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 JOHN HOOKHAM FRERE 
 
 AND HIS FRIENDS. ^ BY 
 
 GABRIELLE FESTING. ^ -* 
 
 X)NDON : JAMES NISBET & CO., LTD. 
 
 21, BERNERS STREET. 1899. *>
 
 PRINTED BY 
 
 HAZELL, WATSON, AND VINEY, LD. 
 LONDON AND AYLESBURY.
 
 DA 
 gr& 5 
 
 Be&ication. 
 
 TO 
 
 MRS. MERIVALE, 
 
 JOHN HOOKHAM FRERE'S NIECE, 
 
 LADY ERROLL'S GOD-DAUGHTER. 
 
 653509
 
 PREFACE 
 
 IT is impossible to let this book go forth without trying 
 to express my gratitude for the help and advice 
 afforded by those whom I consulted while writing it. 
 
 Mr. William Rossetti generously placed at my disposal 
 the whole of the correspondence between his father and 
 J. H. Frere, and his own valuable notes in explanation 
 of it He also revised the MS. of Chapter XV. 
 
 Some of Lady Erroll's letters have already appeared 
 in Longmaris Magazine under the title of " Love- 
 Letters of a Lady of Quality." They are here reproduced 
 by permission of Messrs. Longman. Temple Bar 
 published selections from some other letters addressed 
 to J. H. Frere as " An Ambassador's Letter-Bag." Mr. 
 Murray has kindly allowed me to reprint any of Canning's 
 letters that appeared in my article in the Quarterly 
 Review for July 1897. 
 
 My thanks are also due to Mrs. Merivale for many 
 suggestions and corrections ; to Mr. Frere for the loan 
 of all the MSS. at Roydon ; to Miss A. Frere and Miss 
 S. Frere for allowing me to look through their collection 
 of letters ; to Mr. W. E. Frere for the loan of papers,
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 and for permission to quote from the " Life of J. H. Frere," 
 of which his father was part-author ; to the representatives 
 of Sir Bartle Frere for a similar permission, and for leave 
 to print some of the letters in Chapter XVI. ; to Mr. 
 A. H. Frere, and to all other members of the family who 
 have shown a kindly interest in my labours. 
 
 The extracts from Lady Erroll's letters are due to 
 Mrs. Frere, who deciphered and copied several hundred 
 sheets, Lady ErroU's writing being almost illegible to 
 the ordinary reader. Mr. E. H. Coleridge has kindly 
 permitted me to use the letters from his grandfather in 
 Chapter XL 
 
 GABRIELLE FESTING. 
 
 August, 1899.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTORY I 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 FAMILY LETTERS. 1774 l8oi 3 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 LIFE IN THE PENINSULA. l8oo 1803 . . . . 15 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING 27 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. l8oo 1806 . . 64 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO . . . Io8 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO (continued} . 13! 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. l8oo 1808 .... 150 
 
 ix
 
 x CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 1815 . . 1 62 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SOCIETY IN 1809 l8l6 185 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A DELICATE SITUATION. 1820 204. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS: COLERIDGE AND SOUTHEY . .217 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 LETTERS TO AN EXILE. 1820 1845 .... 235 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE LAST OF CANNING 252 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AN APOSTLE OF THE JEWS : JOSEPH WOLFF . . .274 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS : GABRIELE ROSSETTI . . . . 294 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 EXEUNT OMNES . . . ... . . . 343
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 MOST of the letters given in this volume were found 
 in an old chest in a library. Their existence had 
 almost been forgotten, and from their appearance it seemed 
 as if they had been flung there, after a perfunctory sorting, 
 to wait for a time when some one should be at leisure to 
 examine them. The three letters from Nelson fell out of a 
 packet labelled " Miscellaneous, of no importance," and the 
 most interesting of those from Canning lay with papers of 
 no value, strewn in utter confusion about the chest. 
 
 After arranging and reading them, it was discovered 
 that many of the letters were interesting either from the 
 personality of the writers, or from the circumstance that 
 they reflected the manners and customs of a bygone day. 
 Such records now seem better appreciated by the general 
 public than was the case a few years ago ; and it is 
 therefore hoped that a selection from the Frere MSS. may 
 prove attractive to others besides members of the family. 
 
 These letters having for the most part been addressed 
 to one man, the Right Honourable John Hookham Frere, 
 it has been thought advisable to follow the story of his 
 life. At the same time this is in no sense of the word 
 a biography ; the memoir by his nephews, Sir Bartle and 
 W. E. Frere, has done everything that was necessary to 
 show the world what manner of man he was. But at the 
 time this memoir was written, it would have been impossible 
 
 i
 
 2 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 to publish many of the letters given in these pages, and 
 it is doubtful whether the greater number of them were 
 then known to be in existence. 
 
 All letters are reproduced as the writers penned them, 
 with some necessary omissions, but no alterations. The 
 punctuation has been occasionally supplemented (especially 
 in the case of Lady Erroll, who once performs the feat of 
 writing a letter almost without stops), to make the sense 
 clearer. The original spelling has been faithfully repro- 
 duced, even in the letters from India, in which each 
 correspondent has his own fashion of rendering the names 
 of persons and places.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FAMILY LETTERS. 
 
 1774 1 80 1 
 
 " The Flanches on our field of gules 
 Denote, by known heraldic rules, 
 A race contented and obscure, 
 In mediocrity secure, 
 By sober parsimony thriving, 
 For their retired existence striving ; 
 By well-judged purchases and matches 
 Far from ambition and debauches : 
 Such was the life our fathers led ; 
 Their homely leaven, deep inbred, 
 In our whole moral composition 
 Confines us to the like condition." 
 
 SO wrote John Hookham Frere when requested by his 
 brother to furnish a motto for a Frere Parentalia. 
 The " known heraldic rules " were of his own invention, but 
 the lines are an excellent description of his ancestors for 
 many generations. Although the family of Frere can be 
 traced from a certain Richard le Frere who fought under 
 the banner of the Conqueror, no member of it seems 
 to have attained to eminence before the time of John 
 Hookham Frere himself. They were quiet country squires, 
 with a happy faculty for marrying heiresses. 
 
 Frere's father, also John Frere, Fellow of Caius College, 
 Cambridge, was celebrated as having contested the Senior 
 Wranglership with Paley in 1763. His fluency and 
 
 3
 
 4 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 dexterity had created a favourable impression, which was 
 overcome by the "general disgust" excited by his self- 
 confidence and overbearing manner, " till he very happily 
 apologised for it in the thesis to his second act." Some 
 of the Fellows of Caius College accused the Moderators 
 of partiality when the lists were published, but Frere 
 came forward and at once acknowledged that Paley was 
 the better man. From various sources we gather that 
 Frere was tall and handsome, with bright blue eyes, 
 which his eldest son inherited. His temper was quick, 
 but his disposition was affectionate, and his manners 
 were singularly charming, even in an age that prided 
 itself upon its courtesy. 
 
 In 1768 he married Jane, only child of John Hookham. 
 Through her mother she was descended from Mary Dee, 
 the great-niece of Queen Elizabeth's John Dee, and among 
 the wealth that she brought to her husband was the 
 astrologer's silver cup. It was shown at the Tudor 
 Exhibition a few years ago, and legends were told of its 
 use by the doctor in his experiments ; but nothing of 
 this would have been believed by practical Mrs. Frere, 
 who employed it for domestic purposes. In a letter to her 
 son Bartle, she says, " My great thrice Great Uncle (was) 
 John Dee, who, because he was a wise man, was taken 
 for a Conjurer. I have his Silver Cup now here with me 
 and you may drink of it ; but I know no Story in the 
 Family that he ever divined by it. It serves me here 
 for a Sugar bason." 
 
 The young heiress, although Ladies' Colleges were 
 unknown in her day, had read and studied as profoundly, 
 if not perhaps as widely, as any of her great-grand- 
 daughters. History and Divinity were the principal 
 subjects of her reading, both in French and English. She 
 composed ponderous verse, both in her waking and sleeping
 
 FAMILY LETTERS. 5 
 
 hours,* but she had none of the ways of the typical literary 
 or intellectual lady, and ruled her household and brought 
 up her children with unfailing vigour. She also dabbled 
 in medicine, and in her letters to her sons occasionally 
 prescribes some gruesome compound, which one hopes 
 they did not think it necessary to take. She had lost 
 her mother at the age of five, and the step-mother who 
 entered the house seven years later had no children to 
 ict as companions or rivals. Perhaps it was not wonderful 
 that she grew up strong-willed and masterful, although 
 sensible and clever. Some letters from her step-mother 
 are still in existence. They deal chiefly with matters of 
 dress, advice as to which gowns the young lady shall bring 
 up to London with her, etc., etc., and are such as a mother 
 might write to a daughter with whom she was on perfectly 
 good terms, save for the fact that they begin " My dear 
 Miss Hookham? 
 
 Tradition says that Jane Hookham was beautiful ; and 
 a portrait now at Roydon, representing a young lady in 
 white, with a basket of flowers in her hand, and a little 
 dog at her feet, has a sufficiency of good looks for an 
 heiress. There must have been many suitors for her hand, 
 and she has left a curious paper in which she gives at 
 length her reasons for declining a match that her friends 
 deemed advantageous. The disparity of years, assigned 
 amongst them, does not seem great between a girl of 
 eighteen and a man of thirty, especially when we know 
 that her own daughter at twenty married a man of forty- 
 two. But Miss Hookham's rejected lover was a Roman 
 Catholic, which, in itself, was a sufficient obstacle to such 
 a sound Tory and Church woman, and although he could 
 have given her a title, she protested that the thought of 
 being styled " My Lady " had no charms for her. John 
 * A paper is headed " Verses composed by me in my Sleep."
 
 6 J. ;H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Frere's blue eyes may have influenced her resolution, for 
 she became his wife at the age of nineteen. 
 
 John Hookham Frere was their eldest son, but there 
 were six other sons and two daughters, who were brought 
 up at Bedington in Surrey, their mother's property, and at 
 Roydon Hall in Norfolk, which had been purchased by 
 their grandfather, Sheppard Frere. 
 
 Mrs. Frere was a rigid moralist, but possessed some 
 sense of the ridiculous. There is a letter to her husband 
 (undated, but evidently written before June 1774, when 
 Lord Stanley married Lady Elizabeth Hamilton), des- 
 cribing a F$te Champetre given by Lord Stanley, which 
 contrasts amusingly with the garden-parties given in these 
 days in honour of a fiancte. 
 
 " My Dear Love, 
 
 . . . The entertainment last Night was extremely 
 Magnificent and Elegant, and everything conducted with 
 utmost regularity without Noise or Confusion. The 
 Company assembled at 7, Ld. Stanley receiving them 
 at y Entrance of y e Garden (the Duke of Argyle 
 and Family were his Guests). They were all pre- 
 sented with Nosegays by Boys habited as Cupids, and 
 when they were introduced into the Gardens, Messrs. 
 Vernon, Bartlemen, etc., welcomed them to these rural 
 abodes, and thanked them for Honouring them by there 
 (sic) presence ; they then proceed'd to all kind of Rustic 
 Sports, Running, Leaping, Skittles, Shooting with Bows 
 and Arrows, and some foreign Games of the same kind. 
 
 The gardens, Pavillion, etc., were Illuminated in a very 
 Splendid Stile about 10 o'clock, and then Dancing in the 
 Principal Tent succeed'd ; they enter'd it by a Vestibule 
 which open'd into the Marquee (I think is the Military 
 name for it), which was of a Circular Form, and as Briliant
 
 FAMILY LETTERS. 7 
 
 as Lamps and the most expensive decorations could make 
 it. Round this was y e Supper Room separated from it 
 by Curtains between the Pillars which when y c Entertain- 
 ment was ready were drawn up in an instant and united 
 the two Apartments ; they were however let down again 
 when the Company were seated to prepare for the Opera, 
 and when they were drawn up, one Composed for and 
 suited to the occasion, was perform'd ; after which a Mr. 
 Pigot in the character of an old Druid recited a Copy of 
 Verses in Compliment to Ld. Stanley and Lady Betty 
 Hamilton * (who sat at the upper End of y e Room in a 
 Vandyke dress, his Ldship attending behind her chair), 
 and towards the close of it display'd a Banner with y e 
 Arms of Stanley and Hamilton (was not this too much 
 for any Woman breathing to bear ? she did set it out, but 
 fled as soon as it was ended), asserting that before y e Oak 
 was reverenced in this Isle by Druidical rites it had 
 received its utmost degree of Dignity and Pre-eminence 
 over all the other productions of y e Earth by being chosen 
 for y e distinguishing Badge (is a bad word, but Mr. Orde 
 used it so I suppose there is no better to be found, because 
 of its vulgar application to Parish Boys) of the Illustrious 
 House of Hamilton. N.B. Tis their Crest. Ld. Stanley 
 having recover'd his fugitive fair prevail'd on her to dance 
 a Minuet with him, and their Example renew'd the 
 Dancing which continu'd when my Visitors left the Oaks, 
 and with which this famous Fete Champttre was to 
 conclude. ..." 
 
