SAME TO SAME. "ST. ANN'S HILL, November 7th, 1793. THOUGH I wrote to you no longer ago than Sunday last, I cannot help writing two lines to thank you for three letters which I have since received from you, one of the 31st of August, one of the 4th, and one of the 28th of September. They did not however come, as you mention, by the same conveyance as your Barcelona Journal, which Caroline* sent me a full fortnight since. I like your fandango exceedingly, it is a much fitter story for verse than prose, and think you have done it very well. You will long before this have been satisfied of the groundlessness of your notion, that France was likely to be conquered. Since I wrote last, the Duke of York has gained an advantage, which for the present will probably make the French retire within their own territory, and if Flanders can be kept free from their incursions during the winter, I believe it is as much as the most sanguine expect. The King of Sardinia has been obliged again to leave Savoy at their mercy, and it is reported that they have given a considerable check to the combined armies near Strasburg. What a pity that a people capable of such incredible energy, should be guilty or rather be governed by those who are guilty of such unheard of crimes and cruelties! I think your parallel very good, only I cannot help belief, that the Hon. Caroline Fox, Lord Holland's sister. + Mr. Fox refers to the advantages gained at this time by Pichegru and Hoche over the Austrians and Prussians in that quarter. dangers which the Jacobins announced to their countrymen were not quite so ideal as our alarm. In none of your latter letters do you mention what your intention is, when you get to Cadiz. I am truly happy you gave up your American scheme, for at Philadelphia, where you might have been as likely to go as anywhere else, there is a fever as bad and as mortal as the plague. "God bless you, my dear Nephew, "I have no excuse but laziness, for having been so long without writing to you. The fact is I have been very little away from this place, and when I am here and the meeting of Parliament draws near, every hour and minute of idleness grows to have a double value, and as one knows one is so soon to have so little of it, one likes to enjoy it while it lasts, quite pure and unmixed. But you must not suppose that you are not thought of when I do not write, for very seldom indeed a day passes but you are mentioned, either by Mrs. A. or me. "You will be sorry to hear that we have almost given up all thoughts of Italy next year. Everything seems growing so troubled in most parts of the continent, and the animosities so violent, that I think it wisest for a man who takes so much part as I do in politics, to stay at home. Beside the absurd con structions that would be put upon one's journey, I am not sure that I might not be in some places in an unpleasant situation. I am told Lord Wycombe at Brussels, has been insulted in the street as a Jacobin, and as French manners seem every day gaining ground in Europe, one does not know what might happen. However, I have not quite given up a scheme which I was so fond of, and I will make enquiries of such persons as have been in Germany and Flanders this year, whether the violence I hear of is as strong as it is represented. I do not wonder you saw the business of Genoa in the light you did. It is indeed most disgraceful, and it seems as if we were a little ashamed of it ourselves by Mr. Drake's last note.† Our cousin's representations in Switzerland are of the same stamp as all the rest of our proceedings with neutral powers, only I think rather more imprudent in that part where he says, that even neutral nations ought to have no intercourse, direct or indirect, with agents of the Convention. § I wonder, * Eldest son of the Marquis of Lansdowne. He succeeded to the title in 1805, and died, s. p., in 1809. Upon the measures of England at Genoa, in 1793, see Adolphus's "" History of George III.," vol. v., p. 508. Mr. Adolphus states, that "in adjusting such points with persons so predisposed, discussions took place in which the British Ambassadors were sometimes obliged to use terms not in exact conformity with the measured respect usually shown to independent sovereigns." Concerning Mr. Drake, see "Lord Holland's Memoirs of the Whig Party," vol i., pp. 52, 59. Lord Robert Fitzgerald. James, first Duke of Leinster, and Henry, first Lord Holland, married daughters of Charles, second Duke of Richmond. Lord Robert Fitzgerald was the son of the Duke of Leinster by this marriage; he was therefore first cousin to Mr. Fox, and first cousin, once removed, to Henry, third Lord Holland. § The Note of Lord Robert Fitzgerald Minister Plenipotentiary of his if the Swiss Minister had put him in mind of our negotiation with Chauvelin,* what Lord Robert was instructed to reply. In short there is such a barefaced contempt of principle and justice in every step we take, that it is quite disgusting to think that it can be endured. France is worse is the only answer, and perhaps that is true in fact, for the horrors there grow every day worse. The transactions at Lyons seem to surpass all their former wickedness.† Do you remember Cowper? "Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness!"‡ &c. "It is a much more natural wish now, than when it Britannic Majesty to the Swiss Cantons, dated 30th November, 1793, with the answer of the Swiss Republic, may be seen in the "Annual Register," vol. xxxv., p. 202-5. The following is the passage referred to by Mr. Fox:-"The Minister of his Britannic Majesty will not decide whether justice and the true interest of a State permit it to remain neuter, against those who would again reduce it to barbarism, in a war of almost all the powers of Europe-in a war where not only the existence of every established government, but even that of all kind of property, is at stake. He will only observe, that neutrality itself will not authorize any correspondence, directly or indirectly, with the factious or their agents. When two legitimate powers are at war, the connection of a State with either of them cannot injure their respective rights; but the present war being carried on against usurpers, any correspondence with them by a neutral State would be an acknowledgment of their authority, and consequently an act prejudicial to the allied powers." * Mr. Fox here refers to the correspondence between M. Chauvelin, the French Minister in London, and Lord Grenville, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, at the end of 1792 and the beginning of 1793, which is printed in the "Annual Register," vol. xxxv., pp. 114-28. The siege of Lyons by the army of the Convention, and the subsequent devastation and massacre, took place in the autumn and winter of 1793. Mr. Fox alludes to the initial verses of the "Task," Book ii. :— "Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness,— was uttered. If I had written yesterday, I should have said poor O'Hara! to day I am glad that he is a prisoner, as it has exempted him from being concerned in the evacuation of Toulon. We do not yet know to what number, but it is certain that thousands of poor wretches who had been deluded by our promises are now left by us to the guillotine. It must be a strong case of necessity which can justify such a proceeding, and at any rate it is fortunate for a man not to be concerned in it. That therefore which was thought a misfortune, I now esteem a great happiness for O'Hara.* I hear no certain news of Lord Moira's expedition, but I believe it is given up for the present. So much for foreign affairs. At home we imitate the French as well as we can, and in the trials and sentences of Muir and Palmer in particular, I do not think we fall very far short of our original, excepting inasmuch as transportation to Botany Bay is less severe Of unsuccessful, or successful war, Might never reach me more! My ear is pained, Of wrong and outrage with which earth is filled." The "Task" was first published at the beginning of 1785, in the interval between the American and French wars. * In Sept. 1793, Toulon was garrisoned by a body of British, Spanish and Sardinian troops, and was besieged by the army of the Convention. In October, Lieut. General O'Hara arrived with a reinforcement from Gibraltar, and took the command of the garrison. Soon afterwards, General O'Hara was wounded in an attempt upon a fort, was taken prisoner, and sent to Paris. The evacuation of the town by the Royalists, and their foreign allies, speedily ensued (Dec. 1793). + Lord Moira commanded an expedition off the coast of Brittany, in Nov. 1793; but he failed in effecting a junction with the Royalists, who had retreated into the interior, and after waiting a month, without landing, he returned to England. See Adolphus's "History of George III.," vol. v., p. 479. |