IT seems to me that Tennant has done rather too much honour to your friend Hobhouse1 in the quotation made from his travels.2 The remark cited is a very natural and obvious one; and Mr. Hobhouse’s work, though sensible and in some respects useful and instructive, is not entitled to so great

1 John Cam Hobhouse, afterwards Lord Broughton. 2 In his lecture at Cambridge, “Journey through Albania.”

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Tennant

a distinction. Tennant’s exotic propensities lead him to regard foreigners and travellers with a peculiar sort of partiality. But the habit of lavish and indiscriminate praise, especially coming from such a quarter, is at all times to be guarded against. It is true that this error cannot often be imputed to Tennant; and I may be inclined to notice this instance of it rather strongly, from having been so much displeased by the late critiques in the Edinburgh Review, in which this passion for praising (Diabætes Mellitus, it has been called) has been carried to such preposterous lengths.

The security which civilised nations derive from the scientific art of war, occasioned by the discovery of gunpowder (the subject to which Hobhouse’s remark applies), is very fully considered by Gibbon in his general observations at the end of the thirty-eighth chapter of his history. The passage is worth looking at, if Tennant did not refer you to it at the time of composing this part of his lecture.

I doubt whether Lord Bacon has any just title to be enumerated among the founders of chemical science. Giving all just praise to his great talents, I have always thought it doubtful whether he contributed practically in any essential degree to the vast changes in philosophical reasoning which had begun in his time, but were carried to so great an extent in the age which succeeded. Those parts of Lord Bacon’s works which relate to chemical experiments, of which he seems to have been very fond, are strongly marked with the credulity and bad reasoning which belonged to that age. Pray look at that part

50

Foreign Affairs

of his work which goes under the title of “Natural Philosophy.”

I shall desire Tennant to make honourable mention of the great heroes of civilisation (to whom we owe so much of our greatness), Watt, Wedgwood, and Arkwright—

“Inventas et qui vitam excoluere per artes.”

The present state of things on the Continent is in the highest degree interesting; and I cannot help entertaining great hopes of peace, though more from the apparently settled determination of Austria than from the wisdom and moderation of our own Government. I hope that the advance of the Allies is more for the quickening the negotiation, than with a view to direct hostilities; and they will, I trust, establish themselves on the French territory (imitating in this respect the conduct of Buonaparte under similar circumstances), till the actual signing of the definite Treaty.

Public affairs are, as usual, very unsatisfactory. An opportunity has been lost which probably never will return, of making peace with Buonaparte at a time when his army and people were dispirited, and he himself was degraded in the eyes of France and Europe. Our rash Bourbon speculations have given him time to recover his military name and character, and to fix himself and his dynasty permanently on the throne of France. He will do this also in such a manner as to check any rising spirit of freedom

51

Peace Prospects

which might, perhaps, have grown up in France out of his uninterrupted failures and misfortunes.

It is said that there have been great misunderstandings between the Allies, and that Russia and Austria are on bad terms. The latter probably was never entirely in earnest in wishing the total destruction of Buonaparte, but was gradually led on, in the hope of more advantageous terms of peace and larger accessions of territory. It seems probable, however, that some peace will be concluded, and I hope that we shall be parties to it; but with respect to this country, it seems impossible that the peace can be of any long continuance. The Courier and Times (to say nothing of higher Powers) are sufficient to prevent it.

Politics have taken a decided turn since I left London, and the negotiation has been actually broken off with a perfect cordiality and good understanding among the Allies. This seems to show that Buonaparte has displayed his usual obstinacy and violence of character; and put himself in the wrong in the negotiation. His present military position is very singular, and as it appears to be of his own choosing, he evidently intends to strike some great blow. In this he may perhaps succeed, but his peril is extreme; he is a desperate gamester, and the same defects of character that were ruinous to him at Dresden and Moscow may perhaps ultimately prevail against the energy and military talents which he has now so strikingly displayed, and which, if he

1 The day on which Napoleon abdicated.

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The Allies

had any portion of ordinary prudence, would have secured him firmly on his throne.

Madame de Staël continues to be very popular, and her parties are numerous and splendidly attended. Her success has been prodigious, and beyond all former example with people of all parties. I know of no exceptions but Lady Spencer and the Grenville family. Very lately Lord and Lady Ellenborough, who had held aloof for a long time, paid her a first visit. She has certainly great good temper, and is occasionally very brilliant and eloquent.

Tennant, whom I still found in London on my return from the country a few days ago, informed me that he had lately written to you. Of course he expressed his opinion on the marvellous events which have crowded upon us during the last week.1 All circumstances considered, the result must be regarded as very favourable; and the Allies, especially the Emperor Alexander, have acted a wise and honourable part in allowing the Senate to prescribe conditions on the acceptance of the throne by the exiled family. The triumph would have been complete if they had suffered that body to make a free choice of their sovereign, and to break the line

1 Napoleon’s abdication, and the occupation of Paris by the Allies.

53

The Bourbons

of succession, either by appointing the Duke of Orleans or the young King of Rome with a Regency. But this was too much to be expected. I am afraid, however, that they may have committed a fatal error in this half measure.

The Bourbons, I am afraid, will return with all their old prejudices, and with a devoted attachment to the Catholic Church. Louis XVIII. is the most reasonable of them, but he is a mere valetudinarian and confined to his gouty chair. His immediate successor will be the former Comte d’Artois, the most violent and unpopular of the French Princes, who, after a life of profligacy, has within a few years become a bigoted devotee. As there is no man of talents for public business in the circles of the Emigrant Court, they must throw themselves on Talleyrand, and the Revolutionary leaders and generals. But there will of course be a secret cabinet, and a new series of plots and intrigues may again lead to the most fatal consequences. Already the emigrants were in a state of fury and violence that is hardly to be described, at the guarantee of the national domains, and the acceptance of a Constitution from the hands of Talleyrand and the Regicides.