 In the spring of 1788, the eldest daughter, Jane, was 
 taken by her parents to the trial of Warren Hastings, of 
 which she wrote a long account to her little brothers: 
 
 * Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, only daughter of James sixth Duke of 
 Hamilton and Brandon and the beautiful Elizabeth Gunning.
 
 8 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 " March jth, 1788. 
 
 " I went on the 26 of last month to the Hall at 
 Westminster. My mamma had been before she went 
 with me, on the i8th, which was a more entertaining day, 
 as Mr. Burke then spoke the whole time, which was 5 
 hours, stating in brief the history of India from the time 
 we first had any possessions in it till the time of the return 
 of Mr. Hastings, which was in the year '85. He was very 
 violent in his accusations, accusing Mr. Hastings of every- 
 thing that was bad, of which nobody believed one third 
 part. . . . 
 
 " The first day (which was one of the 4 on which your 
 Papa went) they read the indictment ; when I went they 
 read the evidence, consisting of letters from him to the East 
 India Company and from them to him, tending to prove 
 that he once had a great esteem for Chite Sing [Cheyte 
 Sing], whom in the next day's evidence they meant to 
 prove he used ill. You may imagine that hearing letters 
 for 4 hours to the right honourable Sir and Sirs, etc., of the 
 East India Company was not very entertaining to me. . . . 
 
 " Mr. Hastings looked very ill. He is a little man, grey- 
 headed ; he is very grave. . . . The Princes sit among the 
 Lords ; the younger sons of Peers stand round the throne, 
 the Lords are all in their robes. The King does not go. 
 There is likewise a box for the Queen ; but as it is never 
 the custom for either the King or Queen to go to State 
 Trials for fear of influencing the Lords, and the Queen and 
 Princesses had a mind to go, they went once like private 
 gentlewomen in the box of the Duke of Newcastle. The 
 boxes are like those at the playhouse, covered with matting 
 or baize ; the throne is raised a few steps from the ground, 
 with a canopy over it. We sat in the Board of Works' 
 box ; the Peers, throne, Prisoner, Judges, Bishops, are in 
 the pit, from whence the boxes rise gradually."
 
 FAMILY LETTERS. 9 
 
 Jane enclosed a plan, which she explains in a post- 
 script : 
 
 "The large square in the middle is a table of State 
 covered with a Turkey carpet, in the front of which, facing 
 the prisoner, with his back to the King, is the Lord 
 Chancellor on a Stool of State, when he sits as a Peer of 
 Parliament. All the Peers bow as they come in or go out 
 in procession to the throne. . . . When the Chancellor sits 
 as Judge he sits on a Woolsack behind the Judges, who 
 have likewise two woolsacks covered with red cloth. The 
 Heralds' coats are made of red cloth embroidered with coats 
 of arms. When Mr. Hastings comes in, he throws himself 
 on his knees before the Bar which separates his box from 
 the Peers ; but upon the Chancellor saying ' You may 
 rise ' he seats himself in a chair in the box. He is not in 
 Prison, but gives very considerable bail for his appearance." 
 
 Jane was also taken to see the illuminations on the 
 King's recovery from a fit of insanity in March 1789, and 
 caught a most violent cold in St. James's Street : 
 
 " The press of carriages was so great as to oblige us to 
 go all the way with the coach windows down to prevent 
 their being smashed. The squares were very brilliant ; 
 we saw them all, and returned home at about 12 o'clock 
 very safe. There were several transparent paintings and 
 colored lamps ; there was hardly an alley without lights. 
 I saw two or three cobblers' stalls with candles in the 
 windows. Colonel Brittle, our opposite neighbour (in 
 Bedford Row), was the only dark face ; all the opposition 
 lighted. The Queen sent in the morning to Lord Bathurst 
 to say she should be with him at tea and supper, but that 
 he was not to mention it. At six she came with the 5 
 eldest princesses ; she dismissed the royal carriages, and
 
 io J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 after staying for some time they set off in private carriages 
 to see the illuminations, after which they returned to Kew. 
 The King, who had rode to Windsor in the morning, 
 found Kew and the green before it lighted with great 
 taste by the Queen's order, and at two o'clock the 
 family returned." 
 
 On leaving Eton, Frere graduated at Caius College, Cam- 
 bridge, where he took his M.A. degree in 1795. He then 
 found a post in the Foreign Office under Lord Grenville, 
 and in 1796 was returned member for the close borough 
 of West Looe in Cornwall. He and his father spent much 
 of their time together, but family cares generally kept 
 Mrs. Frere at Roydon. Her husband was a constant and 
 delightful correspondent, blending great events and triviali- 
 ties on the same page. In a letter dated November 6th, 
 1797, he gives his wife instructions about the beds to be 
 prepared for visitors, and advises her, as a precaution 
 against the epidemic sore throats then prevalent, " to have 
 oven coals set in the brazier in the hall, whenever you 
 have them, and sprinkle frankincense upon them, etc." 
 He goes on to say that " the King does not go to St Paul's 
 on Friday, and it is so little certain when, that the 
 Bishop is going to Buckden, though he must come back 
 again when it happens. It is said that he holds his 
 resolution of going, but people in general wish he would 
 not* The King told Bennet Langton ' something which,' 
 he said, ' they two should like ' viz. that immediately 
 after the victory [of Camperdown] Duncan ordered all his 
 men upon deck and had a general thanksgiving, and that 
 it affected Winter much." 
 
 * On December igth the King went in state to St. Paul's to return 
 thanks for the naval victories of Lord Howe, Lord St. Vincent, and 
 Lord Duncan.
 
 FAMILY LETTERS. n 
 
 On November nth, 1797, he writes: "John came in in 
 high spirits from the House of Commons last night, where 
 a spirited motion for an address was supported by a most 
 spirited speech of Pitt's ; but, what was most delightful, all 
 the House sung in chorus to ' Britons, strike home.' Such 
 members as Martin said that war was inevitable, and that 
 we must make up our minds to it, and submit to every 
 privation with cheerfulness, to enable ourselves to carry 
 it on, etc., etc. If this spirit should spread and prevail 
 without doors, it will either bring us peace or, with the 
 blessing of God, successful war." 
 
 These early years in London must have been among the 
 happiest of Frere's life. He was on intimate terms with 
 most of the chief personages in the social, political, and 
 literary world. Canning, the dearest of all his friends, was 
 now an M.P. and an Under-Secretary of State, and the two 
 were continually together, whether at work at the Foreign 
 Office, dining with Lord Malmesbury, or writing the Anti- 
 Jacobin at the table in Wright's room. 
 
 The first great change in his home circle was caused by 
 the marriage of his eldest sister. The next break was the 
 appointment of his brother Bartle as Lord Minto's private 
 secretary in a diplomatic mission to Vienna. Bartle had 
 the family talent for correspondence, and his letters, even 
 when they are of no public interest, are always amusing 
 reading. One of the first sent from Vienna gives some 
 curious stories from Paris : 
 
 " \bth Oct., 1799. 
 
 " There is a Lady who arrived here the other day from 
 Paris. She says the people are enraged to such a degree 
 with the directory as to abuse them openly and to rejoice 
 at the defeat of their armies. A Gentry has been estab- 
 lished in the place where the King was beheaded to 
 disperse the people who assembled there in great numbers
 
 12 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 and said that they heard him groan. She travelled as a 
 Prussian, and when stopp'd on the Frontiers by the Guard 
 to whom she spoke German and said she was a Prussian, 
 they laughed at her and said ' No, no, you are an Emigrant, 
 but you may pass on.' " 
 
 A little later, Bartle was introduced to a celebrated man, 
 and recorded his impressions for his brother's benefit : 
 
 "VIENNA, 28 January, 1800. 
 
 " What a strange-looking Animal Suwarrow is, to have 
 made such a noise in the world. When first Ld. Minto 
 went to him, he was kept waiting for half an hour in an 
 Antichamber whilst Suwarrow was said to be making his 
 ablutions ; at last the door opened, and out scuttled a 
 little old figure scarce 5 feet and \ high, in a pair of red 
 breeches and coarse shirt, without any neckcloth, Coat 
 or waistcoat ; after having kissed him first on one cheek 
 and then on the other, and paying him a great many Com- 
 pliments, he began to talk about business in just the same 
 wild style in which he dictates his notes, some of which you 
 have seen. When I saw him, he was at Mass before a little 
 crucifix at one corner of the Altar, where he continued for 
 the hour that we were there, praying and crossing himself 
 except when he ran out a step or two towards the middle 
 of the Altar and touched the ground with his hands and 
 forehead, looked wildly around him, and ran back again. 
 After Mass we went to dinner, and I am sorry to contradict 
 Mr. Gillray, who, I think, under the print predicates of him 
 that he ' is now in the prime of life and drinks neither wine 
 nor spirits,' for he began dinner by drinking a half pint 
 tumbler full of liqueur, and ended it with two or three such 
 of Champaign which rather overcame him ; for before 
 dinner he had jumped very nimbly on to a chair to embrace 
 Casamajor, and passing by him after dinner, he attempted
 
 FAMILY LETTERS. 13 
 
 it again, but could not manage to get up. He was very 
 much amused with Casamajor's height, and told him he 
 was the first of the Giants he had ever seen. He asked for 
 the name of some Giant ; but as nobody told him one, he 
 went on talking about something else (for he was not 
 silent a minute in the three hours that we were there) and 
 every now and then stopped in the middle of his story to 
 ask for this Giant's name. At last somebody told him 
 Typhous, which he made them spell to him, and called 
 Casamajor by it, then he would run on with some story 
 of his Campaigns, and stop short to call out Typhous. 
 In short, his conversation, countenance, and manner gave 
 me the most complete idea of crazy ness I ever conceived. 
 Lord Minto says that he talked to him one evening in a 
 very sensible but rather romantick manner about his ideas 
 of religion, Justice, policy, etc. ; but from all that I saw of 
 him he seemed much crazier than it is necessary even for 
 a great man to be. He was very decently dressed in his 
 Uniform, with his face washed from the snuff which 
 generally covers the lower part of it. ... When we got to 
 Prague we heard that Suwarrow had been very gay and 
 given a ball and handsome supper a few days before, where 
 he had danced himself. The way in which he gave it was 
 this. He desired one morning to speak with the Lady of 
 the house where he lived, Baroness somebody, and telling 
 her that he wished to give a Ball and supper, gave her a 
 50 florin note (value about five pounds), for which she was 
 to furnish an entertainment for all the Nobility of Prague, 
 Russian officers, etc." 
 
 Society in Vienna cannot have been agreeable to an 
 Englishman. In a letter to his brother, Bartle gives an 
 account of his going to an evening party and overhearing 
 the conversation of a German lady to two of her own
 
 14 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 countrymen. The topic she chose was one that cannot 
 be mentioned in these pages. After a while she noticed 
 that the Englishman was listening, and broke off her story, 
 to tell another which she considered more fit for his ears, 
 and of which it is impossible to give even a hint The 
 cold of the winter was very trying, especially when the 
 roads were blocked with snow, cutting off the communi- 
 cation with Constantinople, whence news of Sir Ralph 
 Abercrombie's army was eagerly expected. Bartle must 
 have been thankful to leave Vienna in the summer of 1801. 
 As early as the January of that year, Mrs. Frere had 
 written to her eldest son : 
 
 " Bartle and Lord Minto's family had packed up for 
 departing from Vienna before the signing the Armistice, 
 and he said he thought his moveables as well collected in 
 a Trunk ; he is indignant at the Apathy manifested by the 
 generality of People there. As Moreau approached nearer 
 Vienna, the Ladies became inquisitive to know what sort 
 of a Gentleman he was, and as he advanced every day's 
 report made him more amiable. When the Archduke 
 Charles returned to Vienna and assembled the Officers on 
 the Parade, to give them marks of his Praise or disappro- 
 bation, though he took the swords of seven General Officers 
 and broke them at the moment, dismissing them the 
 service in terms of strong reproach for their cowardice, no 
 murmur of indignation against them was heard among the 
 Spectators, though it was a circumstance unprecedented in 
 the Austrian army." 
 
 Soon after Bartle's arrival in England he was appointed 
 Secretary of Legation to John Hookham Frere, who had 
 gone to Madrid at the end of 1800 as Envoy Extra- 
 ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 LIFE IN THE PENINSULA. 
 
 1800 1804. 
 
 FROM one of Canning's letters we gather that Frere, 
 always dilatory, spent so much time over his prepara- 
 tions for departure to Lisbon as seriously to displease his 
 chiefs. Frere was a by-word amongst his acquaintance 
 for never doing to-day what could possibly be deferred until 
 to-morrow ; but it must have taken him some time to 
 collect and pack his outfit. Lisbon, the scene of his first 
 mission, was better furnished with some of the necessaries of 
 life than Madrid, whither he was transferred in September 
 1802. A correspondent writes to him from Lisbon: "By 
 this time Donaldson will have arrived in Madrid, and you 
 will be able to dine in comfort. I shall occasionally send 
 you another supply of Toothpics as opportunity may offer." 
 In a letter from his brother George are some particulars 
 of the outfit required for an Ambassador. Poor George, 
 the one business man of a talented but erratic family, 
 pleads that the instructions received from his brother had 
 been of the shortest, which may account for the vagueness 
 of the last item. The charge for carpets cannot be termed 
 excessive ; but it is difficult to imagine what Frere could 
 want with six hundred pounds' worth of " Callico." 
 
