479 ([return])
[ Note 3 R, p. 479. Among other transactions that distinguish the history of Great Britain, scarce a year glides away without producing some incident that strongly marks the singular character of the English nation. A very extraordinary instance of this nature, relating to the late duke of Marlborough, we shall record among the events of this year, although it derived its origin from the latter end of the last, and cannot be properly enumerated among those occurrences that appertain to general history. Towards the end of November, in the preceding year, the above-mentioned nobleman received, by the post, a letter directed “To his Grace the duke of Marlborough, with care and speed,” and containing this address:
“My Lord,—As ceremony is an idle thing upon most occasions, more especially to persons in my state of mind, I shall proceed immediately to acquaint you with the motive and end of addressing this epistle to you, which is equally interesting to us both. You are to know, then, that my present situation in life is such, that I should prefer annihilation to a continuance in it. Desperate diseases require desperate remedies; and you are the man I have pitched upon, either to make me or unmake yourself. As I never had the honour to live among the great, the tenor of my proposals will not be very courtly; but let that be an argument to enforce a belief of what I am now going to write. It has employed my invention for some time, to find out a method of destroying another without exposing my own life: that I have accomplished, and defy the law. Now, for the application of it. I am desperate, and must be provided for. You have it in your power: it is my business to make it your inclination to serve me, which you must determine to comply with, by procuring me a genteel support for my life, or your own will be at a period before this session of parliament is over. I have more motives than one for singling you out upon this occasion; and I give you this fair warning, because the means I shall make use of are too fatal to be eluded by the power of physic. If you think this of any consequence, you will not fail to meet the author on Sunday next, at ten in the morning, or on Monday (if the weather should be rainy on Sunday), near the first tree beyond the stile in Hyde-Park, in the foot-walk to Kensington. Secrecy and compliance may preserve you from a double danger of this sort, as there is a certain part of the world where your death has more than been wished for upon other motives. I know the world too well to trust this secret in any breast but my own. A few days determine me your friend or enemy. “FELTON.
“You will apprehend that I mean you should be alone; and depend upon it, that a discovery of any artifice in this affair will be fatal to you. My safety is insured by my silence, for confession only can condemn me.”
The duke, in compliance with this strange remonstrance, appeared at the time and place appointed, on horseback and alone, with pistols before him, and the star of his order displayed, that he might be the more easily known. He had likewise taken the precaution of engaging a friend to attend in the Park, at such a distance, however, as scarce to be observable. He continued some time on the spot without seeing any person he could suspect of having wrote the letter, and then rode away: but chancing to turn his head when he reached Hyde-Park-Corner, he perceived a man standing at the bridge, and looking at the water, within twenty yards of the tree which was described in the letter. He forthwith rode back at a gentle pace, and, passing by the person, expected to be addressed: but as no advance of this kind was made, he, in repassing, bowed to the stranger, and asked if he had not something to communicate? The man replying, “No, I don’t know you;” the duke told him his name, adding, “Now you know me, I imagine you have something to say to me.” But he still answered in the negative, and the duke rode home. In a day or two after this transaction, another letter was brought to him, couched in the following terms:
“My Lord,—You receive this as an acknowledgment of your punctuality as to the time and place of meeting on Sunday last, though it was owing to you it answered no purpose. The pageantry of being armed, and the ensign of your order, were useless and too conspicuous. You needed no attendant, the place was not calculated for mischief, nor was any intended. If you walk in the west aisle of Westminster Abbey, towards eleven o’clock on Sunday next, your sagacity will point the person whom you will address, by asking his company to take a turn or two with you. You will not fail, on inquiry, to be acquainted with the name and place of abode. According to which direction you will please to send two or three hundred pound bank-notes the next day by the penny post. Exert not your curiosity too early; it is in your power to make me grateful on certain terms. I have friends who are faithful, but they do not bark before they bite.—“I am, &c, F.”
The duke, determining if possible to unveil this mystery, repaired to the Abbey at the time prescribed; and, after having walked up and down for five or six minutes, saw the very same person to whom he had spoken in Hyde-Park, enter the Abbey with another man of a creditable appearance. This last, after they had viewed some of the monuments, went into the choir, and the other turning back advanced towards the duke, who, accosting him, asked him if he had anything to say to him,” or any commands for him? He replied, “No, my lord. I have not.”—“Sure you have,” said the duke; but he persisted in his denial. Then the duke, leaving him, took several turns in the aisle, while the stranger walked on the other side. But nothing further passed between them; and although the duke had provided several persons in disguise to apprehend the delinquent, he forebore giving the signal, that, notwithstanding appearances, he might run no risk of injuring an innocent person. Not long after this second disappointment he received a third letter, to the following effect:
“My Lord,—I am fully convinced you had a companion on Sunday: I interpret it as owing to the weakness of human nature; but such proceeding is far from being ingenuous, and may produce bad effects, whilst it is impossible to answer the end proposed. You will see me again soon, as it were by accident, and may easily find where I go to; in consequence of which, by being sent to, I shall wait on your grace, but expect to be quite alone, and to converse in whispers; you will likewise give your honour, upon meeting, that no part of the conversation shall transpire. These and the former terms complied with ensure your safety; my revenge, in case of non-compliance (or any scheme to expose me), will be slower, but not less sure; and strong suspicion the utmost that can possibly ensue upon it, while the chances would be tenfold against you. You will possibly be in doubt after the meeting, but it is quite necessary the outside should be a mask to the in. The family of the Bloods is not extinct, though they are not in my scheme.”
