Peace with France was concluded on May 27, 1802. Pitt had been thought by the younger members of his party to give way too much to Henry Addington, whose father’s profession gave him the nickname of “the Doctor.” Addington’s was more or less a Coalition Government. A Coalition Government is a Government which sinks all differences in face of great national danger. When the danger is past it may become in itself a danger.
Peace having been declared the fashionable world of London immediately proceeded to Paris.
Lady Melbourne did not leave England. She received from
her friends many accounts of the doings in the French Capital. They seem to have been
frivolous enough and remind us in some measure of the days in Paris after the Armistice of
1918. With this difference, however, that in 1802 Paris and Bonaparte stood in the same relationship to us as Berlin and the Kaiser
might have in 1918. Bonaparte, it is true, was looked upon as a
usurper and a murderer, but just as ladies have been known to offer their hands to famous
criminals condemned to
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It must have been a strange medley in Paris. Lady Holland, Charles Fox and his wife, formerly Mrs. Armistead, went there together. Fox had had relations with Mrs. Armistead before his marriage to her, which took place in 1795, but was not announced till 1802.
Lady Holland, proud of her relationship with the great man, was obliged to accept the presence of his wife. English nobility fraternized with General Massena, called “l’Enfant de la Victoire” by his master,2 with General Menou,3 and General Moreau,4 who was defeated by Sir Ralph Abercromby at the battle of Alexandria in March 1801, and General Andreossi, afterwards Ambassador at the Court of St. James’s.
Lady Holland had mentioned Andreossi in a letter to Lady Melbourne, who answered her on October 15, 1802:
“I shall have great pleasure in making Gen.
1 George Howard, afterwards 6th Earl of Carlisle. 2 Andre Massena, due de Rivoli, Maréchal de France, 1756-1817. 3 Jacques Francois de Menou (1750-1810) commanded the army in Egypt after the assassination of Kleber. 4 Jean Victor Moreau, 1703-1818. |
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Therese Cabarrus1 gave great dinners to the English gentlemen. It is hardly likely that the ladies called upon this famous beauty, “Notre Dame de Thermidor,” who like the woman of Samaria had had many husbands, but he whom she had then was not her husband. She had married in 1778 the Marquis de Fontenay, who divorced her in 1793. After this, in 1794, she married Tallien the Girondist. He divorced her in 1802. Barras, the Deputy whose heart was softened by Marie Antoinette on the journey from Varennes, became her admirer.
Lady Oxford, who was the wife of the 5th Earl of Oxford and whose children were called the “Harleian Miscellany,”1 was there with her strange cavaliere servente, Arthur O’Connor, an Irish Rebel who had sat in the Irish parliament for Philipstown, and, later, joining Napoleon’s Army, had been created General. Then there
1 “La Caberus” of Carlyle’s French Revolution. 2 Harley, the family name of the Oxfords. |
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All these figures crowd the canvas of the picture drawn by Sir Robert Adair,1 the intimate friend of Charles James Fox, and one of Lady Melbourne’s most devoted admirers. It would be interesting to know what Bonaparte thought of English Society.
On September 27 Robert Adair wrote to Lady Melbourne:
“First of all let me say how rightly I think you judged respecting a message from the Duchess of Devonshire through me. It was all that could be desired, and would have been taken most kindly, but I have received no authority, & to tell you the truth do not expect any, for my name seems to be the signal of oblivion with a
1 The last surviver of Fox’s friends, died 1855. |
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“The Duchess of Cumberland has behaved most infamously, saying and doing all manner of ill-natured things.
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“To finish with lady H[olland], I am sorry to confess that I could not have done without her at Paris. I requested the Duchess, as the only favour she had it in her power to confer upon me, to give me letters. She promised them, with the greatest apparent joy to think she could do anything to please me. From that time to this I have heard nothing about them, and not being a very forward person, should undoubtedly have found no means of introduction whatever had it not been for lady Holland. I own I had rather have been indebted to the Duchess, but I cannot be ungrateful where I have received favours.
“I wrote a few words to the Duchess by Sir Francis
Baring. I had before written to lady
Eliz[abeth] Foster, and given her some account of a dinner we
had at Madme. Cabarrus’s. In my
letter to her I did not say a word about O’Connor, but between my writing to lady
E. & my writing to the duchess, it was all about Paris that
Mr. Fox had brought him in his hand,
& introduced him as his particular friend. Such an abominable lie made me
determine to contradict it, so I wrote to the duchess, to state the fact
exactly as it was. It seems that O’Connor is
travelling about with lady Oxford, in
company with a strange sort of a man whom she has with her to teach her Greek,
having heard, I suppose, that it is nothing for a lady to have a turn for
philosophy & metaphysicks unless she can read the Greek alphabet. From her
rank, & her pretended enthusiasm with respect to Fox,
Madme. Cabarrus thought she could not do better than
to invite her, & lady O[xford] thought she could do
nothing so well as to invite O’Connor. She brought
him therefore, greatly to the annoyance
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“Among other great men who are walking about the
streets of Paris just now, I fell in the other day with General Massena; and of him I will mention an
anecdote which he himself acknowledged to Mr.