 '5
 
 1 6 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 " CalHco 
 
 Carpets ^200 
 
 Lustres 3S 
 
 Plate ^400 
 
 Ormolu dogs, 3 sets to be used as one, ( 2, or 3, 
 handsome and cheap, made by Auguste at Paris 
 for the King of Sardinia, and never used . . ;ioo 
 Other articles 4 
 
 Perhaps about . . . 2000 " 
 
 There are several sheets of paper signed " Rob 1 
 Walpole," with a schedule of the expenses incurred by 
 Frere's predecessor at Lisbon, who sent many useful hints. 
 House-rent had risen considerably, but Frere must have 
 two houses, one in Lisbon, and another in the village of 
 Cintra as a summer retreat Frere must have six mules 
 to drag his coach to court at Quelus, a carriage and a 
 special set of liveries for " Court days and formal occasions," 
 and others for ordinary use an expensive establishment, 
 as the keep of each mule was computed at fifty-two 
 guineas a year, and the bad pavements soon wore out 
 the carriages. Twelve men servants (besides, presumably, 
 personal attendants) formed Walpole's establishment ; their 
 wages, which included board in the case of seven out of 
 the twelve, came to 315 i6s. per annum. But he hastens 
 to inform Frere that " Every article of Consumption has 
 increased in Portugal 100 per cent, since my first going 
 into that country," and adjures him to remember " the 
 Defalcation which attends the discount upon the Portuguese 
 paper money." 
 
 At least, Frere was more fortunate than his friend Lord 
 Elgin, who wrote to him from Constantinople, Dec. 29th, 
 1799:- 
 
 " As to my Extraordinary Mission, it appears to have 
 a good Effect here. It gives a Superiority in a much
 
 LIFE IN THE PENINSULA. 17 
 
 greater degree than that Difference of Rank would do 
 in any Court in Europe. And the pomp attending it 
 is by no means immaterial in these Climates. But the 
 Expence of it is to me incredible. In preparations at 
 London, and in necessary outlay since my arrival, I have 
 already spent more than 8000 str., besides what I had to 
 advance for my plate (above 2000) till the Government 
 allowance shall become due. I have had an immense 
 house to put in order, after above a hundred French 
 prisoners had been long and successfully employed in 
 destroying every part of it. And the private presents 
 expected of me on all occasions is absolute ruin. As 
 for what I have received in return, they consist in two 
 old fur cloaks, such as are not unfrequently exhibited to 
 view in Monmouth St., a great profusion of fruits and 
 sweetmeats, and a horse which proved to be lame and 
 stone blind." * 
 
 Then, as now, it was impossible for any public servant 
 to obtain the money for his just expenses without a pro- 
 longed correspondence over every item ; and the difficulty 
 was then increased by the fact that the Civil List was 
 continually in arrears. Mr. Broughton, of the Foreign 
 Office, wrote many letters to Frere on the subject of 
 allowances, and suffered much from the inroads of Frere's 
 tradesmen with bills which he was unable to pay. A 
 
 * Lord Elgin was not always so unfortunate in his missions. Lady 
 Glasgow (Lady Augusta Hay) writes to her sister-in-law, Lady Erroll, 
 some years later, 'when his lordship, whose first marriage had been 
 dissolved by Act of Parliament in 1808, was about to take another 
 wife : " I suppose he has bribed her with all the valuable Jewels and 
 Trinkets which were presented to his former Wife by the Grand 
 Signior, and which she for the sake of security had placed in her 
 banker's care. His Lordship has most shabbily taken possession of 
 them, saying that as they were given to the Countess of Elgin, they are 
 of course his property. He is finely abused for this mean trick."
 
 1 8 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 coachmaker is mentioned as being particularly trouble- 
 some. On March 9th, 1 802, Broughton wrote : " It is 
 expected that in consequence of the measures which have 
 been adopted by Mr. Addington, the arrears of the Civil 
 List will be liquidated, and that the Foreign Ministers 
 will be paid up to the 5th of January, 1802. But before 
 that desirable circumstance takes place, another Quarter's 
 Arrears will accumulate, there not being the smallest 
 probability of anything being issued from the Exchequer 
 till after the 2nd Installment of the Loan." 
 
 If Court ceremonials were few in number, they were 
 interminably long. " My Brother was at Church six whole 
 hours the other day," writes Bartle, " hearing Mass and 
 Te Deum." At this point the elder brother came in, 
 and has scrawled over the line "Te D n 'em, say I, 
 J. H. F." As the thanksgiving was for the peace which 
 Addington was negotiating with France, neither of the 
 brothers was likely to join in it with much heartiness. 
 
 Lisbon was not then such a place of exile as it would 
 seem to a modern diplomatist It was a favourite resort 
 for invalids before the Riviera became fashionable. Lord 
 and Lady Holland spent some months there, and collected 
 round them all the choice spirits in the neighbourhood. 
 Another visitor was Elizabeth Jemima, Countess of Erroll, 
 the childless and beautiful widow, whose many sorrows 
 had not quenched her gay spirit or prevented her from 
 making merry over the discomforts of the Peninsula. " So 
 Bartle is going to Batalha too," she wrote afterwards to 
 J. H. Frere, " where I was once so gay and so happy, 
 in fact enjoyed it all, and above all the horrible incon- 
 veniences we found in our journey, the swearing of General 
 Wemyss, all the Portuguese Women Sleeping upon the 
 floor without night Caps in one Room, Mrs. Douglas with
 
 ; 
 
 LIFE IN THE PENINSULA. 19 
 
 my Monkey and her own, all the Men going to her 
 Carriage for Brandy, she scolding and cursing all the 
 Portuguese. I assure you it was very amusing altogether, 
 and Bartle's having mentioned his intended jaunt has 
 brought the scene so exactly before me that I am con- 
 vinced I shall sleep at Marinha this night instead of old 
 Mr. Keppel's bed. Besides, I know Bartle will sleep in 
 my bed, which is within the Drawing-room, and where 
 Single men in general sleep on the other side, was a 
 large Room with three beds where I even now see all 
 the Portugueses and the maids on the floor, in short I 
 see it all." 
 
 The Inquisition was not yet extinct, although it retained 
 but a shadow of its former power. While at Madrid, 
 Bartle had an opportunity of attending an Autillo, or 
 little Auto da Fe", and was impressed chiefly with the 
 ugliness of the culprit, a woman between thirty and forty 
 years of age. She was condemned to do penance in the 
 church, wearing a sugar-loaf cap and holding a green 
 candle, and then to undergo several years' imprisonment 
 a light punishment for one who had pretended to be 
 a saint and to work miracles. 
 
 The manners of the ladies who formed the society of 
 isbon must have seemed strange to English prejudices, 
 although previous experiences at Berlin may have taught 
 Bartle something of foreign customs. " Mme Lannes has 
 a son," he writes to Lady Erroll, with whom he kept 
 up a correspondence after her return to England, " and 
 Rehaussen, who tells a story better than I can, amused 
 us with the account of his introduction to it. He called 
 in the evening, knowing nothing of the matter, and was 
 shown upstairs, where he found no one but an old woman, 
 who, upon his asking for Madame, shewed him into a 
 room, where he saw she was in bed, and was retiring,
 
 20 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 but was desired to come in. On raising his head from 
 his bow, he spied the young gentleman, and Madame 
 told him that he was about an hour old, and seemed to 
 wonder that he had not heard of it. A short time after, 
 all the dinner-party came up into the room, and you 
 would have thought that nothing had happened." 
 
 From another of Bartle's letters comes a story which 
 he thought worthy of being included in a second edition 
 of Miss Edgeworth's "Essay on Irish Bulls." "Capt. 
 Yescombe, who is veracity itself, is one of what they call 
 the Sick and Hurt Office at Falmouth ; when a seaman 
 is to be relieved by them, the bill must be signed by 
 five members. Now one of these members was, and is, 
 an Irishman, and would not agree to relieve a person 
 who all the rest thought deserved it ; however the Clerk 
 drew up the bill, and having taken it round to be signed 
 by the other four, brought it to my Irishman ; he was 
 furious, and taking his pen, wrote, '/ won't sign this. 
 Patrick Macmurdock! (I must make a name, for I have 
 forgot the true one.) So the bill was paid by the 
 Treasurer, and the sailor relieved according to the law 
 in that case made and provided, the bill being signed 
 by five members." 
 
 When it was proposed that J. H. Frere should be 
 transferred from Lisbon to Madrid, one of his first 
 and most characteristic objections was that Lisbon suited 
 him admirably because he had little or nothing to do. 
 After looking through the mass of papers left at Roydon, 
 one is obliged to conclude that there was plenty of work, 
 but that Frere must have left it to his secretaries, or 
 paid no attention to it whatever. It was not until Ainslie* 
 had returned to England that Frere evolved the idea 
 
 * Mr. (afterwards Sir R.) Ainslie had been acting as Frere's secretary 
 before Bartle Frere's arrival.
 
 LIFE IN THE PENINSULA. 21 
 
 that he wished his first forty-three despatches from Lisbon 
 to be copied into a book for future reference. As this 
 would mean spending many long hours in Mr. Broughton's 
 room at the Foreign Office, Ainslie, then fully occupied 
 with his own private affairs, was aghast at the thought, 
 and wrote a long letter of remonstrance, half plaintive, 
 half indignant, in which he styles Frere " the laziest of 
 God's creatures." Old John Frere mentions with much 
 distress a report that the Envoy keeps important papers 
 lying on the table, and important persons waiting in 
 the ante-room, while he amuses himself with the news- 
 papers. 
 
 The official despatches, written on the stiffest of paper, 
 and tied up in neat bundles with red tape, are not inter- 
 esting, and may well be left at the bottom of the old 
 chest, where they have reposed for so many years. Some 
 have long communications between the lines in sym- 
 pathetic ink. Some are written in cipher, with figures 
 instead of the important words. Occasionally, more 
 elaborate precautions have been taken to ensure secrecy. 
 An English official at Madrid tells Frere that before 
 writing again to head-quarters, he must have some more 
 gilt-edged paper, which Frere can send him, and encloses 
 a sheet to give the exact size ; the sheet originally looked 
 blank, but now faint traces of writing are to be seen 
 among the blisters, which show where the fire scorched 
 the paper. 
 
 One of the most distressing of Frere's tasks must have 
 been the business of the French \2migrts who were then 
 scattered all over Europe, living as best they might, seeing 
 that the funds raised by the sale of the jewels which some 
 of the more fortunate had been able to secure, had long 
 melted away. The Government made some allowance to 
 these unfortunates, and Frere, always open-handed, often
 
 22 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 supplemented the dole from his own means ; but only the 
 inexhaustible purse of the fairy legends could have been of 
 real service. Pitiful are some of the stories written on the 
 dusty sheets. Take, for instance, the following memo- 
 randum : " The Marquis and Marquise d'E came to 
 
 Lisbon upwards of four years ago, with their five Sons. 
 They had lost a good Estate in France, and they brought 
 strong letters of Recommendation to me as a most Re- 
 spectable family. The Marquise has lately had a paralytick 
 stroke, and is become quite helpless. The Marquis had 
 3 Shillings a day, and each of his sons 1/3 besides Rations 
 all which they lost by the departure of the Troops." 
 
 The Chevalier de J , a native of Corsica, solicits help, 
 
 " n'ayant pas de quoi subvenir aux frais qu'occasionne la 
 naissance d'un enfant. ... La cherte" des comestibles 
 m'e'crase," he adds, despairingly. 
 
 Sometimes there is a comic side to the applicant's dis- 
 tress, when vanity, or the hope of pleasing the Envoy, led 
 him to express himself in English. It does not appear 
 whether the modest individual whose letter is given below 
 succeeded in impressing any one else with a sense of the 
 justice of his claims : 
 
 " Illustruss Sir, 
 
 " My having been confined to my room with a violent 
 cold and fever has pervented my personnaly reminding 
 Your Excellency of my dispatch, and informing that a few 
 days ago Mr. Luis Pinto dispatched Some Gentlemen of 
 the Law and that as yet I have not been so Fortunate 
 as to be contemplated in any one of them when it was 
 genneraly thought and hoped, that I should be the first on 
 the list in attention to the very powerful protection of 
 Your Excellency Whom I have the Honor to interest in 
 consequence of the Services performed to His Britannick
 
 LIFE IN THE PENINSULA. 23 
 
 Majesty for Whom I have so much risked my life with a 
 view to Save the Stole money intended to supply necessarys 
 of His Royal Fleet." ..." This ... is what Mr. Luis Pinto 
 ought to do, if He wish to do me justice through means of 
 the great and respectful authority of Your Excellency 
 attending to 9 years that I have served my Prince, to 
 dispatch me Corregidor de Lagos in Algarre, granting me 
 the honor of the Habit of Christ in reward of the services 
 which at the peril of my Life I did His Britannick Majesty. 
 All is in Mr. Luis Pinto hands, I know very well, and if 
 Your Excellency will take my honest word, all is only in 
 His power, if he is desiderous to attend, respect, and con- 
 template the high representation of Your Excellency of 
 Whom I have the distinctive honor to be," etc., etc. 
 
