[27] This account of Lady Hamilton has been considered by some readers to depreciate even her external advantages. It may be worth while to observe that Goethe’s judgment of her singing some fourteen years earlier (Italiänische Reise, May 27, 1787) quite agrees with that of the text: ‘Darf ich mir eine Bemerkung erlauben, die freilich ein wohlbehandelter Gast nicht wagen sollte, so muss ich gestehen dass mir unsere schöne Unterhaltende doch eigentlich als ein geistloses Wesen vorkommt, die wohl mit ihrer Gestalt bezahlen, aber durch keinen seelenvollen Ausdruck der Stimme, der Sprache sich geltend machen kann. Schon ihr Gesang ist nicht von zusagender Fülle.’—Ed.
[28] Mr. Elliot must have been a little too easily satisfied with his information; which under the circumstances is not very much to be wondered at. When Lord Nelson reached Hamburg there was no frigate waiting for him there, and he had to wait, I think, several days before one arrived.—Ed.
[29] It is sometimes curious and instructive to contrast the records of the same events. Here is the stately historical record of the sojourn at Dresden, as given in Pettigrew’s very serviceable Memoirs of Lord Nelson, vol. i. p. 388:—‘In two days he reached Dresden, where Mr. Elliot was British Minister. Prince Xavier, the brother of the Elector of Saxony, here visited Nelson. The celebrated Dresden Gallery was thrown open for his inspection and his friends’, and they remained eight days in the city, admiring its worthy beauties and receiving entertainments at the Court, and when they took their departure, gondolas magnificently fitted up were in readiness to convey them to Hamburg.’—Ed.
[30] There are various scandalous memoirs, both in French and German, of Prince Henry’s life at Rheinsberg, which I know only by name; one, printed at Paris, ascribed, but falsely, to Mirabeau. On a visit to Paris, in 1784, he was present at a sitting of the French Academy, and was hailed there by Marmontel as ‘la Vertu couronnée de gloire.’—Ed.
[31] Beurnonville, born in 1752, distinguished himself at Valmy and Gemappes. Being sent by the Convention to arrest Dumouriez, he, with the four Commissioners who accompanied him, was by him arrested and delivered to the Austrians. Recovering his liberty by an exchange, he was, in 1800, sent as Minister or Ambassador to Berlin. Having taken service with the Bourbons at the first Restoration, he adhered to them during the Hundred Days, and for this fidelity was largely rewarded. He died in 1817, a Marquis and a Marshal of France.
[32] Gentz’s able political writings in the early part of this century, and his discreditable connexion with Fanny Elssler in his old age, have made him too well known to need any notice here.—Ed.
[33] Antony, Count Rivarol, was born in 1753, and made literature his profession. His discourse On the Causes of the Universality of the French Language was crowned by the Berlin Academy in 1784, and still keeps its place as a valuable contribution to the history of the French language. He fled from the Revolution, first to Hamburg and then to Berlin, where he died rather suddenly in 1801, aged 47. A sketch of his life and character, by M. Berville, prefixed to his Mémoires, Paris, 1824, exactly bears out this account of him.—Ed.
[34] Mary Leadbeater, a member of the Society of Friends, resided at Ballitore, a village in the county of Kildare, in great part a colony of Friends; and like so many other spots in Ireland where they dwelt in large numbers, a centre of order and civilization to all the county round. Zealous in all good works, and the mistress of a graceful and ready pen, she exerted herself to the best interest of the Irish people. Her Cottage Dialogues, the most useful and popular of her works, still maintain their place. She died in 1826, aged sixty-eight.—Ed.
[35] Annals of Ballitore, referred to already, p. 132.—Ed.
[36] Among a few memoranda made by my father during his detention in France, I have found one of a somewhat later date, expressing exactly the same conviction of the effects which the Revolution had exercised on the moral character of the people. ‘We have observed continually amongst the middle and lower orders of the French, that those who have been educated since the Revolution have a degree of illiberality in all their transactions, accompanied with an insatiable desire of present gain, even at the expense of permanent advantage, and a want of urbanity in their manners, which are by no means to be found in those of a generation before. We have often seen the mother rebuked, at least in looks, when by a direct and honest answer she has cut short the hesitating, over-reaching prevarication of the daughter. I might make a similar observation on the difference between men and women; and I have so often smarted in addressing myself to youth and the female sex in their magasins, that I now, when I wish to avoid being cheated, apply to the men in preference to the women, and even to the old in preference to the young. “La jeunesse veut gagner,” or in other words, “tromper” seems to be their motto.’—Ed.