54

Affairs in Paris

Madame de Staël is going for a short time to Paris, and it seems to me that all the world is doing the same.

Madame d’Arblay’s book1 is considered here as a great failure, partly on account of the vulgar faults of exaggeration and caricature with which it is chargeable, and in consequence of her long residence on the Continent she has nearly lost her power of writing English.

I conclude that you have very authentic accounts at Whitton of what is passing at Paris, as I hear Mr. Hobhouse has been there for some time. All reports seem to agree that the late Revolution is felt very much as a conquest, and that there is a considerable anti-Bourbon party. This circumstance affords the only chance of a new Constitution, in the stability of which I have no confidence. Already is the liberty of the Press suspended, and the Executive Government, in settling the new rates of

1 “The Wanderer,” begun in 1802, for which she was to receive £1,500 in a year and a half, and £3,000 on the sale of 8,000 copies. She said that 3,600 copies were sold at the rapacious price of two guineas. The book was apparently never read by anybody. (“Dictionary of National Biography.”)

55

French Politics

customs, seems to have been imposing taxes by its own authority. I am afraid that the circumstances of the times, and the character of the nation, are adverse to any system of rational freedom, and that no such thing can be expected for a long time in France.

I am afraid you will hardly see Madame de Staël; her Friday evening parties are at an end, and she is going in a short time to Paris. She paid her respects to Louis XVIII., and it is said that she made him a long speech, which was not very favourably received. Lord and Lady Lansdowne set out for Paris to-morrow, but they are not to be absent for more than three weeks or a month.

I see nothing that is likely to prevent my going to you from Cambridge. My plan is to set out the middle of the day on Sunday. My carriage will take us to Waltham Cross, and we shall travel post afterwards. We shall dine and sleep at the East India College, where, besides Mr. Malthus, you will probably see a very sensible man, Mr. Ricardo, of the Stock Exchange, who has distinguished himself as a writer on the Bank restrictions. He is a sort of neighbour of yours in Gloucestershire, having lately purchased an estate near Tetbury, the name of which, if I remember right, is Gatcombe.

The new Government in France is going on prudently and moderately, but the Constitution seems already in a great measure to be a dead letter. Important laws are every day passed without any mention being made of the Senate or Legislature,

56

French Politics

who, I apprehend, will only be brought forward upon urgent occasions, and to do strong and invidious acts, as in the time of Napoleon.

The accounts from Paris are various and doubtful. Lord Lansdowne, who is expected back in a few days, writes on the whole favourably of the present state of things, but he may have received his impressions from Talleyrand and the Corps diplomatique, and has been too much employed in going about with Lady Lansdowne to see sights, than in making inquiries and observations during the short time he has been there.

There is to be a meeting relative to the Slave Trade on Friday next, at the Freemasons’ Tavern, where there will probably be some good speaking, and I shall be glad to procure admission for as many of your Ladies as choose to be present. I do not know whether you have seen the new Mint. If not, it is well worth your seeing; and I have an opportunity of getting an introduction for your party any morning that you please. I had almost forgot to mention the Greenwich Observatory, which your Ladies ought certainly to see, and which Mr. Pond, the Astronomer Royal, would be very happy to show them.

You will read with some surprise and indignation the statement in the Chronicle respecting the Princess Charlotte, which you may be assured is substantially

57

Princess Charlotte

true.1 Counter-statements have appeared on the part of the Court, and particularly in the Courier of the evening, which, as you may not be in the habit of seeing the paper, I will send. The Princess Charlotte is now closely confined a prisoner of state, in a bad state of health, requiring sea air and bathing, which has not been permitted for the last two years. I have recommended that a complete statement of her case, accompanied by all the proper documents, may be immediately published; and I believe that this step has been determined on.

Lord Cochrane’s2 case is too long to be discussed in this letter. I will only say that I think he was very properly convicted; but the conduct of the Court was reprehensible, and the sentence unreason-

1 On July 12th the Princess had escaped to her mother’s house in Connaught Place, in order to break off her intended marriage with the Prince of Orange. 2 Thomas Cochrane, tenth Earl of Dundonald, was tried on a charge of complicity with Berenger, a French refugee, of manufacturing false news as to the death of Napoleon and certainty of peace, in order to influence the Stock Market. Cochrane, who knew absolutely nothing of the affair, was mixed up with others (one of whom was an uncle of his own) who were undoubtedly guilty; all were convicted, and Cochrane sentenced to pay £1,000, to stand in the pillory for an hour (this, however, was remitted), and to be imprisoned for a year. He was expelled from the House of Commons, his name taken off the Navy list, and erased from the Order of the Bath, but within a few days of these indignities he was enthusiastically returned by the electors of Westminster, who passed a unanimous resolution that he “was perfectly innocent of the Stock Exchange fraud.” (See “Dictionary of National Biography,” Lord Cochrane.)

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“Edinburgh Review”

ably severe. It is this circumstance that has produced the great reaction in his favour. But the publication of the trial, and the last discussion of the question in the House of Commons have abated the ardour of his friends, and the tide of public opinion is set a little the other way.

When I said that Madame de Staël was in a certain degree sincere in her exaggerated opinions respecting religion and politics, I did not mean that she was destitute of interested views. I only meant to observe that such irrational minds naturally pass from one violent extreme to another, and know no medium. This has been the case with Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey, and many other furious democrats, who have at last subsided into High Church principles and the most abject Toryism.