The expression, “You will see me again soon, as it were by accident,” plainly pointed at the person to whom he had spoke in the park and in the Abbey; nevertheless, he saw him not again, nor did he hear anything further of the affair for two months, at the expiration of which the post brought him the following letter:
“May it please your Grace,—I have reason to believe, that the son of one Barnard, a surveyor, in Abingdon-buildings, Westminster, is acquainted with some secrets that nearly concern your safety: his father is now out of town, which will give you an opportunity of questioning him more privately; it would be useless to your grace, as well as dangerous to me, to appear more publicly in this affair. “Your sincere friend, “ANONYMOUS. “He frequently goes to Storey’s-gate coffee-house.”
In about a week after this intimation was received, the duke sent a person to the coffee-house, to inquire for Mr. Barnard, and tell him he would be glad to speak to him. The message was delivered, and Barnard declared he would wait upon his grace next Thursday, at half an hour after ten in the morning. He was punctual to his appointment, and no sooner appeared than the duke recognised him to be the person to whom he had spoke in the Park and the Abbey. Having conducted him into an apartment, and shut the door, he asked, as before, if he had anything to communicate: and was answered, as formerly, in the negative. Then the duke repeated every circumstance of this strange transaction; to which Barnard listened with attention and surprise, yet without exhibiting any marks of conscious guilt or confusion. The duke observing that it was matter of astonishment to see letters of such import written with the correctness of a scholar; the other replied, that a man might be very poor and very learned at the same time. When he saw the fourth letter, in which his name was mentioned, with the circumstance of his father’s absence, he said, “If is very odd, my father was then out of town.” An expression the more remarkable, as the letter was without date, and he could not, as an innocent man, be supposed to know at what time it was written. The duke having made him acquainted with the particulars, told him, that if he was innocent he ought to use his endeavours-to detect the writer of the letters, especially of the last, in which he was expressely named. To this admonition he returned no other answer but a smile, and then withdrew.—He was afterwards taken into custody, and tried at the Old Bailey,for sending a threatening letter, contrary to the statute; but no evidence could be found to prove the letters were of his handwriting: nor did any presumption appear against him, except his being in Hyde-Park, and in Westminster Abbey, at the time and place appointed in the first two letters. On the other hand, Mr. Barnard proved, that, on the Sunday when he saw the duke in Hyde-Park, he was on his way to Kensington on particular business, by his father’s order, signified to him that very morning: that he accordingly went thither, and dined with his uncle, in company with several other persons, to whom he related what had passed between the duke of Marlborough and him in the Park: that his being afterwards in Westminster Abbey was the effect of mere accident: that Mr. James Greenwood, his kinsman, who had lain that preceding night at his father’s house, desired him to dress himself, that they might walk together in the Park; and he did not comply with his request till after much solicitation: that he proposed to enter the Park without passing through the Abbey, but was prevailed upon by Mr. Greenwood, who expressed a desire of seeing the newly-erected monument of general Hardgrave: that as he had formerly communicated to his friend the strange circumstance of the duke’s speaking to him in Hyde-park, Mr. Greenwood no sooner saw that nobleman in the Abbey, than he gave notice to Mr. Barnard, who was very short-sighted; and that from his passing them several times, concluding he wanted to speak with Mr. Barnard alone, he quitted him and retired into the choir, that they might commune together without interruption. It likewise appeared, from undoubted evidence, that Barnard had often mentioned openly to his friends and acquaintance, the circumstance of what passed between him and the duke in the Park and in the Abbey; that his father was a man of unblemished reputation, and in affluent circumstances; that he himself was never reduced to any want, or such exigence as might impel him to any desperate methods of obtaining money; that his fidelity had been often tried, and his life always irreproachable. For these reasons he was acquitted of the crime laid to his charge, and the mystery remains to this day undiscovered.