Fox was true. Within ten days of his Capitulation of Genoa, an
Austrian General
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In her anger at what she feared was the failure of her hopes, the Duchess of Gordon seems to have suspected Adair of having made mischief, and he wrote her a letter which she would not forget in a hurry and of which he afterwards sent Lady Melbourne a copy. On October 2 he writes to Lady Melbourne:
“You will hardly believe that the Duchess of Gordon persecutes me even here. She
sent me a message by Gen. Fitzpatrick,
the substance of which was that she had received a letter from the D[uke] of Bedford, disavowing everything I had
said in his name. The Gen[eral] told her that if she desired it he would
certainly deliver her message, but that he was quite sure I had never said
anything, purporting to be by the D[uke] of B[edford]’s authority, without having had such authority. Soon after that, I
received
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“I asked Fox
yesterday about his Election to the Institute. He says he knows nothing more
about it than that La Place & some
of the great literary men told him it was intended. I have no doubt that it
will be so. If any body should abuse Fox for receiving these & other distinctions (I say receiving for he does not in the least covet them) tell him to come & live a short time in Paris, &
see with his own eyes the necessity of there being some leading man in the
Councils of England to whom France can look up for the preservation of Peace. I
promise you that War is half declared with the present incapable Ministers, who
are just able to irritate but much too weak to encounter France or gain any
point over her. Addington and his little
council of youngsters will be receiving continued insults from France, &
when they can submit no longer they will go to War about a straw. If
Fox were Minister, Buonaparte could not quarrel with him without rendering his
views plain to the world, and quarrelling with all the publick opinion of his
own country at the same time. And do
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It may be added that when Lord John, afterwards 6th Duke of Bedford, whose first wife had died in 1801, came over to Paris with, it was alleged, a dying message from his brother to Lady Georgiana Gordon, her astute mother seized the opportunity and soon made her daughter Duchess of Bedford after all. Even death seemed unable to defeat her matrimonial purposes.
As the weeks went by the letters from Paris grew even more interesting.
More friends left England and wrote to Whitehall, picturing the
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“Lady Georgiana
Gordon appeared out of mourning last night; the D[uche]ss is at home almost
every evening & I suppose she may be glad herself to let things be forgotten. She has
chose to take up a tone of great civility to me; I shall go to her in an evening sometimes
for Caro’s sake. Paris is going to be very gay;
hitherto it has been like a new world, & I much fear to me will continue so for I
cannot accustom myself to being at Paris & not seeing one face I had ever seen
before—the Consul’s. Talleyrand, & I
believe Berthier, are going to open their
houses—but even there I am told the society will only consist of foreigners, &
some Bankers & Avocats wives. The only Woman I wish to know is Madame Cabarrus & her I must not. Mr.
Robinson is very much smitten I think with her—tell him you have heard
so—she is a singular person certainly. If any English person wants to know Tallien she invites him to dinner—if
Tallien is invited to dinner of a Sunday, he says no he
can’t, ‘je consacre ce jour-là à ma
famille,’ and this family is the wife he is divorced from & children
none of wh[om] are his. But he persists in calling her Madme
Tallien:—but then she is amiable, generous, delightful I am sure—but
I am told it is impossible to go—&
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George Robinson wrote on November 21, 1802:
I am very foolish in not having written to you before, not that there is much here worth writing about, but it would have entitled me to a letter from you, which at all times, & particularly while I am at such a distance, would be most interesting. I am much obliged to you for your letter to M[a]d[am]e Recamier. She is just come to Paris, & I have left it at her house, but have not yet seen her. L[ad]y Elizabeth Foster] will probably have written you all the news of the society here, & of publick news we have very little, the people seem satisfied with their present government, more from a fear of the horrors which might attend another change than from attachment to Bonaparte. I observ’d at the play a few nights ago that two or three passages which might be obviously applied were very much applauded. One of the passages was (in Voltaire’s Œdipe):
Un prêtre quelqu’il soit, quelque Dieu qui
l’inspire, Doit prier pour ses rois, et non pas les
maudire. |
WHIG SOCIETY IN PARIS | 53 |
Comme il était sans crainte, il marchait sans
défense: Par l’amour de son peuple il se croyait
garde. |
Notre crédulité fait toute leur
science. |
They probably never will get over their aversion to priests
though they may to Kings, & I daresay if they cou’d slide quietly
into a limited monarchy they wou’d have no objection, though very few
wou’d wish to risque another revolution—& France compared to
what it was four or five years ago, is in a state of happiness and prosperity.