I do not know whether it is worth while to send you the names of the persons whom I take to be the writers of several of the articles in the last number of the Edinburgh Review. But as I believe you take some interest in these matters, I send you the best information in my power—

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French Politics

The article on the Slave Trade from its subject should be Brougham’s, but from internal evidence I think it is not his; perhaps Allen’s, of Holland House.

The present number does not seem to be a particularly good one. The first article on the State of Europe is particularly objectionable. It is too favourable to the present order of things, and far too complimentary to the Ministers, being written throughout in the tone of an advocate, and not of a calm, reasonable man. Lord Byron, too, is overpraised in the same sort of strain. The article on the Slave Trade is very good, so is that on Norway, except that it is too unqualified; protesting in effect against all cessions of territory whatever, which is contrary to all reason and experience. It is a question of degree, and must depend in each case upon its own circumstances.

Since I last wrote to you I have letters from Lord Holland and his friend Mr. Allen, dated from Paris, containing some curious particulars. They confirm the accounts I had received from other quarters, that the Bourbons are gaining ground, though still far from being popular, and that they are likely to maintain themselves. More interest is taken in the proceedings and debates of the two Chambers than Lord Holland expected to find. The old emigrants are more absurd than they were before the Revolution, and very much discontented with the Government

60

Napoleon

for not restoring their estates. They wish, of course, to set the Constitution quite aside; and some of the Ministers are supposed to have the same views. It is altogether a curious spectacle that France presents at this moment, somewhat resembling the state of England, as described by Clarendon, immediately after the Restoration.

Shortly before I left London I had an opportunity of seeing Captain Locker, one of the naval officers who recently visited Buonaparte on the Island of Elba. I shall shortly detail the account given by the Captain, which appeared to me very rational and interesting. As to appearance, the Emperor (for he still retains the title) is corpulent, but not unwieldy; on the contrary, he is very active and apparently in excellent health; a good-looking man, but without the appearance of a gentleman. He is courteous, and has somewhat of a gracious manner, particularly in receiving people; at dinner he ate eagerly and rapidly, and appeared to be a kind of gourmand. He was overflowing in his civilities to the English officers, and flattered the nation systematically, and indeed fulsomely. He talked a great deal, and was in excellent spirits; spoke too much of himself and his personal dangers and exploits, and in dwelling upon these topics, exceeded the limits of propriety, and perhaps truth. Upon the whole there was a want of dignity and delicacy, and Captain Locker’s opinion of the great man was lowered by what he saw. The only trait of his character that appeared at all amiable was an anxiety of feeling that he showed in speaking of the Empress

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The Slave Trade

Marie Louise, which, if not sincere, was certainly very good acting.

He is still haunted by the fear of assassination, and desired that Captain Ussher, one of English officers, would let him have some of his Marines while he remained off Elba, that one of them might sleep every night at his bedchamber door. You have heard, no doubt, that he showed great anxiety for his personal safety during his journey to Elba; and expressed the utmost exultation when he found himself on board the English frigate. I will finish what I have to say of this great man by mentioning that he is regular at church, and very constant in his devotions.

We may, perhaps, hear some further details of Napoleon, for Colonel Campbell,1 the English Commissioner resident at Elba, is a plodding, commonplace Scotchman, who keeps a journal, and though not a very acute observer, may perhaps be an inferior sort of Boswell.

I must not forget to say that Lord Holland thinks the question of the Slave Trade in a much fairer way for satisfactory adjustment than he had supposed. He found no great interest or anxiety upon the subject; and is satisfied that the obnoxious article would be conceded at the Congress by the French Government, if any reasonable equivalent was proposed. He is quite clear that the repeal of the Slave Trade may be obtained if our Ministers are really in earnest.

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Lady Holland

It is very satisfactory to hear that the Duke of Wellington takes a great interest in the cause. When in England lately he collected a great deal of information on the subject; and when Clarkson called on his Grace at Paris, he was very kindly received, and found him complete master of all the details of the question.

We have here Lords Carnarvon and Kinnaird, and Creevey, the former very cordial and keen in politics, and anxious to stir Hampshire and Wiltshire for repeal of the Suspension Bill, and Kinnaird is very gay and pleasant. Lady Kinnaird is at Spa. Mrs. Creevey is less well than she was two years ago, but still enjoys society when she can bear the physical exertion of keeping up her head, but she labours under a painful relaxation of the muscles of the neck, which makes her head droop. He is all attention and kindness, quite exemplary in his devotion to her comfort and amusement.

The persecution of the French exiles is cruel, mean, and abominable, out of thirty-eight on the fatal list six are in this country, but a fresh order is come for

63

Lady Holland

their expulsion, and the Government and well-disposed cannot resist the importunities of England, and Lord Wellington in particular. It is curious that the dynasty who owe their existence to the firmness of the Dutch, in supporting the Whigs against Louis XIV., Charles, and James, should now be forcing them to depart from their ancient and liberal policy. It must be from an apprehension that a similar good to that of our 1688 may arrive to France. The English threaten to have the French ports shut against Dutch traders, if these wretched men are not expelled by 14th of August.

I am told that in consequence of this cruel decision against Lord Clinton, Mrs. Damer1 has the nomination of several boroughs. Could not she be apprized of Mackintosh’s uncertain means of coming into Parliament? His talents would have their full weight with her, as much as his honourable conduct and sacrifices have with his party. Have you no means of getting at her in this business? It is really essential for us all. Pray write and believe me,

Dear Sir,—You will be glad to hear that we have had a prosperous though slow journey, not having

1 Anne Seymour Damer, 1749-1828, sculptress, daughter of Field-Marshal Conway. She renounced her claim to Lord Clinton’s estate, to which by law she was entitled.