 At least Frere had no reason to complain of want of 
 variety in his correspondence. Dainty billets from ladies 
 of the Court, offering htm a seat in a coach, lie side by side 
 with long complaints from the captains of British vessels 
 who thought themselves aggrieved by the action of the 
 authorities in some Spanish port. Then follow smooth 
 and irrelevant replies from these authorities, in one case 
 committing the captain of an English frigate detained in 
 quarantine " to the Divine protection," which pious aspira- 
 tion must have added fuel to the flames. An indignant 
 remonstrance from " Martin Slack Smallpiece, Liveryman 
 of the Vintners' Company," who has been ordered to furnish 
 a man to mount guard at six o'clock in the morning under 
 pain of imprisonment, comes to the hand that searches for 
 the piteous entreaty of the crew of the Lapwing to be 
 delivered from the "sickly prison" to which the French 
 had consigned them. From a bundle labelled "Miscel- 
 laneous of no importance " fall several letters written in the 
 firm left-handed characters that we know so well :
 
 24 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 ' Victory^ July 2^th, off TOULON. 
 " Sir, 
 
 "Not having received any letters from Gibraltar 
 since my sailing on June 4th, I have not had the honor of 
 Your Excellency's answer to mine and Mr. Elliot's letters 
 of that date. I am sending some of our Ships to Barcelona 
 for refreshments, and I will not allow myself to suppose 
 that they can be refused to us ; if they should be, Your 
 Excellency knows what course to pursue to obtain from 
 Spain an exact neutrality, or she must take the con- 
 sequences of a breach of it. French Privateers go in and 
 out of her Ports, and look out from them on Merchant 
 Vessels passing, and put to Sea from the Port after a 
 Vessel, capture her and return to the Spanish Port As an 
 instance I relate a Bombard french privateer lay under 
 the fort of the island of Caprera near Majorca. She saw 
 the Ant, an English Brig belonging to North Yarmouth, 
 went to Sea, captured her and returnd with her. A 
 French Convoy put into Malaga, I am sure the French 
 Troops and vessel of War were supplied with everything 
 they wanted. I only mention these instances of the 
 conduct of Spain in case she should act differently by us. 
 I send Your Excellency an account of the only thing worth 
 Your Excellency's knowing from him who has the Honor 
 to Remain with the Greatest respect, Your Most Obedient 
 Humble Servant, 
 
 "NELSON AND BRONTE." 
 
 Again he writes : 
 
 ' Victory,' Sept. i^th, 1803. 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " I should feel very much obliged if you could 
 procure me the best edition of the Bible publish'd in 
 Spain. I have been told that with the notes it is finer
 
 LIFE IN THE PENINSULA. 25 
 
 than any hitherto publish'd. I trust to Your Excellency's 
 forgiveness of this trouble and I am, With Great Respect, 
 Your Excellency's Most Obedient Servant, 
 
 " NELSON AND BRONTE." 
 
 And again*: 
 
 4 Victory,' May $rd, 1804. 
 " Sir, 
 
 " I take for granted that I have to thank Your 
 Excellency for forwarding a letter to me from Sir Edw d 
 Pellew for which I feel very much obliged and have to 
 request that you will have the goodness to send to him my 
 answer, and I wish that my communication with England 
 was kept up thro' that channel or Lisbon, when such an 
 accident as all my letters falling into the hands of the 
 Enemy would have been avoided. I only hope that dis- 
 patches of any consequence would not have been sent in 
 such a Vessel. The french fleet at Toulon are daily 
 moving out of the harbour for Exercise, and it is. clear that 
 either they are preparing for a Run, or keeping in perfect 
 readiness to form a junction with some other fleet, there- 
 fore Your Excellency will see the importance of my 
 knowing whenever the french squadron at Ferrol may put 
 to Sea, and particularly if they are joined by any and what 
 number of ships from either Rochford or Brest. We have 
 reports that some few Russian Troops are arrived at Corfou 
 and Zante, and that the Russian fleet from the Black Sea 
 may be in the archipelago by this time. 
 
 " I have the honor to Remain with 
 
 " Great Respect Your Excellency's 
 " Most Obedient Servant 
 
 " NELSON AND BRONTE." 
 
 As we know, in the following year Villeneuve failed to
 
 26 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 relieve the blockade of Ferrol, and was out-manoeuvred by 
 Nelson. But by that time Frere was no longer Envoy at 
 the Court of Spain. 
 
 From the hour of his arrival in Madrid it had been plain 
 that there could be no good understanding between him 
 and Godoy, the " Prince of the Peace," who was all- 
 important at the Spanish Court. Godoy is said to have 
 done his best to obtain Frere's recall, but it was at his own 
 request that Frere returned to England in the September 
 of 1804. He had long been desirous to be among his 
 old friends, and only Canning's strong representations 
 had kept him at his post. He was well received on 
 his return by the King "with an appearance of real 
 kindness and interest." Bartle, as usual, stayed behind, 
 like the wife of a celebrated traveller recently deceased, 
 to " pay, pack, and follow."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 
 
 18001801. 
 
 ONE of Frere's favourite stories was that of a peer, 
 " a fine specimen of a thorough-going old country- 
 Tory," who came to call on his father with the news that 
 Pitt was out of office and that Addington had taken his 
 place. He ran over the names of all the members of 
 the new Cabinet, and, rubbing his hands with satisfaction, 
 sighed in conclusion : " Well, thank God, we have at 
 last got a ministry without one of those confounded men 
 of genius in it." 
 
 This story well illustrates the ordinary Briton's attitude 
 of mind to all men of genius. He has an inborn con- 
 viction that there is something not quite respectable, 
 something unsafe and deplorable, connected with the 
 possession of brilliant talents of any kind. His ideal 
 minister is a steady, elderly man of methodical habits, 
 who goes to church with unfailing regularity, and leads 
 a quiet and rather dull life in the bosom of a large and 
 virtuous family. 
 
 In no case has this inherent distrust of extraordinary 
 genius been more strongly exemplified than in that of 
 Pitt's pupil, the "warmest, most intimate and most 
 
 27
 
 28 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 congenial friend " * whom Frere ever possessed George 
 Canning. 
 
 The friendship began at Eton, where the two boys 
 founded the Microcosm, a magazine in which appeared 
 Canning's celebrated " Criticism on the Story of the 
 Queen of Hearts," and Frere's " Ode on Athelstane's 
 Victory at Brunanburh." Mrs. Frere, writing a descrip- 
 tion of the Montem of 1787 to her son George, mentions 
 Canning in terms which show him to have been already 
 well known to Frere's younger brothers. A temporary 
 separation came when the friends left Eton. Canning 
 went to Christ Church, where his portrait now hangs in 
 the Hall ; Frere graduated at Caius College, Cambridge. 
 But their correspondence continued, although it has not 
 been preserved at Roydon ; and there were probably 
 occasional meetings before Canning took his B.A. degree 
 in 1793 and prepared to enter public life. 
 
 Young, brilliant, strikingly handsome, with a strange 
 power alike of winning and of repelling the hearts of 
 others, Canning was a promising recruit for either Whigs 
 or Tories. By family connection and association he was 
 a Whig, as Frere was a Tory. But he early decided to 
 choose for himself and make his own way. The celebrated 
 Mrs. Crewe, whose name the Whig refrain coupled with 
 " buff and blue," was anxious to patronise him, and before 
 he left Oxford he had received through her a letter from 
 the Duke of Portland, offering to bring him into Parlia- 
 ment. But Canning refused, and gave as his reason to 
 Frere the probability that the Duke would change sides 
 as he soon afterwards did. " I will go over in no man's 
 train," he said. " If I join Pitt, I will go by myself." 
 
 Shortly afterwards, Frere arranged that Canning should 
 be introduced to Pitt, with whom he became a great 
 * " Memoir," by Sir B. Frere.
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 29 
 
 favourite. " Dundas used often to have Pitt to sup with 
 him after the House rose," Frere told his nephew during 
 one of those long talks at Malta, " and one night he took 
 Canning with him. There was no one else, and Canning 
 came to me next morning before I was out of bed, told 
 me where he had been supping the night before, and added, 
 ' I am quite sure I have them both,' and I did not wonder 
 at it, for with his humour and fancy it was impossible to 
 resist him. He had much more in common with Pitt 
 than any one else about him, and his love for Pitt was 
 quite filial, and Pitt's feeling for him was more that of a 
 father than of a mere political leader. I am sure that from 
 the first Pitt marked Canning out as his political heir, and 
 had in addition the warmest personal regard for him." 
 
 Frere by this time was in the Foreign Office under 
 Lord Grenville, and it must have seemed to the two 
 friends as if the days of their boyhood had returned 
 when they found themselves once more together, and 
 busy over a weekly paper. This was the Anti-Jacobin, or 
 Weekly Examiner, of which Gifford was the working 
 editor, assisted by Canning, Frere, George Ellis, and 
 other contributors. 
 
 The Anti-Jacobin ran for some eight months, shocking 
 and offending many respectable people, but exceeding 
 the fondest hopes of its authors by the sensation it caused. 
 Some of its pleasantries are too ponderous and heavy 
 for modern taste. It has been said that Erasmus Darwin's 
 " Loves of the Plants " is only remembered for the sake 
 of the " Loves of the Triangles " ; but who, in our days, 
 knows the " Loves of the Triangles " ? The attack upon 
 Charles Lamb is indefensible, and must have been 
 sincerely regretted by Canning and Frere when they 
 knew more of the personality of their victim. "The 
 Needy Knife-Grinder " still survives, thanks to its having
 
 30 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 found its way into several volumes of Elegant Extracts ; 
 and perhaps the performance at Eton in 1898 of a scene 
 from The Rovers may have induced some persons to 
 revive their acquaintance with that exquisite travesty of 
 the old-fashioned German play. It was this last jeu 
 ffesprtt that drew down upon Canning the heavy and 
 implacable wrath of Niebuhr, who persisted in regarding 
 it as a malicious libel upon German universities in general, 
 and on the " U-niversity of Gottingen " in particular, and 
 roundly abused Canning as " a sort of political Cossack." 
 In 1799 Canning was succeeded by Frere as Under- 
 secretary of State in the Foreign Office, and was removed 
 to the Board of Trade. The next event of his life was 
 his marriage with Joan, daughter of Major-General John 
 Scott of Balcomie, which took place in July 1800. 
 Although Canning and his friends had long recognised 
 the necessity for his marrying an heiress, and although 
 his wife brought a dowry of .100,000, the marriage was 
 one of genuine affection on both sides. Mrs. Canning 
 never became a prominent figure in the political world, 
 like Mrs. Crewe, Lady Malmesbury, and other women 
 of her time, but she devoted herself to her husband 
 from the hour of their marriage with a constancy that 
 never failed. She copied his letters, listened to his 
 schemes, sympathised with his grievances, and frequently, 
 as we shall see, attempted to make peace between him 
 and Pitt when the impatient temper of the one and the 
 calm inflexibility of the other had caused a serious 
 rupture. Canning had evidently a high opinion of her 
 judgment : " Joan and I think that," " Joan and I are 
 doing this," are phrases often to be found in his letters. 
 When Charles Ellis lost his wife, the highest praise that 
 Canning could bestow on the dead woman was that Joan 
 loved her. A little while before, Ellis had written to
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 31 
 
 Frere : " Canning has been here with his Wife, whom 
 I and Eliza like extremely, and appears as happy as I 
 could wish him." Joan received Frere as Canning's old 
 friend, and often sent familiar messages to him at the 
 end of her husband's letters. 
 
 Two years before his own death, Frere thus described 
 Canning's wedding to his nephew : 
 
 " I was to be best man, and Pitt, Canning, and Mr. 
 Leigh,* who was to read the service, dined with me before 
 the marriage, which was to take place in Brook Street. 
 We had a coach to drive there, and as we went through 
 that narrow part, near what was then Swallow Street, 
 a fellow drew up against the wall, to avoid being run 
 over, and peering into the coach, recognised Pitt, and saw 
 Mr. Leigh who was in full canonicals sitting opposite to 
 him. The fellow exclaimed, ' What, Billy Pitt ! and with 
 a parson, too ! ' I said, ' He thinks you are going to 
 Tyburn, to be hanged privately,' which was rather im- 
 pudent of me ; but Pitt was too much absorbed, I believe 
 in thinking of the marriage, to be angry. After the 
 ceremony, he was so nervous that he could not sign as 
 witness, and Canning whispered to me to sign without 
 waiting for him. He regarded the marriage as the one 
 thing needed to give Canning the position necessary to 
 lead a party, and this was the cause of his anxiety about 
 it, which I would not have believed had I not witnessed 
 it, though I knew how warm was the regard he had for 
 Canning. Had Canning been Pitt's own son, I do not 
 think he could have been more interested in all that 
 related to this marriage." t 
 
 * Mr. Leigh had married Canning's aunt. 
 
 t From a letter to Frere's brother Bartle, it appears that the 
 marriage took place at the uncomfortable hour of half-past seven in 
 the evening.
 