After all, the author of the letters does not seem to have had any real design to extort money, because the scheme was very ill calculated for that purpose; and indeed could not possibly take effect without the most imminent risk of detection. Perhaps his aim was nothing more than to gratify a petulance and peculiarity of humour, by alarming the duke, exciting the curiosity of the public, puzzling the multitude, and giving rise to a thousand ridiculous conjectures. If anything more was intended, and the duke earnestly desired to know the extent of the scheme, he might, when he closeted the person suspected, have encouraged him to a declaration, by promising inviolable secrecy on his word and honour, in which any man would have confided as a sacred obligation. On the whole, it is surprising that the death of the duke, which happened in the course of this year, was never attributed to the secret practices of this incendiary correspondent, who had given him to understand that his vengeance, though slow, would not be the less certain.]
485 ([return])
[Note 3 S, p. 485. The next bill that fell under the cognizance of the house, related to a law transaction, and was suggested by a petition presented in the name of the sheriffs, and grantees of post-fines under the crown of England. They enumerated and explained the difficulties under which they laboured, in raising and collecting these fines within the respective counties; particularly when the estate conveyed by fine was no more than a right of reversion, in which case they could not possibly levy the post-fine, unless the purchaser should obtain possession within the term of the sheriffalty, or pay it of his own free will, as they could not distrain while the lands were in possession of the donee. They therefore proposed a method for raising these post-fines, by a proper officer to be appointed for that purpose; and prayed that leave might be given to bring in a bill accordingly. This petition was seconded by a message from the king, importing, that his majesty, as far as his interest was concerned, gave his consent that the house might act in this affair as they should think propel.
The commons, in a committee of the whole house, having taken into consideration the merits of the petition, formed several resolutions; upon which a bill was founded for the more regular and easy collecting, accounting for, and paying of post-fines, which should be due to the crown, or to the grantees thereof under the crown, and for the ease of sheriffs in respect to the same. Before it passed into a law, however, it was opposed by a petition in favour of one William Daw, a lunatic, clerk of the king’s silver office, alleging, that should the bill pass, it would deprive the said Daw and his successors of an ancient fee belonging to his office, on searches made for post-fines by the under sheriffs of the several counties; therefore, praying that such provision might be made for the said lunatic as to the house should seem just and reasonable. This, and divers other petitions respecting the bill being discussed in the committee, it underwent several amendments, and was enacted into a law; the particulars of which cannot be properly understood without a previous explanation of this method of conveying estates; a subject obscure in itself, founded upon a seeming subterfuge of law, scarce reconcileable with the dictates of common sense, and consequently improper for the pen of an historian.]
490 ([return])
[ Note 3 T, p. 490. As the curiosity of the reader may be interested in these resolutions, we shall here insert them for his satisfaction. The committee resolved, that the ell ought to contain one yard and one quarter, according to the yard mentioned in the third resolution of the former committee upon the subject of weights and measures; that the pole, or perch, should contain in length five such yards and a half; the furlong two hundred and twenty; and the mile one thousand seven hundred and sixty: that the superficial perch should contain thirty square yards and a quarter; the rood one thousand two hundred and ten; and the acre four thousand eight hundred and forty: that according to the fourth, fifth, and sixth resolutions of the former committee, upon the subject of weights and measures, agreed to by the house on the second day of June in the preceding year, the quart ought to contain seventy cubical inches and one half; the pint thirty-five and one quarter; the peck five hundred and sixty-four; and the bushel two thousand two hundred and fifty-six. That the several parts of the pound, mentioned in the eighth resolution of the former committee, examined and adjusted in presence of this committee,—viz. the half pound or six ounces, quarter of a pound or three ounces, two ounces, one ounce, two half ounces, the five-penny weight, three-penny weight, two-penny weight, and one-penny weight, the twelve grains, six grains, three grains, two grains, and two of one grain each,—ought to be the models of the several parts of the said pound, and to be used for sizing or adjusting weights for the future. That all weights exceeding a pound should be of brass, copper, bell-metal, or cast-iron; and all those of cast-iron should be made in the form, and with a handle of hammered iron, such as the pattern herewith produced, having the mark of the weight cast in the iron; and all the weights of a pound, or under, should be of gold, silver, brass, copper, or bell-metal. That all weights of cast-iron should have the initial letters of the name of the maker upon the upper bar of the handle; and all other weights should have the same, together with the mark of the weight, according to this standard, upon some convenient part thereof. That the yard, mentioned in the second resolution of the former committee upon the subject of weights and measures, agreed to by the house in the last session, being the standard of length, and the pound mentioned in the eighth resolution, being the standard of weight, ought to be deposited in the court of the receipt of the exchequer, and the chief baron, and the seal of office of the chamberlain of the exchequer, and not to be opened but by the order and in the presence of the chancellor of the