Allant dîner oû elle comptait s’ennuyer, elle dit, ‘Ce dîner me pèse sur le cœur avant de me peser sur l’estomac.’
A polacre conveying dispatches from Alexandria to France was taken off Toulon, carried into Minorca, and the dispatches, which did not sink when thrown overboard, have been forwarded by General Fox to the Governt. They contain minute details of the military colony, and complaints of their being in total want of ammunition, etc., etc. The official letter is from Kléber; he conveys a sort of censure upon Bonaparte for his having quitted the army. He encloses Bonaparte’s letter to the army upon his quitting Egypt, in which various reasons for his departure are given; among them is l’obéissance. There is also a letter from the Contrôleur des Finances d’Égypte. He complains bitterly of the difficulty in levying the taxes, and the stubbornness of the Turks, who, sooner than pay will submit to stripes and even death. These letters and many private ones are to be made public and commented on by the mild spirit of Mr. Gifford.[56] They will be published in a few days, before the meeting of Parliament, in order to give the proper cue to those country members whose warlike spirits may have been subdued at the sight of the universal suffering throughout the country—a suffering aggravated, if not caused, by the horrors of war.
There can be nothing more contemptible than the personal pique all Ministerial people seem to feel towards him. The object in publishing these letters is merely to gall him by an expression or two, and for this gratification they shabbily put in the names of individuals, which may be the means of much private ruin. They say, ‘Aye, this will do him up!’
LORD ANDOVER’S DEATH
Poor Ld. Andover![57] Unfortunately, in giving his gun to his groom the piece went off, and the whole contents were lodged in his body: he retained his senses 7 hours after the accident, and died shortly after. His wretched wife! What must her feelings be! Each most tenderly attached to the other. It is the only tie which when dissolved makes the vast world a wilderness. How can piety, fortitude, or reason bear up against such a dreadful calamity? Indeed, one cannot wish it should prolong the existence of the miserable relict. That direful separation alone can shake the love of life so deeply rooted in us all. Canning says Ld. Andover used to remind him of Ld. H. at times. Great heavens! how far beyond a remedy must be her sorrows. Without knowing any of the parties, the despair of the situation quite overcomes me, and draws tears of unfeigned pity from my eyes; how fortunate for her should she never awaken to her wretchedness, but die in the agonies of delirium. Oh! in mercy let such be my close if I am doomed to the—oh! I cannot with calmness suppose the case.
Ye Friday party[58] did very well, dissimilar as are the opinions of the parties. On Saturday Ld. Wycombe brought a Spaniard,[59] who is just come from Paris, and is in England without the knowledge and against the consent of the Ministers. He has resided in Paris during the last four years, and he has adopted the principles of Revolution con amore. He calls the Church Establishment an infamous institution, and appears quite ripe to back his principles by his practice.
Mr. Fox was persuaded to come and attend the House of Commons on the day the subject of the negotiations was discussed. He always must speak well, but I should have preferred an oratorical, philosophical survey of the events that had arisen during the secession to a mere debating speech, which he made.
The intercepted letters are published with a preface avowedly by Canning; the notes are certainly by another hand. During the debate which Mr. Fox attended Canning launched out with his usual flippancy of tongue against the D. of Bedford, and said he would not lose his time in replying to arguments brought forward from a man of such an intellect. Fox gave him the retort uncourteous and made the little great man shrink. In going out he asked him if he seriously thought he could persuade the country that the D. of B. was an idiot. ‘No, I don’t; but why did he attack my publication?’ ‘My publication!’ And such a thing it is; the prophecies announcing the Messiah could not usher him in with more awful pomp than he does these letters to the notice of the public.
LORD KING
It was lucky that the first time Mr. Fox heard his nephew speak, should be when he spoke the best. Tho’ his terror was excessive, yet he possessed himself, and made upon the subject of the negotiation a very able speech. On the Dutch inquiry, moved by Ld. H., Ld. King spoke uncommonly well. Ld. H. was the more pleased, as it was merely out of friendship to him that he prevailed upon himself to conquer his dread of addressing a public assembly. He is a very young man, very handsome, very awkward, and very shy, but very full of most excellent qualities. He is a good son, a warm and generous friend. His principles, political and religious, are inimical to the actual state of those in force. The first are moderated: he was a lover of liberty even to democracy, and still abhors religion to impiety, but the experience that has corrected him of one excess will cure him of the other, and doubtless he will become very like other people.