 32 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 The first of Canning's letters to Frere is dated from 
 Brighton, a little before his marriage, June 2oth, 1800. 
 The prospects of Europe were then gloomy. The Tsar, 
 after coquetting with the idea of an Austrian alliance, 
 seemed disposed to side with France, and the First Consul, 
 darting across the Alps,- had completely defeated the 
 Austrian army under General Melas, on the plains of 
 Marengo. Most of Canning's letter is taken up with 
 the affairs of a third person, of whom he speaks by a 
 nickname, and has no interest for the general reader; 
 but the postscript is curious : 
 
 " What do you think of the Italian News ? And what 
 consolation does Pitt point out, after looking over the 
 map in the corner of his room, by the door? Does he 
 make out that Bonaparte is in a scrape? that old Melas 
 has not lost his head or will recover It? and that 
 Moreau is advancing no faster than Kray chuses to 
 let him?" 
 
 Was it this same map which the dying Pitt bade his 
 attendants " roll up " after the battle of Austerlitz ? 
 
 The armistice with Austria was now drawing to a 
 close, and the French refused to renew it unless England 
 would consent to a general truce with full powers of 
 communication by sea and land. This, of course, would 
 have given them an opportunity of sending provisions 
 and reinforcements to their army in Egypt and their 
 garrison at Malta. Lord Grenville proposed that Malta 
 and the maritime towns of Egypt should be placed on 
 the same footing as the places in Germany held by 
 Austrian garrisons, everything that could give additional 
 means of defence being excluded, and provisions for 
 only fourteen days admitted. The French declined this
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 33 
 
 compromise. Canning's indignation vented itself in 
 the following letter, marked " Private" It is curious as 
 being the only one among the scores of letters and notes 
 addressed by him to Frere that does not begin " My 
 Dear Frere," but plunges at once into the subject. As 
 a rule, his letters to Pitt begin thus abruptly, Canning 
 seeming to think " My Dear Sir " too formal, and " My 
 Dear Pitt " too familiar. There is no superscription, and 
 the cover has disappeared, but it is impossible to imagine 
 that such a letter can have been addressed to Pitt, and 
 have found its way to Frere, as was the case with some 
 of the papers at Roydon : 
 
 "PUTNEY HILL, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 1800. 
 
 Private. 
 
 " There must be a great taste for being laughed at 
 amongst us, if we go on discussing, after this answer. I 
 give Talleyrand great credit for having discovered the 
 fright in which we were, and having seen it in so ridiculous 
 a point of view. Is it possible now, do you think, that 
 we can so far overlook the insolence of this proposal as 
 to begin treating gravely about a modification of it? 
 and that we can really take the trouble to explain to the 
 French Gentlemen ' that they must have misunderstood 
 us, to be sure (for to suppose that they would make 
 such a misrepresentation on purpose is wholly out of 
 the question) that we never meant to propose, in good 
 sooth not we, an Armistice for separate negociation 
 no that it was only for the sake of Austria that we 
 consented to It at all, and that we rely upon their good 
 nature, and good intentions, not to press us to agree to 
 an armistice for a separate peace, because in that case 
 
 we shall agree to it.' Gracious God ! as Mr. Fox 
 
 exclaims : it makes one sick to see ourselves become 
 
 3
 
 34 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 the object of such broad, undisguised contempt. But 
 pray do not ask beforehand, whether or no if pressed 
 to a separate armistice for a separate negotiation we shall 
 agree to it pray do not. The idea will of course be 
 rejected with apparent scorn. But in the end it will 
 come to that. 
 
 " It is incredible but so it will be. So it must be, 
 if we return any other answer to this impertinence, this 
 outrageous, indecent contumely (as saucy, as if a man 
 in private company were to pretend not to hear distinctly 
 what you have said, and make you repeat it, and then 
 answer you, laughing in your face all the time, as if you 
 had said something else) if to this we return any other 
 answer than shortly this that 'our offer not having 
 been accepted, we have nothing more to say, and will 
 have no Armistice or any condition at all.' If we 
 argue, and remonstrate, and distinguish, and set right 
 what has been mis-stated in short, if we do not show 
 that we feel the contempt and ridicule with which they 
 have treated us, and are heartily ashamed of having 
 given so much room for it there is an end. Do people 
 hold up their heads? And does the Cabinet meet by 
 daylight ? Who kicks them individually, as they go 
 into the Cabinet-Room ? " 
 
 Before the disputes over terms had ended in the 
 rupture of the negociations, Malta surrendered to the 
 English squadron in September. In October Frere was 
 appointed Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of Lisbon. 
 Before his departure Canning addressed various letters to 
 him. The first, dated from Spring Gardens, December 2nd, 
 1800, gives an account of a House of Commons debate, 
 in which Canning, much to his disappointment, had had 
 no opportunity of speaking. He confesses : " I am not
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 35 
 
 fond of following Sheridan, Speech for Speech, on a 
 motion of his own, though I do not mind jostling with 
 him in Debate." He continues : 
 
 " I believe it is since you went that I have seen the 
 Pamphlet printed at the Thuilleries (supposed with 
 Bonaparte's connivance) and said to have been sent 
 under Lucien Bonaparte's cover to the Prefects of the 
 Departments. It is entitled ' A Comparison between 
 Cesar, Cromwell, Monck, and Bonaparte ' or something 
 to that effect 'a Fragment from the English.' The 
 purpose of it is to rescue Bonaparte from the 
 guilt belonging to the excesses of the Revolution, to 
 represent him as the Restorer of Order, etc, and as one 
 who ought to be not only Sovereign himself, but the 
 founder of a new Dynasty. It is very curious. I have 
 little doubt that some blow will be struck in this sense, 
 if he returns triumphant from the opening of the New 
 Campaign. Does not such a project, so announced, prove 
 more and more clearly, how prudent it would have been 
 to enter into some discussions with him personally in 
 the course of last Spring? We might have moulded 
 him." 
 
 A letter, written on December loth, to catch Frere 
 at Falmouth, dwells with complacency on the thought 
 that the armistice was really at an end, and that Pitt 
 and England were presenting a bold front to the war. 
 " Never was there a game put so completely into the 
 hands of those who are to play it, and in which (con- 
 trary to Lady Malmesbury's proverbial admonitions) the 
 standers-by appeared to have so confidently abandoned 
 all Opinion." There is an affectionate allusion to "the 
 Lion " a sobriquet for Lord Malmesbury among the
 
 36 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 younger Tories and a word of good advice to Frere. 
 " Bestir yourself at Lisbon when you get there and 
 find, or make business to raise a dust that may blind 
 Lord Grenville's eyes to the length of time that you 
 have been in going. Adieu. Joan would send her love, 
 only that she thinks that too good for you but she does 
 send it, nevertheless." 
 
 From this time Canning's letters to Frere went with 
 great regularity, although, thanks to the eccentricities of 
 the postal service, some of them never reached their 
 destination. The first of the year 1801 was written at 
 10 p.m. on January I7th from the Pay Office, and opens 
 with a long criticism of Frere's first dispatches. The 
 anxiety that the new Envoy should please the authorities 
 at home, and the pride in his cleverness, are worthy of 
 an elder brother : 
 
 " First for your dispatches. I have read them with 
 very great satisfaction that I suppose will please you ; 
 but I do not know that you will be equally well pleased 
 to hear, that they were much better than I had expected. 
 Much better, I assure you so much so, as to diminish 
 (perhaps you will not like that, either) the regret which 
 I felt at your going a-foreign-ministring, and to lead me 
 to hope that you may do great things in that way. Your 
 French Note is so good as to have a full claim to the 
 qualification of Excellence which Hammond insists upon 
 my refusing to you. It is very good indeed somewhat 
 too long, but that is no matter and perhaps a little 
 above its work, considering that it is only about Portugal, 
 and addressed to nothing better than a Portuguee, and 
 that the worst that it portends is a small degree of ruin 
 and revolution to a Govt. that does not seem very 
 desirous of making exertions to avoid them but that
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 37 
 
 is all the better, and the generalities, if too good for 
 Lisbon, tell very well here. I am persuaded the K[ing] 
 will like it. I understand from Hammond that Lord 
 G[renville] expresses himself perfectly satisfied. And the 
 cheerfulness with which he appears to have approved 
 of what you have done, and the promptness of his 
 answer, are likely to efface from his mind the remembrance 
 of your want of promptness in setting out, and of the 
 displeasure which he certainly felt at it. 
 
 " One or two things only I have to find fault with in 
 your dispatches. ist. You ought not to date them 
 "Monday" Jany. 5th, but "Lisbon" Jany. 5th or if you 
 insist upon the supererogatory date of the day of the 
 week, you must not omit the place. I added it in a 
 hand as like the original as I could make it, before your 
 dispatches went to the King. 2ndly. Your conclusion 
 ought not to run thus ' I have the honour to be, my 
 Lord, with great truth etc.,' but ' I have the honour to 
 be, with great truth (or whatever it may be), my Lord, 
 Your Lordship's.' If you ask me why one of these is 
 wrong and the other right, I cannot tell you. But so 
 it is. Johnson said to somebody one day who asked 
 him a question about some proposition apparently equally 
 indifferent in its nature, ' Sir, my name might originally 
 have been Nicholson, instead of Johnson, but it is Johnson, 
 and if you call me Nicholson now, you call me wrong.' 
 3rdly. You ought not to mix many distinct subjects in 
 one dispatch. It is the habit of Office, (you know), and 
 besides it gives an air of business and detail, to send 
 Nos. i to 10 by the same conveyance if you have points 
 ten in number to state, or discuss, especially if they are 
 such as may be separately answered. For instance you 
 cram into your long dispatch what you have to say 
 about the preparations for receiving Prince Augustus.
 
 3 8 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 This at all events ought to have been the subject of a 
 separate Dispatch. It need not have been longer than 
 the Paragraph as it now stands, with a ' my Lord ' at 
 the beginning, and 'My Lord, Your Lordship's' at the 
 end. And depend upon it, the K. would have liked it 
 better." 
 
 Canning then discusses the character of the British 
 Consul at Lisbon, concluding with the remark : " People 
 grow wonderfully more tolerable when they have some- 
 thing to do and above all when they have ' had losses ' 
 and so forth, and the like of that. By the way, do the 
 Portugueezes or Portingals intercept our Letters and read 
 and decypher them ? or will the Enemy get hold of them 
 and publish them with preface and notes ? If so the 
 world will be some nonsense in pocket which it has 
 long wanted, having had nothing but stupidity of late, 
 which is a very different thing and much less edifying 
 to the world, tho' much more gainful to the Professor. 
 
 " From your consul, I come to your Secretary of 
 whom I like the character that you give me very well, 
 all except his not liking nonsense or not understanding 
 it which last, however, is not so bad he may have an 
 excuse for such a fault in his education, and may mend 
 of it. Is he respectful to you? if so he has great merit 
 for discrimination. If not there is no joke at all and 
 I have therefore been amused without reason at his want 
 of respect to Boringdon. B., you must know, told me 
 that he did not much approve of him. ' Why not ? ' says 
 I. ' Frere tells me he is clever, and agreeable, and modest.' 
 ' Modest ! ' says B., ' the rudest young gentleman I ever 
 saw.' 'Why, what did he do?' 'Do I don't exactly 
 know but he was quite at his ease, and put his legs up 
 on the sofa.' This was all the fact, but it was clear to
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 39 
 
 me that the K. and his palace had not imposed sufficiently 
 and I was prepared to give your young man some 
 credit for his want of awe and astonishment. But if he 
 does not come to understand nonsense, there is no hope 
 of him." 
 
 He reverts to the state of foreign politic 8 , and speaks 
 of the spirit shown " by the Country and the City," which 
 had put him into such good humour that " I have no 
 occasion for the forbearance which in other events I had 
 determined to exercise." 
 
 Little did he know how soon his resolutions were to be 
 tested. Never was a more disastrous day for him than 
 that which saw Pitt retire from office. The story of his 
 resignation has been often told, but it may be as well to 
 give a brief summary of the events that led to it. 
 
 After passing the Act of Union with Ireland, Pitt felt 
 himself in honour bound to take some measures for the 
 relief of the Roman Catholics, who had given their support 
 to the Act in the hope that their claims to justice would 
 receive favourable consideration. It has been said that no 
 definite pledge was given to them : this may be true, but it is 
 certain that there was a general belief that, when the Union 
 was completed, some of the harsh distinctions between 
 the Irish Catholics and the rest of His Majesty's subjects 
 were to be abolished. It is also certain that, without the 
 support, or, at all events, the neutrality of the Irish Roman 
 Catholics, the Act of Union would never have become law 
 at that time. 
 
