Of public affairs the changes have been so varied and rapid that it is difficult to recollect the exact position of things. Bonaparte was repulsed from before Acre, and obliged to return with a diminished and dispirited army into Egypt. The circumstance the most humiliating is that his great name should be coupled with that of the bullying bluster of that charlatan, Sr. Sidney Smith, who has obtained the command of some marines and gun-boats against him in Syria. How fickle is the glory of a hero! That ‘... name at which mankind grew pale’ is now lost in obscurity, and the events in the East, which occupied and tortured the breast of every politician in Europe, are now so overlooked that barely are they discussed in the survey of politics at present.
STATE OF NAPLES
In Italy Suwarrow and ye Austrians have driven out the French; the Cis-Alpine district is returning to the dominion of its former possessors; dear, pretty Florence is restored to its mild sovereign. Lord Nelson has brought back the fugitive monarch to his capital, and Naples now exhibits a scene of revenge, more bloody than the Sicilian Vespers.[10] The hearts of Frenchmen are brought as trophies to a cruel people, who crouched in servile subjection whilst they were too abject to fight their own cause. Ly. Hamilton has not been remiss in adding her quota to the barbarity which enflames every breast. Rome is yet without its Pontiff, and for the happiness of a large portion of the natives of those happy climates it is to be hoped will for ever so remain, as no one can wish to see the restoration of a government founded upon the superstitions of mankind, and burthensome in itself.
An expedition into Holland for the restoration of the Stadtholder has just been undertaken.[11] It commenced ill; a fort was taken with the loss of some officers and five hundred men. Since that the Dutch fleet has surrendered, whether voluntarily or by the treachery of its officers is yet a secret. The Duke of York is to go and take the command. I don’t know how his presence will inspire courage to those troops he absconded with so hastily but a few years back. The expense is said to be so enormous that the income tax, which, by-ye-bye, has fallen short of the calculation, will go to take a fifth, instead of a tenth, of our incomes in future.
Left Bowood, Tuesday, ye 3rd; passed through a richly cultivated, well-built, and populous vale to Wincanton. Passed thro’ Longleat and Stourton; slept at the first town, and arrived here, Sherborne Castle, on Wednesday. It is an old Gothic mansion; the corps de logis was built by Sir Walter Raleigh, who, if one may judge from oral tradition, seemed attached to the spot, as there is a venerable grove planted by his hand and honoured with his name. Upon his death his estates were confiscated, and granted by the narrow-minded pedant, who sacrificed to policy and intrigue his glorious life, to his infamous minion Somerset. Upon his fall they were bestowed upon the singular George Digby, Earl of Bristol,[12] whose adventures form some of the most diverting anecdotes in Clarendon’s history. It has since remained in the Digby family. On the opposite side of the lake are the ruins of the castle of Sherborne, held out by a lady of the family against the dismantling summons of Cromwell. The ground is classic; an eminence called Jerusalem Hill is crowned on the summit with a clump of firs planted by Pope. He was a frequent inmate, and the friend of an affectionate brother and sister, whose affection he has commemorated in an epitaph in Sherborne Church.
LORD WESTMORELAND
We found only Mr. Hoare with Ld. Digby, a brother of Sr. R. Hoare,[13] the owner of Stourhead, a handsome, gentlemanlike young man. The next day Ld. Westmoreland[14] came. He is coarse in mind, manners, and language. The first is overbearing and sanguinary; he appears to be one who thinks strong measures indicate a strong mind, and that vigour denotes intrepidity, whereas in my opinion the reverse is proved, for genuine fortitude inculcates clemency. His manners are those that spring from power engrafted upon a low education, and his language is a symbol of both. I do not wonder he is accused of having sowed the seeds of the late rebellion in Ireland; he seems of a character calculated to irritate wavering loyalty into rebellion. He spoke so brutally of some of the wretched prisoners who had escaped his fury, that my heart beat high with indignation, and even I for a moment felt a movement in behalf of a nation I never liked.
There have been a few newcomers every day; Mr. Newbolt came over to see us. Yesterday Mr. Wingfield,[15] who married Ld. Digby’s sister, arrived. He is like Archibald Hamilton, who, by-the-bye, is now become Ld. A. H.,[16] in person, and unfortunately, in manner resembles Mr. Chaplin,[17] the same precise, deliberate way of speaking.
Since I have been here I have read a Life of Voltaire, written, I believe, by Condorcet. It proves what I was not at all aware of—that Voltaire was really persecuted for his freedom of opinions, and that a timely escape and concealment was necessary to save his liberty at different periods. Absurd and unjust as most of the attacks are against philosophy, as it is called, one must admit that those free principles and the spirit of investigation which pervades all Voltaire’s writings, tended very much to induce people to attempt eradicating prejudices and making reforms before they had well examined into the abuses or prepared a remedy against them. It is without an example in the records of mankind that a single man, unaided by the fanaticism of religious superstition, should have produced such a change in the sentiments of a large bulk of Europe as Voltaire did: one can scarcely say it has been for the better when the devastation of France is now before our eyes. Whatever mischief may have arisen from the freedom of discussion, I think many now living will outlive the practice, as there is an anti-conspiracy to that of which the philosophers are accused now making among the rich and powerful—one that, if pursued with the ardour I see many enter into it with, will inevitably be the ruin of all taste, literature, and civil liberty. The young men of fashion and birth are bit with a military mania; they all aim at attaining a martial air, and a reputation for strictness in their Militia discipline. Without reflecting much, they are persuaded a military force is necessary to keep the people down, and that as religion is co-existent with the State, so it is wise to support it even in its abuses. Fifty years hence I have no hesitation in foretelling that there will be little toleration, a curbed press, a great standing army, and what is called a vigilant government.
BOBUS SMITH