sermon, je vous dirai, sermonnez-moi toujours ainsi; la poësie de votre âme vaut mieux à la mienne que la logique de ma pauvre tête, qui, dans ce genre, après avoir bien travaillé, ne fait guère que substituer des difficultés à des difficultés. Je vous attends avec impatience, mon bon ami, non pas seulement parceque vous voir et causer avec vous est devenu un des plus vifs et des plus précieux besoins de mon cœur et de mon esprit, mais parceque je suis trèstrompé ou il s'ouvre une carrière digne de vous, et propre à donner l'essor à vos grands talens. On m'a fait des propositions à votre sujet qui ne blesseront pas votre délicatesse, puisqu'elles n'ont point effarouché la mienne, et qui vous présagent un nouvel ordre de choses. Je sais ce que votre damnable timidité et votre aimable modestie vont me répondre; mais, mon ami, je vous répéterai pour la millième fois qu'un homme fort doit avoir le sentiment de sa force, et que la sauvagerie n'est pas la modestie, ni la timidité la circonspection. Heureusement on a dans ce pays le très-bon esprit de mettre moins de prix aux graces que partout ailleurs; mais il est cependant une vacillation de contenance qui nuit partout, et le trèspetit et frivole talent de costumer sa personne et son thought to read me a lecture, I will say to you, lecture me ever thus; the poetry of your soul is better for mine than the logic of my poor head, which, on such matters, after having laboured hard, does little more than substitute one difficulty for another. I expect you impatiently, my good friend, not only because to see you and to converse with you is become one of the most lively and precious wants of my heart and mind, but because (unless I much deceive myself) a career is about to be opened to you which is worthy of you, and suited to the exercise of your great talents. Proposals have been made to me on your behalf, which will not offend your delicacy, since mine has not been alarmed by them, and which hold out to you the promise of a new order of things. I know the answer your cursed timidity and amiable diffidence are going to make; but I will repeat to you, my friend, for the thousandth time, that a powerful mind ought to have the consciousness of its own power, and that shyness not modesty, nor want of courage prudence. Fortunately, in this country, people have the great good sense to set less value upon external grace than in any other part of the world, but nevertheless there is a certain want of selfpossession which is injurious everywhere; and the art of setting off the person and demeanour, petty and frivolous as it is, is only to be attitude ne se gagne que dans le monde. Si donc, par des raisons tirées de votre profession, ou de vos projets (car il n'est aucune autre objection admissible lorsqu'on vous appelle au rôle d'homme public sans conditions), vous ne voulez pas accepter les propositions qui vous seront faites, connaissez du moins, et voyez, ceux qui veulent vous les faire. Répandez-vous, voyez, soyez vu, montrez-vous, formez-vous. Tout ce à quoi je me suis engagé c'est à vous amener, parceque je sais qu'un étranger ne peut pas conseiller dans les choses locales; mais je me suis engagé à cela, et vous ne m'en dédirez pas; car, dans un pays libre, dans un pays où il y a une patrie, un citoyen doit conférence à quiconque la lui demande sur des objets d'utilité publique. Tout ceci vous paraîtra peut-être du galimathias, mon ami, mais ce n'est rien moins qui cela, et vous en aurez la clef à la première vue.— Vale, et me ama. LETTER XLI. FROM THE COUNT DE MIRABEAU. [Paris,] 22 Mai, 1785. Pour cette fois, mon bon et cher Romilly, et, sans tirer à conséquence, vous avez tort. acquired in the world. If then, for reasons drawn from your profession or plans in life (for when, unfettered by conditions, you are called upon to take a part in public life, no other reason is admissible), you will not accept the proposals which will be made you, at all events know and see those who wish to make them. Mix in society, see and be seen, show what you are, form yourself. I know that in local matters a foreigner is not a safe adviser, and accordingly all that I have engaged to do is to bring you with me: to so much I am pledged, and you will not deny me; for, in a free country, one which is truly a mother country, a citizen is bound to give audience to any one who may demand it of him on matters of public utility. All this may, perhaps, appear jargon to you, my friend; it is however, nothing less, I assure you, and I will give you the key to it when we meet. Vale, et me ama. LETTER XLI. Paris, May 22, 1785. This time, my good and dear Romilly, (but without any disparagement to you), you are in the wrong. I reached Paris to-night Paris: j'y trouve votre lettre, arrivée de hier: et je n'ai que le temps de vous dire que je viens de faire 300 lieues, composer, imprimer, tirer, et brocher 300 pages à 2000 exemplaires; que ce livre,' bon ou mauvais, mais nécessaire pour sauver un bon ministre, et, qui plus est, une banqueroute de quelques centaines de millions, a été composé, imprimé en pays étranger, rapporté, et mis en état d'être distribué, en moins de cinq semains, parcequ'il devait paraître avant le 1er Juin: que ma tournée, un peu rapide comme vous voyez, se faisait en pays où la moindre chose qui m'eût décelé me faisait pendre ou empaler: que c'est là la raison unique qui m'a empêché d'écrire: que cela m'a si peu empêché de penser à mes amis que ma petite, qui ne m'a rejoint qu'à la fin, et quand j'ai eu besoin d'elle pour la contrebande, a dû écrire trois ou quatre fois ; qu'enfin, en signe de souvenir, il est parti un paquet de cinquante exemplaires de ce livre, où je les rappelle aux