 In the autumn of 1800, Pitt and Lord Grenville had 
 drawn up a scheme by which a political test was to 
 be substituted for the sacramental test hitherto imposed 
 upon all persons holding office under the Crown. The 
 Lord Chancellor Loughborough was consulted privately
 
 40 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 on the matter, but nothing was said to the King. In the 
 September of 1800, Loughborough was staying with His 
 Majesty at Weymouth, and while there received a con- 
 fidential letter from Pitt, with various letters drawn up by 
 Lord Castlereagh, which were to be laid before the next 
 meeting of the Cabinet. Knowing the King's strong 
 prejudice against a large class of his subjects, and his 
 obstinate belief that the barest measure of justice to that 
 class would be a violation of his Coronation Oath, the 
 Lord Chancellor thought he perceived an opportunity of 
 supplanting the Minister and gaining the King's confidence. 
 He showed Pitt's letter to George III., whose religious 
 bigotry instantly took alarm. At the levee on Wednesday, 
 January 28th, 1801, "he intimated to Wyndham that he 
 should consider any person who voted for the measure 
 as personally indisposed towards him." Such a public 
 declaration of the King's feeling obliged Pitt to tender his 
 resignation on January 3 1st, and although the King, at 
 first hesitated to accept it, they could not arrange a 
 compromise. Pitt's friend, Henry Addington, the Speaker 
 of the House of Commons, was invited by the King, and 
 encouraged by Pitt, to form a cabinet. While this was 
 in process of arrangement, the King was seized with one 
 of the attacks of mental derangement from which he had 
 been free for the last twelve years. Pitt and Addington, 
 the one Minister de facto, the other de jure, were obliged 
 to transact business in concert, and to confer on the 
 necessity of a Regency Bill. But in the beginning of 
 March the King recovered his senses. 
 
 Pitt gave up the Exchequer Seal on March I4th. The 
 general impression has always been that the Roman 
 Catholic claims were the sole cause of his retirement from 
 office. But several of his contemporaries were of opinion 
 that this question had been used as a cover for Pitt's real
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 41 
 
 motive. It was impossible that England, single-handed, 
 could carry on the war against France, with wheat at the 
 famine price of I2os. a quarter. It was impossible that 
 Pitt, whose health was breaking, could continue much 
 longer in the place he had held triumphantly for more 
 than seventeen years. A breathing space was necessary 
 alike for the country and the Minister. Pitt would resign 
 to another the unpopular task of making peace, and return 
 refreshed to his labours when the new ministry were at 
 the end of their resources. Lord Mahon * and Lord Ash- 
 bourne t strenuously deny that Pitt had any such motive 
 in resigning office, but it was the opinion of such men as 
 Lord Malmesbury and Frere, who had every opportunity 
 of knowing what passed behind the scenes. " It looks at 
 times to me," says Lord Malmesbury, in his diary of 
 February 7th, 1801, "as if Pitt was playing a very selfish, 
 and, in the present state of affairs, a very criminal part ; 
 that he goes out to show his own strength, and under the 
 certain expectation of being soon called upon again to 
 govern the country, with uncontrolled power." 
 
 Lord Grenville, and the other members of the Cabinet 
 who had given their support to the Roman Catholic claims, 
 could only follow Pitt into retirement But there were 
 some young and promising men, such as Canning, holding 
 the lesser posts under Government, whom it seemed 
 unnecessary to displace, and -there were others who might 
 be willing to join the new administration if they were 
 assured that their support of Addington did not involve 
 hostility to Pitt. Pitt made it a special request that his 
 retirement should not affect his friends ; and several (his 
 brother, Lord Chatham, for instance), found that their 
 attachment to Pitt obliged them to remain. 
 
 * " Life of Pitt." 
 
 t " Some Chapters on Pitt"
 
 42 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Canning's dismay and disappointment were severe. The 
 change came upon him, as on Pitt's other friends, like an 
 earthquake shock, but it hardly can have affected any one 
 else so deeply. With brilliant talents and a large fortune, 
 treated by Pitt as his son, the world seemed at his feet. 
 Now, at one of the most important crises through which 
 England had ever passed in her struggle with France, 
 Pitt was deserting his post, and Canning was left to his 
 own devices. Addington made several efforts to secure 
 him, probably not so much from a real desire for his 
 services, as from a terror that his gifts of satire would be 
 employed against the new administration ; but no offers 
 could tempt Canning to remain. The fiery soul that had 
 chafed at Pitt's cautious measures was not likely to take 
 service with the good dull conscientious man whom the 
 good dull conscientious King fitly described as " his own 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer." 
 
 The state of feeling among the younger members of 
 Pitt's party is shown by the following letter from Charles 
 Ellis : 
 
 " LONDON, 
 " Tuesday, Feby, 10, 1801. 
 
 " MY DEAR FRERE, 
 
 " You will have received from Canning the History 
 and Particulars of the Change of Administration, but he 
 probably will not have told you that his own Conduct has 
 been that of the truest and sincerest Friend to Pitt, and, 
 I am sorry to add (with only a few exceptions) his Conduct 
 alone deserves that Character. Pitt certainly has requested 
 his Friends to remain in office, and he has pressed his 
 request strongly and those who remain, all of them, say 
 it is from Motives of Friendship to him ; and some, feel 
 their Friendship for him, and their Duty to their Country, 
 particularly and more strongly to call upon them to take
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 43 
 
 office in support of their Country at the Crisis, when he 
 deserts it* 
 
 "... You will probably receive a dispatch from Jawk 
 [Lord Hawkesbury] as your new Lord and Master, by next 
 Mail. I wish in the mean time you would finish (and 
 return with your first answer) the Song of the little 
 Ploughboy ' so simple as may be ' from a scrap of that 
 song by Canning (Ralph loquitur] : 
 
 '"So great a man ! so great a man ! so great a man I'll be, 
 You'll forget the stupid Speaker who sat behin* the Lee. ' 
 
 " You will hear with pleasure that people very generally 
 do Justice to Canning's conduct and feelings towards Pitt. 
 (I am not quite satisfied that Pitt himself feels the ob- 
 ligations as he ought.) However fine the Motives of 
 disinterestedness may be, of those who have taken the 
 opposite method of expressing their Friendship, his plain 
 simple reason ' that when Pitt, the only man in his opinion 
 fit to be Minister, goes out, he follows his Example and 
 that in the choice between following that Example or 
 serving under the Person who has the foolish Vanity to 
 think he can replace him, there cannot be a moment's 
 Doubt' so perfectly sound in theory, and so manly in 
 practice, that it cannot fail of being felt by all men of 
 common understanding and common notions of Morality, 
 and so God help us all, for our Ministry cannot." 
 
 Pitt cannot be blamed if he did not regard Canning's 
 behaviour in the light in which Canning's friends regarded 
 it. There are times when the minister at the head of 
 affairs cannot take his subordinates into his confidence. 
 He requires them to trust him, to follow his lead without 
 
 * This is a hit at Lord Eldon, who took the Great Seal " only in 
 obedience to the King's command and at the advice and earnest 
 recommendation of Mr. Pitt."
 
 44 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 question, and this was just what Canning was not prepared 
 to do. Frere would often speak of an occasion when 
 Canning had been moving heaven and earth to abolish 
 slavery in the conquered colonies by a simple order in 
 council. Pitt would not issue the order, and " Canning 
 was as angry as he could be with Pitt." In speaking of 
 the events which followed Pitt's retirement, Frere said : " I 
 have no doubt Pitt foresaw what would happen. He did 
 not wish to have to make the peace which was inevitable, 
 and knew he must come in again soon after it was made ; 
 and he wished, on his return, to find Canning in office, 
 where he might have retained him without difficulty from 
 his aristocratic supporters ; but Canning would not let him. 
 I was obliged to remind Canning of it afterwards, when he 
 was crusty with Lord Dudley for much the same thing. 
 I told him, ' Dudley is now doing to you what you did to 
 Pitt refusing to follow a lead the necessity of which you 
 see, and he does not' It is the hardest of a minister's 
 trials not always to be able to acknowledge his own 
 weakness, and give his reasons in such a case." 
 
 The first of Canning's letters after the change of ministry 
 is dated from the Pay Office, on March 24th. It dryly 
 announces that the old ministers are out, that the new 
 ministers are setting about making peace as fast as they 
 can, and that he is moving to a house in Hereford Street. 
 He is in the middle of a long letter that will explain 
 everything, to Frere. " For the rest, I do not like things 
 at all. But Joan is pretty well, and bears all like a little 
 heroine." 
 
 Mrs. Canning was then so near her confinement that it 
 would have been dangerous for her to move, and in the end 
 Canning remained in his old quarters, at the earnest request 
 of his successor, until after the birth of her son. She was 
 dangerously ill ; but the child, born on April 25th, was " a
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 45 
 
 fine large handsome Boy, in the highest possible health 
 and spirits whereof wish me joy" as his father proudly 
 wrote. The long letter to Frere was first sent to Pitt, who 
 returned it with a letter that may be found in Stanhope's 
 " Life." It is calm, dignified, and not unkindly in tone,, 
 but its very temperateness must have irritated Canning's 
 restless temper. A few sharp words, followed by an 
 affectionate reproach, would have had more effect on the 
 impetuous Irishman than the lofty assurance that " I do 
 not acquiesce in the idea that there has been anything 
 unkind, much less unfair in any part of my conduct, or 
 anything either for me to excuse or for you to complain 
 of or to forgive." ..." Under the circumstances," he 
 concludes, " I most deeply regret your having misunderstood 
 me as you now appear to have done, and still more the 
 effect which that misunderstanding has produced ; but I 
 really cannot ascribe this to any fault of mine." 
 
 Whether a copy of this letter was sent to Lisbon, is 
 uncertain, but it mattered little to Frere, as Canning's 
 letter with all its inclosures was lost in the Earl Cower 
 packet. By the time that he heard of its fate, Canning 
 was settled at South Hill, the country house which he had 
 recently purchased, whither he took his wife as soon as 
 she was able to travel. From thence he wrote to Frere, 
 on Tuesday, July 7th : 
 
 " I could not write to you on Sunday, in pursuance of 
 my plan, adopted since I came here, to take you im- 
 mediately after morning service. I had only just received 
 the confirmation of the loss of my long letter and all its 
 enclosures in the Gower packet. And it is really so 
 disheartening that I know not how to set about repairing 
 it. That Letter contained answers not only to all the 
 questions that you do put to me, but to every possible
 
 46 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 question that you could put to me respecting the present 
 state of things, as far as I am concerned with it. And its 
 Inclosures were papers which I would not have lost for any 
 consideration, or risqued for any short of that of giving you 
 the most perfect and correct notion of all that had passed 
 here some of them copies, of which I have no duplicate, 
 others originals of which I have no copy, and which it 
 is vain to think of recovering by memory, or by any 
 other means. God send that they are safe at the bottom 
 of the sea that is my only anxiety now for I should 
 be loth to see them published with Notes and a Preface 
 such as the Prince of the Peace's Secretary would write 
 to them. . . . 
 
 " Perhaps you do not know where I am now, for this 
 information, if I am not mistaken, was contained in my 
 long Letter. I have bought a Place and a very pretty 
 one not very large, but large enough, in Windsor Forest 
 28 miles from Town, 9 from Windsor a good house, 
 and a farm of 200 acres with Cows, and pigs, and sheep 
 (which I have just shorn and got 15 todd of wool no, 
 not 15 I forget exactly how many todd, but I shall get 
 i 5 for it), and sundry other appurtenances, of which it 
 is impossible to convey an accurate idea by writing, but 
 which this Portuguese Peace may perhaps send you home 
 to survey with your own eyes. . . . 
 
 " See the Despatches ! Lord help you, not I ! I have 
 seen nothing since March I think since, in short, the 
 Change of Govt. was completed and seeing absolutely 
 nothing, I learn nearly as little in any other way. I 
 foresaw that Hammond would soon be ordered not to 
 tell anything. And I thought it kindest to him therefore, 
 as well as pleasantest for myself, to desire him beforehand 
 to make no scruple of treating me like an Alien to the 
 Foreign Office at once and so I have of course been
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 47 
 
 treated. Not that I have any coolness with Jawk* not 
 at all. He has behaved perfectly well in the only point 
 in which he had to behave at all, that is in talking to me 
 kindly about you, and expressing a great desire to gratify 
 your wishes in all respects. . . . 
 
 " Adieu. This is all for the present except to tell you 
 that my loss of office does not imply the loss of rank 
 as a Privy Councillor, which you seem to imagine." 
 
 Mr. George Hammond, whose name frequently occurs 
 in these letters, was the first British Minister ever accredited 
 to the United States. On his return to England, in 1795, 
 he became Under Secretary at the Foreign Office, and 
 was on intimate terms with both Canning and Frere. 
 He contributed to the Anti-Jacobin, and the Quarterly 
 Review is said to have owed its birth to a dinner-party 
 at his house in Spring Gardens. He was a most con- 
 venient friend, as parcels of all kinds could be sent from 
 Lisbon to his care, at a great saving of expense and 
 trouble. The orange-trees for "Joan's" conservatory, which 
 Canning demands of Frere in every letter at this time 
 were to be addressed to Hammond at the Foreign Office. 
 
 On Sunday, July I2th, Canning was still lamenting 
 his " poor long letter," which seems to have played the 
 same part in his correspondence that "the great fire at 
 Wolf's Craig" fulfilled in Caleb Balderstone's domestic 
 economy. After dwelling on all that Frere must suffer 
 by its loss, he pours out his grievances against Pitt in 
 an almost incoherent burst of feeling. The dashes and 
 the underlined words show how excitedly he wrote : 
 
 " My dear Frere, 
 
 "... Was it in that, or in any previous or subsequent 
 letter, for instance, that I told you that I considered my 
 * Lord Hawkesbury.
 