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Napoleon

arrived here till the 10th. One day we were forced to sleep at Abbeville, and half a day at Breteuil; and after our arrival here Lady Holland was obliged to remain two days at home in order to recover from the fatigues of her journey. But she is now quite re-established, and about the middle of next week I hope we shall begin our journey to Geneva.

Paris, as one had heard from all quarters, has certainly been much embellished by Buonaparte, though, unfortunately, much of what he had begun is not entirely finished, and considering the character of his successors it is doubtful whether they will have spirit and perseverance to execute the magnificent plan which he had formed, and in part accomplished. There is a strong feeling of regret and attachment towards him among the soldiery, but it does not seem to extend to persons of a better condition, and from the accounts of many of his warmest partisans it is clear that long before he had ceased to reign he had acquired all the faults inseparable from the exercise of despotic authority. Success and adulation had completely turned his head. He could not bear the slightest opposition to his will. He consulted with none but those who approved all his plans. He had such an overweening conceit of his own powers that when he had resolved on anything he imagined that every difficulty must give way before him, and that his mere will was sufficient to overcome every obstacle. The last campaign in Germany had worn out his constitution. From the time of his return to France he was in a state of affaisement physique. He ate, drank, and slept, and talked of what was to be done and of what

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Napoleon

he would do; but he did nothing. He had quite lost his former activity and attention to business. When the Allies entered France they found his means of defence no further advanced than when he had crossed the Rhine. No entreaty could prevail on him to make an appeal to his people. When solicited to declare the country in danger, he replied, “Non, jamais; je ne ferais ma cour à la nation.” It was this obstinacy in his misfortunes to reject everything that had an appearance of an appeal to popular sentiment that finally alienated from him all the friends of liberty, and made them consider the restoration of the Bourbons as a smaller evil than the government of a master so deeply imbued with the maxims and feelings of despotism. At the same time he does not appear to have been cruel, and the fear he inspired seems to have proceeded rather from the outrageous violence of expression in which he frequently indulged than from positive acts of violence and severity. They who know him well say that his temper was naturally mild, and that he was overbearing, insolent, and impatient on calculation, thinking that it was in that way only mankind could be governed. But even they admit that he overacted his part, and made enemies unnecessarily by insulting those around him beyond what human nature could bear. The restoration of the Bourbons was certainly the work of Talleyrand. There was no party for them at Paris except a few émigrés who owed their restoration to their country to Buonaparte’s clemency. The Emperor of Russia was himself undetermined what to do when he entered Paris.

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The Slave Trade

We have had a great deal of conversation here about the Slave Trade. It is quite clear that the French have got the Slave Trade, because there was nothing else the Allies could agree to give them. They had been promised something more than they possessed before the Revolution. They wished for Nieuport and Mons, but these, they were told, were military or naval positions. They next applied for some territory on the Rhine which would extend their frontiers beyond Landau, but this also they were refused, and an offer was made them for the whole of Savoy. The King of France objected to Savoy, as it was inconsistent with the general principle of restoring all parties engaged in the war to the state in which they stood before 1792, to deprive the King of Sardinia of so considerable a part of his dominions. “But what, then, are we to have in return for so many strong places we are to give up?” “You shall have back your colonies.” “But our principal colony of St. Domingo can be of no use to us without the Slave Trade.” “Well, you shall have the Slave Trade for a certain number of years in order to enable you to replenish it with negroes.” Such I understand to have been the history of this negotiation. And at this moment I am confident that Ministers may have that article of the Treaty abrogated when they please, by procuring for France either something in Europe which will be considered by French vanity as an equivalent, or by ceding some foreign possession which does not require negroes for its cultivation. This you may safely state to your friends in the African Association, that the Slave Trade may be abolished on the

67

The Slave Trade

part of France to-morrow, provided you will give them or procure for them what may be considered as an equivalent, and from what I hear very little will satisfy them. They talk at present of the great importance of the Slave Trade to France, because they have nothing else to say in favour of the peace they have been compelled to make. Give them something else to boast of, and they will join with you in abusing it as a trade disgraceful to humanity, and most heartily assist you in compelling the Spaniards and Portuguese to give it up.

On the subject of the Slave Trade, I have an application to make to you, or another through you, to the African Association on the part of M. de Humboldt. In the course of his travels he has collected many observations on the bad effects of Slavery and of the Slave Trade, and in the present temper of France he is of opinion that he could say many things with great effect on that subject in the history of his travels which he is now publishing; but he is desirous of having all the information he can obtain through England, and I have promised to him in consequence that I would write to London to request that the reports of the African Association should be transmitted to him. He wishes also to have a copy of Mr. Brougham’s Act, and of the Act of the Assembly of Jamaica, by which slaves can no longer be distrained like cattle for the debts of their masters. I should be very much obliged if you could procure for him these and any other printed papers, showing what has taken place on the coast of Africa or in our colonies since the abolition. Direct them to the Baron de Humboldt at

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The Slave Trade

Paris, to the care of the English Ambassador there, as he is on very good terms both with Sir Charles Stuart and with the Duke of Wellington. Lord Holland means to write to Mr. Macaulay or to Mr. Clarkson to make the same request, but as it is possible he may not have time to do so, I think it better to mention it to you, in order that it may be done without loss of time. M. Humboldt is very zealous in the cause, and finding him at the same time very anxious to have permission to travel through our East Indian possessions in order to go to Thibet, I have assured him that nothing could be of more use to him towards obtaining that permission from the India Company than any service he could render the abolitionists, as Mr. Grant and other leading members in the direction were zealous partisans of the abolition. He is in very high estimation here, and anything he may choose to say will have great weight in giving a salutary tone to public opinion in France, which is at present not at all made up on this question. I trust, therefore, the friends of the abolition will not from indolence or inattention allow so good a card to slip from their hands. Mr. Tierney and his family arrived here two days ago, Vernon is also here on his way to Italy. Lord and Lady Jersey return to England by way of Brussels in the beginning of next week. I trust we shall see Horner and Murray either here or at Geneva. We must cross the Simplon early in October.

