance would give you much satisfac-
tion. Horner and he are both particularly anxious that you should
approve of the plan of a chemical society." — Letter addressed to
John Allen, in biographical notice of Dr Thomson prefixed to his
'Life of Cullen,' p. 16. Failing health compelled Dr Thomson to
retire from active life in 1835. It used to be his pride to tell how
in that same year he was sought in the privacy of his cottage at
Moreland by his friend of thirty years before, now Lord Chancellor,
and visiting Edinburgh on the occasion of the Grey festival ; and
how they talked over their old chemical recreations as if they were
still young students with the world before them.

The contemporaries of John Allen who knew him in his social
eminence are fast diminishing, and his fame was not of a kind to
be revived in a new generation. He was born in 1770, near Edin-
burgh. There the small mansion of Bedford, his birthplace, the
possession of his family, still exists : it happens to be close beside
Colinton, where his friend James Abercrombie, Lord Dunfermline,
spent his latter years. He studied medicine, and lectured on
physiology and the other branches of science connected with the
medical profession ; but he did not settle down in practice. The
theatre of his great reputation was Holland House, where he was
the admitted chief among the wits and scholars who frequented the
hospitable table there. Besides science, he wrote on constitutional
history and Spanish politics. His small work called an ' Inquiry
into the Growth of the Eoyal Prerogative' (1830), is so important
and conclusive as to have often elicited the remark that there is
nowhere else so much light on the British Constitution within so
small a space. Another brief work, a ' Vindication of the Ancient
Independence of Scotland,' (1833), is a singularly clear explanation
of the historical conditions in which the Plantagenet kings vested
their claim for asserting a superiority over the crown of Scotland.
His articles in the ' Edinburgh Review ' are said to have exceeded
thirty in number. He died in 1843. Soon after his death there
was a design among his personal friends to collect and publish his
scattered works, but it unfortunately came to nothing.

Malcolm Laing, born in Orkney, 1762 ; died in 1818. He was
for some time member of Parliament for Orkney. He was intimate
with Fox, and a valued and influential member of the Whig party

552 APPENDIX OF NOTES.

of the day. He wrote a * History of Scotland,' beginning with the
union of the crowns in 1603, and ending with the incorporating
Union of 1707.

John Stoddart, born 1773; died 1856; knighted in 1826.
From the Church, for which he had his earliest training, he turned
to law, giving much of his time to civil or Koman law. He be-
came thus available for service in the dependencies where that
system prevailed. Early in the century he became King's Advo-
cate at Malta, and in 1826 returned thither as Judge of the Vice-
Admiralty Court. During the interval of nearly twenty years
between these services he became a distinguished journalist, writ-
ing for several years the leading political articles in the ' Times/

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