exchequer and chief baron for the time being. That the most effectual means to ascertain uniformity in measures of length and weight, to be used throughout the realm, would he to appoint certain persons, at one particular office, with clerks and workmen under them, for the purpose only of fixing and adjusting, for the use of the subjects, all measures of length, and all weights, being parts, multiples, or certain proportions of the standards to be used for the future. That a model or pattern of the said standard yard, mentioned in the second resolution of the former committee, and now in the custody of the clerk of the house, and a model or pattern of the standard pound, mentioned in the eighth resolution of that committee, together with models or patterns of the parts of the said pound now presented to the house, and also of the multiples of the said pound, mentioned in this report (when the same are adjusted), should be kept in the said office, in custody of the said persons to be appointed for sizing weights and measures, under the seal of the chief baron of the exchequer for the time being; to be opened only by order of the said chief baron, in his presence, or the presence of one of the barons of the exchequer, on the application of the said persons, for the purpose of correcting and adjusting, as occasion should require, the patterns or models used at the said office, for sizing measures of length and weight delivered out to the subjects. That models or patterns of the said standard yard and standard pound aforesaid, and also models or patterns of the parts and multiples aforesaid of the said pound, should be lodged in the said office for the sizing of such measures of length or weight, as, being parts, multiples, or proportions of the said standards, should hereafter he required by any of his majesty’s subjects. That all measures of length and weight, sized at the said office, should be marked in some convenient part thereof, with such marks as should be thought expedient, to show the identity of the measures and weights sized at the said office, and to discover any frauds that may be committed therein. That the said office should he kept within a convenient distance of the court of exchequer at Westminster; and all the measures of length and weight, within a certain distance of London, should be corrected and re-assized, as occasion should require, at the said office. That, in order to enforce the uniformity in weights and measures to be used for the future, all persons appointed by the crown to act as justices of the peace in any county, city, or town corporate, being respectively counties within themselves, throughout the realm, should be empowered to hear and determine, and put the law in execution, in respect to weights and measures only, without any of them being obliged to sue out a dedimus, or to act in any other matter; and the said commissioners should be empowered to sue, imprison, inflict, or mitigate such penalties as should be thought proper; and have such other authorities as should be necessary for compelling the use of weights and measures, agreeably to the aforesaid standards. The models or patterns of the said standard yard and pound, and of the parts and multiples thereof, before-mentioned, should be distributed in each county, in such a manner as to be readily used for evidence in all eases where measures and weights should be questioned before the said commissioners, and for adjusting the same in a proper manner.]
504 ([return])
[ Note 3 U, p. 504. The letter was to this effect: To their excellencies Messrs. Hopson and Moore, general officers of his Britannic Majesty at Basseterre. “Gentlemen—I have received the letter which your excellencies have done me the honour to write, of the twenty-fifth. You make me proposals which could arise from nothing but the facility with which you have got possession of the little town and citadel of Basseterre; for otherwise you ought to do me the justice to believe they could not be received. You have strength sufficient to subdue the exteriors of the island; but with respect to the interiors, the match between us is equal. As to the consequences that may attend my refusal, I am persuaded they will be no other than such as are prescribed by the laws of war. Should we be disappointed in this particular, we have a master powerful enough to revenge any injury we may sustain. “I am, with respect, “Gentlemen, “Your most obedient servant, “Nadau D’Etreil.” It is pretty remarkable, that the apprehension of cruel usage from the English, who are undoubtedly the most generous and humane enemies under the sun, not only prevailed among the common French soldiery throughout this whole war, but even infected officers of distinction, who ought to have been exempted from these prejudices, by a better acquaintance with life, and more liberal turn of thinking.]
505 ([return])
[ Note 3 X, p. 505. The reasons assigned by the commodore for his conduct in this particular are these:—The bay of Dominique was the only place in which he could rendezvous and unite his squadron. Here he refreshed his men, who were grown sickly in consequence of subsisting on salt provisions. Here he supplied his ships with plenty of fresh water. Here he had intercourse once or twice every day with general Barrington, by means of small vessels which passed and repassed from one island to the other. By remaining in this situation, he likewise maintained a communication with the English Leeward Islands, which being in a defenceless condition, their inhabitants were constantly soliciting the commodore’s protection; and here he supported the army, the commander of which was unwilling that he should remove to a greater distance. Had he sailed to Port-Royal, he would have found the enemy’s squadron so disposed, that he could not have attacked them, unless M. de Bompart had been inclined to hazard an action. Had he anchored in the bay, all his cruisers must have been employed in conveying provisions and stores to the squadron. There he could not have procured either fresh provisions or water; nor could he have had any communication with, or intelligence from, the army in the Leeward Islands, in less than eight or ten days.]