I will only say now that the Congress at Vienna seems likely to terminate in a general peace, because the great powers of Europe want it, but I am afraid that the question of the Slave Trade will not be settled upon any satisfactory footing. The utmost that seems likely is to exclude the trade from the northern part of Africa and confine it to the coast of Guinea. Unfortunately Lord Castlereagh has no feeling upon this subject, and his under secretary, Mr. Cooke, is almost friendly to the trade, or at least represented himself so at Paris, lamenting openly that the Ministers here were compelled to give the French Government so much trouble, in consequence of an absurd cry that was raised by Methodists and fanatics.

I hear that the reported follies of the Princess of Wales on the Continent are much exceeded by the actual extravagance of her conduct. I am afraid that our friend Dr. Holland has made an unfortunate determination in becoming part of her establishment.

Their cause also receives great injury from the outrageous proceedings of the Pope and their Bourbon ally King Ferdinand. At the same time there is a great outcry at Paris against the English and their

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“Edinburgh Review”

late conduct at Washington1; respecting which I am afraid there is only one opinion throughout Europe. This unfortunate contest,2 which interrupts the pacification of the civilised world, cannot be sufficiently lamented. It is disgraceful in its failures and not glorious in its successes. No credit can be gained by it, and it is so unpopular throughout Europe that if long protracted it will involve us more or less with the maritime Powers.

In mentioning the writers of the different articles in the Edinburgh Review I should have said that Playfair was the critic of the “Essai sur les probabilités” which is the best, perhaps the only good, article in the collection. In general the number (Edinburgh Review) is a very indifferent one, and some of the articles particularly objectionable, especially in the reiterated and systematic attacks on the Regent, which disgust by their exaggeration and defeat their own object. Brougham’s long and very indifferent

1 The English had captured Washington and destroyed the Capitol and the public buildings in revenge for similar burnings on a smaller scale by the Americans in Canada. 2 The United States had declared war in 1812, in spite of the repeal of the Orders in Council as they were aggrieved at the action of the British Government in stopping American vessels from trading with the Continent unless they first put in at British ports.

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Lord and Lady Holland

article on the Queen Consort is singularly ill-timed, just after the Princess has deserted her daughter and her station in the country, and is exposing herself by her levities in the face of all Europe. A friend of mine who lately met her in Switzerland speaks of her as being in high spirits and triumphant in having got out of England surrounded by a strange Court in which there was no reasonable or respectable person but Dr. Holland.

In concluding my letter to you rather hastily yesterday, I entirely forgot to advert to your inquiry respecting the state of the roads in Italy. It is quite true that Lord and Lady Holland prolonged their stay a little at Geneva, in consequence of what they heard concerning the avalanches of the Simplon, and the banditti of the Mont Cenis. But her ladyship is easily alarmed, and slight rumours would be sufficient to produce inquiry and investigation. The result was that, after a few days’ delay, they set out by way of the Simplon, and arrived at Milan on the 4th. They write in good spirits, and appear to have had a most prosperous journey, and, as they meant to, set out in a few days for Florence.

Mackintosh, from whom I have lately heard, has crossed the Alps twice, having returned by the Simplon, and speaks with great admiration of that magnificent road. Horner, who has been at Milan, went by the Simplon and returned by Mont Cenis, and I have not heard of his experiencing any difficulty or inconvenience.

I have just received an account from Lord and Lady Holland of their safe arrival at Florence on the 16th. They seem to have experienced no difficulty or danger on their journey. But Italy, nevertheless, is in a great ferment; especially the kingdom of Naples, where they are apprehensive that the Sicilian Bourbons will be again forced on the throne. Of all the Italian States, Tuscany alone seems to be well satisfied with the restoration of the old order of things.

I have heard of the particulars respecting the Empress Maria Louisa communicated by Dr. Holland, some of which have been unluckily published in the newspapers, and he may get into some difficulty. We have heard a great deal of the Princess of Wales’s proceedings abroad, which are marked by great levity and procure her no respect in any quarter. I am almost sorry that he appears to be so much pleased with his situation, which is generally considered by impartial observers as not an eligible one. It is melancholy to see a man of sense and merit dressed in a fantastic military costume the follower of a disorderly second-rate refugee Court, and the only respectable individual in a motley miscellaneous establishment. This is literally the account that I hear, but take care not to quote my authority on the subject.

The Ministers are quite delighted to get rid of Parliament, and to close their short session, in which there has been better speaking on the part of the Opposition

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The Duke of Wellington

and more decided failures on the part of the Government than were almost ever known, but it is all to no purpose. The public are wholly indifferent, and the Parliament torpid or worse, since Bankes, Wilberforce, and the rest of the country gentlemen and “Saints,” cling more closely to the Ministers in proportion to their weakness and insufficiency.

There are rumours of partial changes; and it would not be wonderful if in due time Lord Liverpool was to give way to Lord Castlereagh, considering the connection of the latter with Hertford House. But the public have no interest in such movements, and of the two I should prefer Lord Liverpool as I prefer Vansittart to Huskisson. The accounts from Paris are very gloomy. The Government are more and more despised, and the English more and more hated everyday. Twenty thousand disbanded soldiers, most of them without resources, are a very formidable body. The Duke of Wellington is very unpopular, and was most improperly sent on that mission. I hope that the peace will last long enough to enable us to see a little of the Continent, but I cannot look to its continuance.

I was extremely glad to hear that the Lansdowne1 visit had succeeded so entirely, there could indeed be little or no doubt, as they are the most correct and uniform in their manners and tempers almost of any persons that I know in any rank; but such things are always in a certain degree experimental.