 48 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 intercourse with P. as closed for ever? I did so consider 
 it for some time. His conduct towards me was neither 
 what / had a right to expect from him nor what any 
 one man would have had a right to expect from another 
 under similar circumstances. Confidence, just enough to 
 mislead, and not enough to guide ; enough, and more 
 than enough, to make one feel one's self a party to all 
 that he did, and bound therefore in common honour to 
 share in all the consequence of it, but stopping short of 
 the point at which one might have begun to see that 
 he had an intention of separating himself from those 
 who ought naturally to be his followers ; complete and 
 unreserved sacrifice of me to A. not (I am willing to 
 believe) because he loved me less, but yet on what 
 other principle [am I] to account for it? a want of 
 determination (I firmly believe) when he began to act, 
 how far he should go, or what line he should take, but 
 a hesitation to own that he was so undetermined ; and 
 then a zeal, not originally felt by him, but which kindled 
 as he went on, for the real, as well as ostensible, support 
 of his new creation, which, never having in the outset 
 attempted to inspire me with it, he yet pretended to 
 think it strange I did not catch like others (who, 
 God knows, caught it readily enough, and inflamed by 
 it, devoted themselves to continuance in office) ; a want 
 of candour, which I have never met with in him before, 
 in discussing retrospectively the motives upon which he 
 acted, or might allow it to be possible for others to act, 
 and a stubborn self-satisfaction in the consciousness that, 
 whatever I might think or feel, I could never easily 
 make my case good to others, but should be obliged 
 to acquiesce ultimately in the broad, general, and in 
 respect to me utterly false description of having acted, 
 singly, against his known wishes, the rest the how and
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 49 
 
 why being, as he knew, between ourselves only ; if I 
 could forget and forgive, well \ but it must be upon 
 the condition of his not being called upon to own that 
 there was any thing to be forgiven ; if I resented 
 
 lastingly, well too ; for then In short I rilled up 
 
 this conclusion for him in the way most calculated to 
 justify me in the belief, and in the resolution, that our 
 intercourse was closed for ever. 
 
 " Such are the rough features of his conduct towards 
 me ; and such the motives, or the excuses, or the 
 aggravating circumstances which I attributed, and in 
 great part do still attribute to it. But yet my heart is 
 a little softened towards him. I have long been acting, 
 as if it was so ; long before I felt any compunctious 
 visitings of kindness. 
 
 " I acted then because I had a pride and a pleasure 
 in exhausting all the sacrifices that I could make for 
 him, in adding to those of office, of ambition, of hopes 
 and prospects, which he did not chuse to take to himself, 
 the more acceptable offerings of all the prejudices, and 
 dislikes, proud, resentful, or jealous feelings as he would 
 call them all the natural and justifiable manly and 
 consistent judgment of others, and estimation of one's 
 self, as I think them, which, indulged to their full extent, 
 would have made a cordial reconciliation between A. 
 and me impossible. This sacrifice I did make ; how, 
 you would have known in detail, if my long letter and 
 its enclosures had reached you. You would have known 
 too in equal detail how this sacrifice had been met on 
 the part of him who was the subject of it. All this it 
 is not now worth while to describe minutely, but it is 
 but just to A. to say that his behaviour throughout was 
 fair, mild, and conciliating much beyond what / could 
 have adopted towards any person in such circumstances 
 
 4
 
 So J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 but then such is his behaviour to every body, friend 
 or foe, and I therefore take it as no particular merit 
 to myself, and ascribe it to him only in justice, not 
 in praise. So it is, however ; what after the corre- 
 spondence which you have seen, you would not readily 
 believe, we are excellent good friends, A. and I so 
 much so, in his estimation, that I happen to know that 
 the other day it was used as a topic of persuasion to 
 a friend of mine (I do not like to mention names in a 
 letter which is so very likely to fall into other hands 
 than your's) whom a common friend of his and A['s] 
 wished to induce to take office, that there could be no 
 objection on my account, for that A. considered me as 
 perfectly kind and cordial towards him. 
 
 "The utmost feeling of good-nature towards P. with 
 which I agreed to do my part towards producing and 
 evincing these amicable dispositions, was a sort of sullen 
 gratification that I had in doing everything that he 
 could desire in return for his having done by me so 
 little that was either for my comfort or my interest. 
 This arrangement made, however, took away something 
 from the awkwardness and embarrassment of our meeting, 
 and I would not meet him without having brought to 
 my remembrance so much of former kindness, and 
 undoubted good disposition, as, without in the least 
 degree altering my opinion of his recent conduct, to 
 incline me very much to think that I ought not to be 
 extreme in judging it, that I ought to make allowance 
 for the hurry and agitation in which he acted at 
 that time (and yet this hurry and agitation did not 
 prevent his doing scrupulously and magnanimously right 
 by everybody but me) and that I should forgive in 
 fact not in words; (to forget would be foolish, if it 
 were possible).
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 51 
 
 " We, therefore, parted perfectly on our old footing, 
 and I expect him here. 
 
 "If you could have known how sick I am of this 
 whole subject, if you knew the pains which I bestowed 
 upon the full and circumstantial history of it, in all its 
 parts and progress, which I sent to you eight weeks 
 ago, and could appreciate the degree of nausea I feel 
 in skimming it over a second time, you really would 
 feel obliged to me for having so far complied with your 
 injunctions. 
 
 " Here I must rest for the present. 
 
 "J. sends her love, and begs you not to forget the 
 Orange Trees. 
 
 " Adieu." 
 
 It is evident from this letter that Canning's heart 
 was yearning after his old chief, and that, although he 
 would not himself find excuses for Pitt, he was anxious 
 that Frere should find them. In the mean time, Portugal 
 had succumbed to France, and signed a treaty by which 
 she renounced her alliance with England, and closed her 
 ports against English ships. This was good news for 
 Canning for two reasons : it opened a prospect of 
 Frere's speedy return, and it gave him a triumph over 
 Pitt. In a letter of July 24th he speaks in quite 
 charitable terms of " Poor P.," who " has been dreaming 
 away about Peace and had really convinced himself 
 that we were to have it before midsummer." " It is 
 very extraordinary that all his own experience should 
 have taught him no better, but he certainly did believe 
 that a determined disposition to peace on one side only 
 would bring it about in spite of Bonaparte. I apprehend 
 he is undeceived by this time," writes Canning com- 
 placently.
 
 52 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Before he dispatched his next letter, intelligence was 
 received of the loss of another Lisbon packet with one, 
 if not two, of his letters on board. This, and the certainty 
 that the Portuguese peace had done nothing to hasten 
 Frere's return, reduced Canning to the depths of despair. 
 He has no heart to write another long letter ; if Frere 
 wishes for information on any point he must ask questions 
 and repeat them till they are answered. " I have scarcely 
 any pleasure in writing, and know not how to trust to 
 so precarious a conveyance anything that it would be 
 at all interesting for you to read. ... If you have 
 received none of my Letters, I cannot help it. I write 
 and send them and can do no more. I scold here as 
 if it were your fault which I know it is not. But it is 
 surely strange that the correspondence with our Minister 
 at such a place as Lisbon should be suffered to remain 
 on a footing more uncertain than the penny post." 
 
 The next letter contains little but a reiterated demand 
 for the orange trees, some of which were designed as a 
 present for Lady Jane Dundas, the best being reserved 
 for Mrs. Canning. It took many letters to stir Frere 
 to the point of getting them, but they did arrive at last, 
 and gave satisfaction. Canning was settling down to 
 the life of a country gentleman, and trying to persuade 
 himself that he liked it. A man that reached maturity 
 without knowing that tadpoles turned into frogs until 
 he was enlightened by Frere (who instructed his nephew 
 " not to tell that story of Canning to the first fool he 
 met") was not likely to be successful with agricultural 
 pursuits. On August i/th he gives a humorous account 
 of his difficulties. Mr. Borrowes was the man of business 
 who transacted affairs for the various members of the 
 Canning family. " Boo " is nowhere else mentioned in 
 the letters to Frere :
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 53 
 
 " I am in the midst of my harvest, and of sundry 
 calculations connected with It, by which I have the 
 satisfaction of proving to myself that I shall lose about 
 100 a year annually by my farm (supposing It to 
 prosper as It is now doing with every help of fine 
 weather and high prices) in addition to the interest of 
 the purchase money. This is a cheering result But 
 as Boo's Mama said of his loss by his two political 
 Pamphlets, it is better than throwing away one's money, 
 as other idle young men do, in worse pursuits. And as 
 I have never yet made by anything (except by two old 
 diamond snuff-boxes which I sold or got my friend 
 Borrowes to sell for me to a Jew the week before I 
 left Town for .300 Guineas I should say, I beg the 
 Jew's pardon) I am the less at a loss how to bear my 
 present prospect of success in farming. I hope you 
 find Foreign Ministering a more profitable trade. If 
 not otherwise you can get the government here to accede 
 to the French and Spanish Treaty, and then you will 
 get a snuff-box, and Borrowes shall recommend you a 
 Jew. Or, if you chuse to retire after the war, (which 
 however and without joking I hope you will never think 
 of doing) you might come and take a tight little Farm 
 House that I have to let here with 20 acres of ground 
 about it, and so lose your proportion of my 100 loss 
 yearly. 
 
 "Then we might go together to moralize over Sir W. 
 Trumball's * monument, who, you know, retired to this 
 Parish from the Secretaryship of State and after many 
 foreign missions and 'enjoyed the liberty he loved,' as 
 Pope very foolishly sings of him. But do not retire. I 
 
 * Sir W. Trumball, Secretary of State to William III., and the friend 
 of Pope, who dedicated his First Pastoral to him, and alludes to him in 
 his " Windsor Forest." The quotation is from the epitaph by Pope.
 
 54 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 am very serious. Retirement is well enough at 64 (which 
 I think was Trumball's age) but at your's and mine, it is 
 rather to be borne, if it must come, than sought or con- 
 tinued if you can avoid it. / own this to you and yet I 
 know nobody who has more to make them happy, or who 
 is more happy and more thankful for the means of 
 happiness within their power than I ought to be, and than 
 I ant. But the thought will obtrude itself now and then, 
 that I am not where I should be non hoc pollicitus. I 
 dismiss this and such-like reflections as well as I can." 
 
 Although every-day happiness in a quiet country home 
 was not of itself enough for Canning, he was passionately 
 devoted to wife and child. He received a long string of 
 questions from Frere, some of which had reference to the 
 political situation ; but when next he wrote from " South 
 Hill Park not Farm, nor Grove, still less Place to which It 
 has no analogy," he only cared to answer those relating to 
 his little boy : 
 
 " My little boy's name is George Charles, but he drops 
 his Charles as you do your Hookham, never signing it but 
 to dispatches, nor allowing it to be printed except in the 
 red book. He came by it, by having the Prss. for his 
 Godmother. By rights he ought to have been Charles 
 and Charles alone that being the male name answering 
 to Caroline. But the Prss. knew that Joan was very 
 desirous that he should bear my name, and she there- 
 fore very good-naturedly commanded that he should 
 be called George and Charles I added for her sake. 
 If my second lost Letter had reached you, it would have 
 told you all about the Christening how Leigh officiated 
 with Mrs. Leigh and Aunt Fanny to support him, not 
 as Godmothers, for a boy has but one, but as being my
 
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 55 
 
 nearest She-Relations, commanded by the Prss. to their 
 no small contentment to be present at the ceremony. 
 Dundas and Lord Titchfield were the God-fathers. 
 Dundas was present, Ld. T. was not, but Sneyd was 
 there to represent him, and Pitt was allowed to come 
 to answer to Aunt Fanny. If you had been to be had, 
 you would have filled up my number. And I cannot tell 
 you how much I should have liked your being there. 
 You would have found Pitt and Leigh as capable of being 
 brought into collision at dinner that day as they were, 
 some ten months before, at your grand dinner on the day 
 of my marriage ; but the Prss. being by, and understanding 
 P. as well as she does, and Sneyd helping her to a just 
 understanding of Leigh, the effect was much more happy. 
 It is very extraordinary but P. with all that he has done, 
 and thought, and seen, is such pure nature, that Leigh is 
 himself scarcely more an ingenue than he. (You see I 
 feel kindly enough about him still but notwithstanding all 
 your magnanimous forgiveness I must feel that he used 
 me most unfairly. I have really forgiven him too, but as 
 to putting myself in his power again I shall be not a little 
 cautious.) 
 
