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The “Pope” of Holland House
John Whishaw to Thomas Smith, 30 April 1814
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
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Preface
Contents
Introduction
Chapter I: 1813
Chapter II: 1814
Chapter III: 1815
Chapter IV: 1816
Chapter V: 1817
Chapter VI: 1818
Chapter VII: 1819
Chapter VIII: 1820
Chapter IX: 1821
Chapter X: 1822
Chapter XI: 1824-33
Chapter XII: 1833-35
Chapter XIII: 1806-40
Chapter XIV: Appendix
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April 30, 1814.

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

1The 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.