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Lady Holland in Rome

We have no particular news, but the opinion is very prevalent that we shall have peace with America, and that the affairs of the Congress are going on unfavourably: this last report, I am afraid, is but too certain. I cannot exactly make out what is the meaning or effect of the late change of administration at Paris by which Soult is Minister of War. It must be done to conciliate the Army, and accompanied as it is by the appointment of Suchet to the government of Alsace, looks rather inauspiciously for the peace of the Continent.

My Dear Mr. Whishaw,—I have been much disappointed at your silence. So long an interval has never elapsed before between your letters. This reproach should have been made sooner, but my health has been wretched, nearly thirty days of severe bilious cholic, attended with the most excruciating pain, confined me chiefly to my fireside, couch, and sometimes bed. Unwarily we trusted my precious person to the skill of a Roman physician, who administered very strong acid extracted from tamarinds. I leave you to guess the torture they inflicted. However, opium and a change of habitation produced a salutary effect, and I am now beginning to crawl in my limited way to see the wonders of this great city. The French have done less for it than for any other possession. The improvements are chiefly for the antiquary, and even these fewer than might have been expected. Ground

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has been removed to give the full height of the shafts to the columns. The Coliseum stands level with the soil to the base, the arches are all open, and it is seen as perfectly as when it was open for its shows; but the living Rome is as dirty and insecure as it was twenty years ago. The Napoleon code brought forward young men of talents, and the eloquence of the Bar was considerable; but they have now reverted to Latin briefs and written pleadings in that tongue. The vigilance of the French police was beginning to be of use, but severely. A man of great truth and accuracy, who was employed in it, told us that during the three years and a half he was engaged in that department, upon a population of 800,000 souls 1,600 were condemned to perpetual hard labour at the galleys, and in the town of Rome in that period, upon a population of 190,000 inhabitants, 11,000 cases of graves delits occurred; and on one Sunday, about three weeks before the French Government broke up, thirty murders happened. The murders almost always proceed from the first impulsion, from wine, or jealousy of lovers, not husbands—they, good people, are very tractable. The advantage of the French administration of justice was the promptness of punishment, blood for blood; now these offences are mitigated. A week ago a convicted murderer was pardoned, because he had formerly served a Cardinal, and it would have been derogatory to his Eminence that any person who had been in his service should perish by an ignominious death, so he was let off, after witnessing the execution of his confederate who had no such claim, and condemned to the galleys.

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A cruel mode of torture which was invented by that useful Pope but cruel man Sixtus V. is revived, and the horrid machine is erected in the public promenade of the town which is in the finest street, the Corso. The machine is called the Charda; it is a pole about sixty feet in height, the culprit is drawn up by pulleys, and allowed to fall upon the stones, by which his shoulders are dislocated, and if the executioners are willing his limbs broken; this is inflicted for very trifling offences. Of course the friars and monks are repeopling their convents and monasteries; to the latter their lands are restored, but as yet the faith is slack; however, it will come; already the credulous believe his Holiness has worked miracles, and his tattered garments, especially those he wore in prison at Fontainebleau, have, when properly administered, restored the blind and the halt.

The English are very numerous and increasing daily; they have assemblies as full and as late as those you are now suffering from in London. My health is a good plea against them, so I am at home without invitations and crowds, and see as many foreigners as I can without excluding my own countrymen. We have got a decent house, which was the habitation of poor King Louis; it is in the Corso, and I have the pleasure of seeing and hearing from my windows all the beau monde of Rome, and all the din of the market, fried fish, and

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various other circumstances which I enjoy in a foreign tour.

Lucien Buonaparte, who has added to that illustrious name the title of “Canino,” in order to secure to himself a pied a terre in this wide world, is a most interesting person; his appearance is grave, his manners good, and his countenance bears the same grand character of the family. He has just sent me the six first cantos of his poem, which I have not read, but see it is in a most pious strain, calculated to aid the orisons of his Holiness in his oratory, but it is probably well adapted to his views and the times. His wife is an interesting pretty woman, and they are a pattern of conjugal felicity, so perhaps he did well in renouncing a kingdom to retain her. His brother Louis, the Comte de St. Leu, is much respected, but his health and habits make him live in retirement. The other brother ex-kings have been refused an asylum here, not from any apprehension of their talents, but his Holiness did not choose this place to be the rendezvous of the family.

Cardinal Fieschi is a jolly, coarse-minded parson, as round and ruddy as many we could show in England, and to the full as worldly and attached to the fat good things of this life. Sir Humphry and Lady Davy are very obliging and amiable. He is employed in analysing the colour used by the ancients in the paintings of their baths, and he thinks he has made some discovery upon the blue colour which will be useful to our artists; but I am not blue enough in chemistry to tell you what it is, so you must wait for his paper upon the subject. Of Elba and the prodigy

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there I will tell you nothing, for Mr. Vernon, who has gone over to plead his own cause in the court of love to the Archbishop,1 will give you so much more than I can. All I will say is that, to obtain a gracious reception, he stated that he was Lord Holland’s relation! and with vanity I add he was admirably received.