I hope a rupture with England will not take place but from what I hear,
le petit bon homme is very
sore about english newspapers & the speeches which will probably be made at
the meeting of parliament will irritate him. Mr.
Fox has been illiberally treated in a Jacobinical paper printed
here in English called the Argus, but it is too contemptible a gazette to pay any
regard to it, and I hope there is no one here now, who wou’d think it
right to answer it. I saw Mr. Fox several times during the
short time he staid here after our arrival, & am very sorry he &
Mrs. Fox are gone. The D[uche]ss of Gordon has taken their apartments;
she has been very courteous to L[ad]y
Elizabeth and ask’d all our petite société to a party on Thursday & a
ball tomorrow,—‘pug of late so kind is grown’ However
this is fortunate, for if she had been for war Ly. E[lizabeth
Foster] wou’d
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And Lord and Lady Conyngham, who had been the lovely Henrietta Denison, in the full lustre of her blonde beauty and matchless complexion, they, too, were in Paris. Lady Melbourne hears that the English ladies at Madame Recamier’s ball looked to great advantage, and that they were certainly much better dressed than the French. Also that Lady Conyngham was much the handsomest woman in Paris and eclipsed them all. The writer thinks
“that Bonaparte’s taste for some of the English who are here has improved the dress of the Women. They are not near so uncover’d as they were—unluckily some English women chuse to dress in the extreme also—but none that can lead at all. We saw Madame Cabarrus the other night: she disappoints at first from her excessive paleness, but her countenance lights up when she speaks, & she is then very handsome.”
Frederick Foster went to the ball and says:
“We have been very gay lately. Last night we went to a Ball at M[adam]e Recamier’s, it was a very pretty one & lasted till 5 in the morning. Vestris1 danced & most excessively well, & there
1 Famous French ballet dancer (1729-1808). He is reported to have said, “There are but three great men in Europe—the King of Prussia, Voltaire and I.” |
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1 MS. damaged. |
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George Robinson apologizes later for not writing more often, but said he thought it was the fuss about letters which had given him such an aversion to the post. “Everyone who goes to London is loaded with requests,” he says. “Dear Mr. Green do you know of anyone who is going—can he take our letters—what a delightful man etc.!”
It would seem as if London must have been empty in those winter days; but Lady Melbourne sat at home in her room called a boudoir in these times, but which the Whig ladies would have called her “dressing-room.” She knew that she had done well in remaining with her finger on the pulse of public affairs at home, and was perhaps not sorry that the Argus eyes of some of her cronies could not pierce through the mist surrounding certain schemes she was fostering. The Duchess of Devonshire was also in England, and from Paris Lady Melbourne was told, “You probably have heard all that passes at Devonshire House, as the Duchess must make much of you just now, being the only one of the Sweet Loves left her,” alluding to her gushing way of speaking to the women who surrounded her.
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The Duchess and Lady Melbourne were glad that they had remained in England. The Addington Ministry had become contemptible. Pitt was chafing at his inaction; Fox had returned to the House of Commons, and his speech on November 24 on the subject of France and England was, according to Mr. Creevy’s mind, “perfect.”
At Christmas the Duchess of Devonshire wrote from Hardwick complaining of being kept there so long by the Duke’s illness, which she impatiently says was caused by his imprudence; like many another wife she ascribed the length of time they spent in London to her husband’s love for town. But she showed herself anxious enough to be back there on account of the political situation.
“You will already know that we are kept in this melancholy place, (tho not uncomfortable) by the Duke having the gout in both feet & knees. He was not able to be mov’d from his bed for two days but gives me hopes to-day, as he slept better. He was taken ill at Londesboro’ & we were very anxious to get him at once to Chatsworth, where, when he is in his own appartment, everything is on the same floor, & now that stoves are made in the passage to the drawing room he need never be in the cold. But he thought himself able to proceed & had left papers here.
“I do not suppose we shall stay above six weeks, he
will be so uneasy at being confind
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“I ask yr. pardon for this long bore but it is impossible not to be very anxious & also vex’d to see a man throw away such a constitution. If you reflect on the life he leads & recollect how well you saw him at Bath, Brocket & afterward, you will allow that he might be what he would except the gout which also I think he might lessen or alleviate by management.
“Caro Pon1 calls this purgatory & Chatsworth Paradise, & we do wander about like uneasy souls.
“I agree with you that Mr. Foxes career has been perfect, & his speech beyond all expectation (not as to goodness but as to his con-
1Caroline Ponsonby, daughter of Lord and Lady Bessborough, married William Lamb in 1805. |
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“As to these Ministers, with all their absurdities one must feel too oblig’d to them to abuse them, but I don’t think they can go on long—for after such good fortune as they have had, one may rejoice in but not admire their terms, & they are likely to get into scrapes I think.
“Do not you therefore think we may at least see Mr. Fox in office? It is not only my ardent wish from my opinion of him independent of my love for him, but I have 1,000 reasons for wishing it.
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