ordres de leurs graces MM. Elliot, Romilly, Baynes, Vaughan, et Chauvet. La justification vous paraîtra complète, mon ami, si vous y ajoutez que, le troisiat twelve ; I find your letter, which arrived yesterday; and I have now only time to tell you that I have travelled 300 leagues, composed, printed, struck off, and stitched 2000 copies of 300 pages each; that this book, whether good or bad,—but which was necessary to save a good minister, and, what is more, to prevent a bankruptcy to the extent of some hundreds of millions, has been written, printed in a foreign country (because it was essential that it should appear before the 1st of June), brought back, and got ready for distribution, all in less than five weeks; that my journey, somewhat rapid, as you see, was in a country where the slightest thing which had betrayed me would have sent me to the gallows or the stake; that this has been the only cause of my not writing to you, and has so little prevented me from thinking of my friends, that my little dear, who only joined me towards the end of my expedition, when she was wanted for the smuggling, must have written not less than three or four times; that, to conclude, a parcel containing 50 copies of the book has been sent off, in token of remembrance, to Messrs. Elliot, Romilly, Baynes, Vaughan, and Chauvet, at whose disposal I beg to leave them. My justification will appear to you complete, my friend, if you add that the third day after my arrival from England 1 The work alluded to was probably the one entitled De la Banque d'Espagne, dite de St. Charles, which was suppressed by the French government on the 17th of July, 1785. ème jour après mon arrivée d'Angleterre, j'ai été saisi par cette besogne, le onzième en course, car de fait, mes matériaux une fois ramassés, le livre a été fait dans les auberges; que vos lettres ne me sont parvenues (sauf la vôtre) qu'après des circuits immenses; que deux me galoppent et ne me sont point encore parvenues; que je suis rendu de fatigue plus que motivée par une expédition d'une activité et d'une audace presque sans exemple; qu'enfin, si le prochain courrier je ne suis pas à la Bastille, vous aurez tous trois ou quatre une grande lettre de moi.— N. B. Que si j'y étais, Mde. de * * * le manderait, et qu'il ne faudrait pas beaucoup s'en effrayer. Sur le tout, cher ami, aimez-moi comme je vous aime, et montrez sur-le-champ cette lettre à Elliot et Baynes, car il est temps qu'ils sachent ce qu'ils auraient dû deviner, que j'étais incapable d'une négligence si coupable, et qu'il fallait bien qu'il y eût un dessous de carte qu'ils ignoraient. Vale, et me ama; car je tombe de sommeil, mais j'ai voulu saisir le courrier. Justifiez-moi aussi auprès de M. Vaughan. I was engrossed by this work; that on the eleventh I was on my journey (for, in truth, my materials once collected, the book was written in inns); that all the letters of my English friends, with the exception of your own, made enormous circuits before they reached me, and that two of them are still in pursuit of me; that I am exhausted with fatigue more than accounted for by an expedition almost unexampled for its activity and boldness; and, finally, that, by the very next post, if I am not then in the Bastille, you shall all three or four have a long letter from me.-N.B. That, if I were there, Mde. de***would send you word of it, and there would be no great reason for alarm. To sum up, my friend, love me as I love you, and show this letter forthwith to Elliot and Baynes, for it is time they should know what they ought to have guessed, that I was incapable of such culpable neglect, and that of course there was something behind the scenes of which they were not aware. Vale, et me ama; for I am dropping from my chair with sleep, but I was resolved to save the post. Set me right also with Mr. Vaughan. Sir, LETTER XLII. FROM THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE. Bowood Park, Dec. 25, 1785. I should have thanked you sooner for the favour of your letter, but deferred doing it till I had time to read the book' which accompanied it, with the attention which anything coming from you will always command from me. The principles of penal law is the subject of all others upon which I am most ignorant and most unread. However, your arguments, and the authorities to which you refer, incline me to think that a revision of our penal law is not only desirable, but necessary, for the purpose of making it agreeable to the spirit of the times, and such as can be executed. Mr. Blackburne's plan was stopped during my time at the Treasury. I was assured that, if the number of alehouses could be lessened, the Vagrant Act enforced, and the general administration of justice as it stood invigorated, a great deal might be done without having recourse to any new institution. As Parliament was not sitting, nothing could be done about the public-houses; but a proclamation was issued, and every method tried to bring about the two last, and the effect answered the most sanguine expectation. I see, by a late charge of Mr. Mainwaring's to the grand jury of Middlesex, that those most 'conversant in the police continue of the same opinion. Under these circumstances, it was impossible for me to consent to so great an expenditure upon a plan which I plainly saw had been partially taken up, and the whole of the subject not properly considered. No man would do so in his private affairs; and I still think it would be inexpedient, in the double light of expenditure and punishment, till the measures to which I allude have had a fair and 1 Entitled Observations оп a late Publication, entitled "Thoughts on Executive Justice, by Madan." See antè, p. 64. |