The English who are here would, if enumerated, fill a page, but you shall have them: our Davys, Macdonalds, Blackburnes, Rawdons, Westmoreland, Wood, Byng (Poodle), Anstruther, Lord Brownlow, Gages, Foleys, &c., Je ne sais au bout de mon latin, oh! fie! dear Rogers, Boddingtons coming from Florence, Bedfords, Lucans, Cawdor, Cunninghams, Lord Clare. The Papal territory is so full because of the fear of banditti, and the uncertain state of Murat keeps foreigners from Naples. The story is that our Princess2 has quarrelled with the Court, and Lady Oxford writes to her sister Mrs. Ord, that H.R.H. is as mad as the rest of her family. Canova is as good in society as he is excellent in sculpture, his countenance is full of genius; I admire his works, but not the Hebe for Lord Cawdor—of this you may soon judge, as it will go over—but her countenance is too old and serious, and the flutter of drapery gives an appearance of a pair of wings on her hips. His Bacchantes are delicious. A Danish artist3 is reckoned to excel him in his basso relievos and to be approaching in figures. Painters are bad, quite in the bad, stiff

1 Hon. Edward Harcourt, Archbishop of York. 2 Princess of Wales. 3 Thorwaldsen.

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style of David’s school, correct drawing, no colouring or expression. I will release you with apologies for this tedious scrawl.

My dear Sir,—I have this instant received your letter and have put aside the one I am writing to Mackintosh, that I may have time to tell you some more of the ex-Emperor’s conversation to Mr. Vernon and his friends Douglas2 and Fazakerley and other matters, an account of which I received from M. yesterday or the day before. I have begun giving my little details in two successive letters to Mrs. Smith and Miss Fox, and as they will probably

1 Lady Mackintosh was Catherine, daughter of J. Allen, of Creselly, a sister of Madame Sismondi. 2 The Hon. Frederick Sylvester North Douglas, only son of Lord Glenbervie—who had married the only daughter of Lord North, the Prime Minister. Through the influence of the Norths he was returned to Parliament for their pocket borough of Banbury, at the elections of 1812 and 1818. He soon became prominent as a fierce opponent of Napoleon, but was a Whig in domestic politics. He died in October, 1819, in his twenty-ninth year. He had inherited the classical attainments and playful humour of Lord North, and great expectations had been formed of his future career. For two years he was absent from England, and, after having visited Spain and Portugal, spent more than a year in Greece and Turkey. He published an essay on certain points of resemblance between the ancient and modern Greeks, which led Lord Byron to call him “The modern Greek.”

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follow Miss Fox to Bowood, you will be likely to see the whole at once of what I have to communicate. My account is from Douglas, who went to the Gulf of Spezzia, and by Lucca and Pisa to Leghorn, where he embarked in a British sloop of war which brought him in twelve hours to Porto Ferraio. He sent a note to the Governor to inform him that Mr. Douglas, a member of the British Parliament, was desirous of the honour of being presented to his Imperial Majesty. In two days after he received an appointment to go to the Palace at eight in the evening. He found the house mean, a single sentinel at the door, who showed him to a kind of antechamber, of which the furniture consisted of a broken sofa and two chairs, lighted by one lamp with two burners of which one only was lighted. In a quarter of an hour Buonaparte came from an inner room; the ground floor consisting of only two rooms and the rooms above being occupied by the Princess Pauline.

He overwhelmed Douglas with a rattle of questions about George III., but, in the manner of all sovereigns, did not wait for the answers, Douglas’s family, the place he represented in Parliament, the cause of his travelling, &c. He showed an unaccountable knowledge of the difference of Scotch and English law, and a most unaccountable ignorance of the most important parts of the British Constitution.

He thought the Peers had a right of nominating a certain number of members of the House of Commons, and that some Peers had the right of sitting in either House as they pleased. He said

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that England had humbled France enough, by imposing upon her the yoke of the Bourbons without also wresting from her all her conquests, and that it was vain to think of compressing her within her ancient limits, “Que c’était comprimer l’air dans des bornes trop étroites qui échapperait avec le bruit de tonnerre.” “La France n’est pas épuisée; elle contient une jeunesse passionée pour la guerre; elle a 500,000 hommes accoutumés aux armes, un coup de vent s’élèvera du sein de la France qui bouleversera une seconde fois l’Europe.” (I trust his said Majesty is no more a prophet than a saint.) Then changing his tone and lowering his voice he said, “Mais cela me ne regarde pas. Je suis mort.”

This would have been effective from the mouth of a better man. He spoke with bitterness of the Emperor Alexander, whom he called fier et faux. We were right, he said, in supposing that there was a secret article in the Treaty of Tilsit by which it was agreed that Russia should immediately declare war against Great Britain. Douglas said (I think not very delicately) that he had met the Empress Marie Louise in Switzerland. Buonaparte made no answer, but as soon as Douglas mentioned the Princess of Wales as being of the party, he eagerly asked what was the truth of that strange story. On receiving general evasive answers, he said, “Il parait que vous aimez les vielles femmes en Angleterre. La Lady Hertford est elle véritablement la mère de ce Yarmouth que nous avons vu a Paris? Est il possible que votre Prince peut choisir de telles maîtresses dans un pays ou on dit qu’il y a de telles belles femmes.” You

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see he talks en Turc, and has no idea that in his gross sense of the word Lady Hertford is probably no more the Prince’s mistress than the youngest and most beautiful woman in England, which is at least my opinion, and I believe is theirs whose opinion is rather more decisive on this double point of the morals of our ladies and the tastes of our Princes.

On Vernon’s1 saying that Metternich was “un bon politique,” Buonaparte said, “Non, mon cher, il n’est pas, il a de l’esprit, de l’esprit francois, il est aimable, mais il ment trop, il ne sait que mentir, on peut mentir une fois, meme deux, trois, mais on fini par etre connu, et on ne peut rien faire d’avantage.”

He asked Vernon about his travels. When he said he had been in Switzerland, he asked him if he had been at Coppet, and had seen Madame de Staël, and added, “She speaks as ill of the Bourbons as she did of me.” “No,” said Vernon, “she expects money from the Bourbons. You must allow, mon cher,” he replied, “that she is not an interested woman.” There was something generous in this reply.

He talked of his “military errors,” but could not

1 March 18, 1861. I dined on Sunday with Lady Waldegrave. George Harcourt (the “Vernon” of Lady Mackintosh’s letter) gave me an amusing account of the interview he and Fazakerley had with the Emperor Napoleon at Elba. (“More leaves from H. Greville’s Journal.”) 2 The East Indian.

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number among them his confidence in Marmont, “A wretch to whom he had given bread from his childhood.”

Buonaparte has converted Douglas, who speaks with warmth of his gracious smiles, of his animated eloquence, and of his calm fortitude in his present condition, and with compassion of the meanness of his establishment.

Adieu, I will continue to-morrow; I must now resume my letter to M., who will be at home very shortly; he has swallowed so much of Paris that he is sick of it.

I do not retrace to you any part of our long journey through Germany, France, or Switzerland, as the keenest appetite for foreign novelties must be glutted with all that has been recently seen and written about these countries. Italian information, too, must now be crowding upon you from the host of travellers who have taken up their winter quarters in Florence,

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Rome, or Naples; but there is more of novelty left here, and certainly much that is important to the present and future condition of Europe.

You must not suppose that the French Government, as such, was popular in this part of Italy. I think I saw the evidence (as far as a fortnight would supply it) that it was otherwise. But the fact stood thus. The events of the preceding years had awakened, and in part called into action the natural spirit of the Italians. The name of kingdom of Italy, partial as were its limits and subordinate its influence, flattered their desires of independence. Napoleon was in some degree regarded as a countryman. It was believed that he had great designs for Italy, and the French jealousy for the moment prevented his giving further extension to his designs. At all events he had created a national name and army, had made Milan a metropolis, and beautified it with public works on a large scale. The changes which have brought back Lombardy to the condition of a province, and which threaten to make it the theatre of future contests to other Powers, have

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thrown a gloom over every expectation. The unpopularity of the Austrian Government could not be mistaken. There is an uncongeniality between their character and that of the Italians which was manifest in a thousand circumstances, and which, doubtless, enhances the feeling of the latter in the loss of their expected independence.

At Florence we remained too short a time, too short for the place, for the Society, and for the memorials of Science and Art which are profusely afforded there. I saw much at this place of our friends Lord Holland and his family, much also of Mr. Ward,1 the Davys, &c. It was gratifying to me to go through the venerable museum of the Academy with Sir H. Davy, and with him to examine some of the earliest apparatus employed by the experts of the Florentine Academicians. As far as I could judge he has made himself very popular with the men of science of Italy, and I find that his peculiar opinions, still only partially received in England, are generally admitted on the Continent.

At Rome still, more than at Florence, there was cause to be disappointed with the shortness of our

1 Afterwards first Earl of Dudley.

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stay. No human industry could crowd into five days all that belongs to ancient and modern Rome, the less so as we had much society there, and much courtly visitation among the shreds and remnants of royalty which have settled themselves in this metropolis of the Old World. I know not whether I may venture to say that I was disappointed with ancient Rome, yet in its comparison to Athens I undoubtedly was so. In situation everything is greatly inferior, in material, in the taste and beauty of the workmanship even still more so. In number and mass alone the Roman ruins have superiority, but what they gain from the former circumstance they in part lose again by that dispersion over a large extent of surface. There is no feature in Athens that resembles the Campo Vaccino, but there are features the character and effect of which are more imposing both to eye and imagination. Above all there is a majestic simplicity in what remains of Athens which is comparatively wanting in Rome, partly from the appropriation of what is ancient for new and ordinary purposes, still more, perhaps, from the radical differences of the Greek and Roman architecture. Modern Rome on the whole exceeds my expectations, in the splendour of its edifices, and the still greater magnitude of the galleries of the Vatican and Capitol, which we saw under every advantage under the admirable guidance of Canova. This man is an ornament to modern Italy, abounding in genius and enthusiasm for the fine arts and with a simplicity of carriage which is but rarely to be found among his countrymen of the

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present day. His works are now known throughout Europe. One of the greatest of them has been arrested in the midst of these events which have torn down Napoleon from his throne. And together with the triumphal arch of Milan and other works of similar destination at Naples, it remains as a proof how much slower are the steps of Art than those of Ambition, which showed its sequel while mankind were yet marvelling at its advancement.

We have now been settled about two months at Naples, where H.R.H. has taken a large palace in one of the most agreeable situations within the city, the beautiful bay and its barrier, the Isle of Capri, directly in front of us. Of the actual political state of this country I hardly know what to tell you, and perhaps it were better to say nothing. The city of Naples, as usual, has a fair and luxurious aspect, is crowded with nobility who have never seen their estates, and by a multitude of soldiers, maintained under the military system that now dominates this country.

All this is a side-shoot of the late régime in France. It is the exaggerated effort of a new dynasty to make itself like to the old ones. is perfectly true in its application

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here. The whole is like a far-fetched masquerade, and dignity is lost in the too great effort to be dignified.

The French are extremely unpopular. It does not seem to me that the King is personally disliked, his character would appear to be that of a good soldier, somewhat too fond of personal finery, by no means cruel, generous to those around him, perhaps not very adroit in his political capacity, but well served by his Ministers, who are themselves exceedingly well paid. Queen Caroline is obviously a woman of great cleverness and masculine intrepidity; to her it is said that much of the stateliness of the Court is due.1

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The number of English residents here at present is very considerable. Lord Holland, the Westmorelands, and Davys are expected in the course of the winter from Rome. I had a letter yesterday from Mr. Rogers, begging me to seek lodgings for him in this city, to get which at this time it is necessary to pay higher prices than in the midst of London. The English here are excessively courted at Court and loaded with every sort of civility.