 " But to return to my Boy. You ask me the Nurse's 
 opinion of him. I should be sorry to mislead you, and I 
 therefore hold it a point of conscience not to detail to you 
 the excessive and perhaps exaggerated expressions of 
 admiration which I hear every day from both his nurses. 
 ... I should not think I was dealing fairly with you if I 
 did so. His mother too is naturally partial to him in a 
 degree which may perhaps inflame her good opinion of 
 him. But to give you a cool and candid and considered 
 opinion of him myself, I do honestly think that he is one 
 of the finest boys, if not the very finest, that ever was seen : 
 plump, goodhumoured, lively, full of health and vigour and
 
 56 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 spirits having blue eyes, which I am assured are to turn 
 to the exact colour of mine and Joan's having been 
 inoculated with the Cow Pox, when he was but three 
 weeks old, and having had the disease very favourably, 
 and being now busy in teething as fast as he can ; a 
 surprising child, in short ; and promising, for his years 
 or weeks rather, beyond what it would be prudent for me 
 to announce to a world naturally bent upon depreciating 
 extraordinary merit 
 
 " To conclude his history the Fairy his Godmother is 
 coming to South Hill this week to see him. Joan is at this 
 moment bustling about the new Chintz Bed which is put 
 up in the Bow Bedroom for her, and which Mr. Smith, the 
 Windsor upholsterer, has sent home all wrong-done-up 
 never was anything like the blunders which that Up- 
 holsterer has fallen into on this occasion. It would be 
 tedious to particularise them, all suffice it to say the Bed 
 does not at all answer the expectations formed of it, and if 
 the Prss. condescends to sleep soundly in it, it must be 
 more from her own goodness than the bed's desert." 
 
 The Princess was, of course, Caroline of Brunswick, 
 Princess of Wales. It was probably Canning's intimacy 
 with Lord Malmesbury one of the few reliable friends 
 that she possessed that brought him into the little circle 
 that visited the Princess at Blackheath, were invited to 
 her informal dinner parties, and took part in the merry 
 games of romps which generally concluded the evening. 
 As we shall see, his life was clouded by the tragedy 
 of her's. 
 
 Mrs. Canning must have succeeded in making her guests 
 forget the shortcomings of the Windsor upholsterer, for 
 there is a letter from Sneyd in which he assures Frere that 
 " South Hill is in every respect the most comfortable house
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 57 
 
 you can imagine, resembling * in this one particular, I 
 fancy, only, that it is a place where ' a Man may stay some 
 time at.'" The menage must have been expensive if one 
 may trust the report of that delightful gossip, old John 
 Frere, who writes thus to his son on November 25th, 
 1 80 1 : "When I was dining at Leigh's the other day, a 
 very fine gentleman called for commands to Mr. Canning's. 
 I learned afterwards that he was going down as Cook, at 
 100 salary. I am afraid our friend will forget his 
 diminution of income by the loss of his place, and mis- 
 calculate his expenses, for he has no more notion of the 
 value of money than when he was an Eton school-boy." 
 Of economizing and saving for himself, Canning had 
 certainly no idea. The small pension to which he was 
 entitled on his retirement from office was at once secured 
 by him to his mother, and at the time of his death his 
 effects, sworn under 20,000, amounted to about 5,000 or 
 6,000. 
 
 In the autumn of 1801, strenuous efforts were made to 
 bring Canning into the ministry. For a time he seemed 
 to yield, wrought upon by the desire to be once more in 
 the midst of the strife. But, spoiled by too much success 
 in early youth, he could not bide his leader's time, and he 
 could not obey a man whom he rightly esteemed in every 
 way his inferior. The scheme was defeated, as he wrote 
 to Frere in a letter that exhibits at once his best and his 
 worst characteristics his steadfast loyalty to his friends, 
 and his obstinate perversity and domineering temper : 
 
 "SOUTH HILL, 
 "Sept. 30, 1801. 
 
 " . . '. I remember writing to you once, while I was 
 endeavouring to make up my mind to comply with P.'s 
 
 * Word illegible.
 
 5 8 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 wishes, and had actually got so far as to bring myself to 
 believe that I could not bear being out of office much 
 longer. This was a false fictitious feeling, which P.'s- 
 representations, and my own interest and anxious medita- 
 tions upon them had generated but which upon sober 
 reflection, passed away again, and left me in a condition 
 to determine, as the enclosed letter will show you. ... I 
 would rather be let alone for a time at least than have 
 any offer made me. I could not now take any office with 
 comfort nor I think with credit anything but responsible 
 office neither now nor ever. 
 
 "You will easily conceive how much I must have 
 wanted you, during the struggle that I have had with 
 myself and with others upon this occasion. Your letter 
 came, not opportunely with its recommendation of poor 
 P. to forgiveness and reconcilement. I do love him, and 
 reverence him as I should a Father but a father should 
 not sacrifice me, with my good will. Most heartily I 
 forgive him. But he has to answer to himself, and to the 
 country for much mischief that he has done, and much 
 that is still to do. I cannot help this but I can help 
 bearing a hand in it, and I will. I have an answer from 
 him to the enclosed the most kind, and in every respect,, 
 the most satisfactory imaginable. . . . 
 
 " Leveson is the person with whom I have consulted 
 most upon this business. He is strenuous in approving 
 my determination. Next to him I have talked with 
 Scroggs, who is entitled to be consulted with by me on- 
 such points, by having refused to take the Under Secry. in 
 the Home Office, when it was offered him at the time of 
 the change, against my remonstrance but almost solely, I 
 believe, on my account. He too approves. And both 
 approve very disinterestedly for I had stipulated that if 
 the discussion should end otherwise, offer should be made
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 59 
 
 to both of them .at the same time with me and P. had 
 undertaken for the performance of this stipulation L. 
 perhaps would not have accepted S. probably would and 
 he ought still, and I hope will, and if I can make him, shall 
 accept any offer (A. is very likely to make him one) that 
 is creditable and advantageous to himself." 
 
 The negotiations for peace continued, and at last the 
 preliminaries were settled, and signed on October 1st. We 
 restored to France, Spain and Holland all the colonies or 
 islands occupied or conquered by us in the course of the 
 war, with the exception of Trinidad and Ceylon. Malta 
 was restored to the Knights of St. John, and Egypt to the 
 Sublime Porte. The prisoners made on each were to be 
 restored without ransom, after the plenipotentiaries had 
 concluded the definitive treaty at Amiens. 
 
 Lord Stanhope quotes a saying which he attributes to 
 " the author of Junius," which exactly describes the situation. 
 " It is a peace which every body is glad of, though nobody 
 is proud of." The relief to all classes in England was 
 considerable. When General Lauriston, the First Consul's 
 A.D.C., arrived at St. James's with the ratification of the 
 Preliminary Articles, he was dragged in triumph through 
 the streets with loud cheers, by the mob. London and 
 some other towns were illuminated, as a sign of the 
 universal rejoicing. 
 
 Canning, Lord Grenville, and a few others, did not 
 share the general satisfaction. They could only see 
 shame and humiliation in a treaty by which we made 
 such concessions. 
 
 " Upon this subject of the Preliminaries, I will not enter 
 till I can write more at large. GOD forgive P. for the hand 
 he has has had in them ! You will read in the Newspapers
 
 60 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 (in Porcupine* I hope) of the drawing of Bonaparte's 
 Aide-de-camp through the streets of London. I envy you 
 your absence from the scene of such disgrace to the Country. 
 For my own part, I am sick of all that has happened, or is 
 likely to happen, as far as I can foresee and if I can have 
 my own way, I will not stir from South Hill this winter. 
 But more of this, when I write next. To-day I am going 
 to see Ld. Grenville. It is a comfort to talk with any 
 person who is not absolutely infatuated what a comfort 
 it would be, if I were in a situation to act with such. But 
 I am not at least till a new Parliament . . . 
 
 " The Prss. was here for two days, very quietly and com- 
 fortably nobody with her but Mrs. Vernon and we had 
 nobody to meet her for I had relied on P. and he did not 
 come. There was nobody else I liked to ask or who 
 would have been natural in her society. 
 
 " My little boy grows and improves wonderfully. He is 
 really much the nicest little boy that ever was seen. 
 
 " Shall you not come and see him, do you think, this 
 winter ? Between her two peaces, one that she made for 
 herself, and one that Hawkesbury has made for her, I 
 should think that Portugal might let you away for a month 
 or two, and yet have you back by the time that she is 
 called upon to purchase a third." 
 
 Before Canning wrote again, the aspect of affairs had 
 changed a little. In spite of its humiliating concessions, 
 the peace had been received throughout the whole of the 
 United Kingdom with the most unbounded joy and grati- 
 tude ; and in spite of the contempt with which Addington 
 (according to Canning) was regarded in the City and the 
 House of Commons, his administration seemed to be 
 gaining strength. Members of the old Opposition were 
 
 * Gobbet's organ, so styled from his pseudonym of " Peter Porcupine."
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 61 
 
 gradually joining his party, and there was a talk of such 
 influential men as Tierney and Grey being bribed into 
 supporting him. Under these circumstances, Canning 
 intended to resign his seat in Parliament which he owed to 
 Pitt, to stand for an independent constituency, and to take 
 his own line in the new Parliament. He wrote a letter of 
 four sheets to Frere on November 7th, describing his 
 intentions. It would be amusing to read the assurances of 
 steadiness and temperate conduct, were it not for the 
 thought that in breaking them, Canning ruined his whole 
 career. 
 
 " I need not say to you that the idea of the possibility 
 of being entirely separated from P. of taking part on a 
 different side from him in the H. of C. is very painful to 
 me. But surely the situation in which he places me is 
 cruelly unfair. Determined, he assures me, never again to 
 take a leading part in public life himself, and devoting 
 himself to the support of a man, of whom I know he must, 
 and does think as I do, that he is utterly unfit to fill the 
 station in which he is placed has he a right (indeed he 
 does not^ pretend to it) or am I, in the most refined con- 
 struction of what I owe to him, bound, to consider my 
 allegiance as bound up in his, and necessarily transferable 
 with it ? to consider myself as obliged to give my support 
 to measures, not his, not in all cases which he approves, 
 but which, even disapproving, he thinks it right to support 
 the man who proposes them, because he has said he 
 would because the Man relied on his promise, and because 
 he is magnanimously resolved to keep his word, cost him 
 what it may in character and consistency. Am I bound 
 to this though he may chuse to continue to think himself 
 so, even after the pretext on which A.'s government, 
 feeble and foolish though it is, was represented originally
 
 62 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 as entitled to the support of all right-thinkers and well- 
 disposed the keeping out Opposition is not only done 
 away but done away by A.'s own act and those very men 
 whom he was put in to exclude, and whose exclusion was 
 the ground on which support was claimed for him, are 
 taken to his bosom when peace has been already made 
 in their spirit and when they (as may probably be soon 
 the case) and not he, are the most efficient and ostensible 
 Members of Govt. in the House of Commons ? . . . 
 
 " I will not become factious if I can help it I really have 
 no inclination to it and I do believe I shall be able to 
 guard myself against any seductions, either of ill company, 
 or of tempting opportunity : but I believe too, at least I 
 very much hope that a temperate and mitigated Opposition 
 in Parliament, in which one should judge and act fairly 
 upon measures as they arose, contending, however, uniformly 
 all the while and upon every occasion that the Man was 
 utterly the fool he is, and that it is mischief and madness 
 to trust the Country in his hands might do a great deal 
 of good, and presents a highly respectable line of Conduct, 
 not to say a very amusing one for the opposition to a fool, 
 qucetenus fool, would be a new, and hitherto unexKausted 
 ground." 
 
 So, in mere gaiety of heart, and thinking that it would 
 be " very amusing " as he had thought, no doubt, of 
 school-boy pranks at Eton, of boyish escapades at Christ- 
 church, and of the wildest vagaries of the Anti-Jacobin, 
 did Canning prepare to sow the crop that he was to reap 
 throughout his life in the estrangement of old friends, the 
 undying rancour of enemies, and the surly distrust of the 
 general public. "The character for honesty and well- 
 meaningness and so forth," which by Canning's own 
 admission no one denied to Addington, was, after all, a
 
 THE YOUTH OF CANNING. 63 
 
 more valuable possession than all his own brilliant talents. 
 It appealed to the mass of dull respectability which 
 constitutes the majority of Englishmen, as Canning's 
 impassioned eloquence and dazzling wit could never succeed 
 in doing. 
 
 Pitt might still regard the young man as his political 
 heir, but Canning had practically disinherited himself for 
 life when he entered upon the campaign against Addington.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 
 1801 1806. 
 
 AT the end of the year 1801 Pitt must have had enough 
 to harass him without the fresh sources of irritation 
 which Canning was about to open. Besides the state of 
 his health, there were his affairs, which had long been 
 in much embarrassment, and he was forced in the end 
 to accept a loan from some personal friends, and to sell 
 Holwood, where as a boy he had gone birdsnesting. He 
 was in no condition to restrain Canning, and after an 
 attempt in September to induce him to support Addington, 
 he left his irrepressible follower to go his own way, first 
 sending him a letter, a copy of which in Mrs. Canning's 
 writing, is at Roydon. " It is a satisfaction to me to think 
 that in attempting to do good, I have at least not done 
 any harm," writes the overwearied statesman. " At all 
 Events be assured that tho" for your sake as well as my 
 own I regret your determination, It can make no variation 
 in my Sentiments of Friendship or Affection towards you, 
 or in my Solicitude for whatever may best unite your 
 Fame and Happiness with the Public Interest." 
 
 In November Canning was called up to town by the 
 threat of a motion by Sir Francis Burdett for inquiry into 
 the conduct of the war. There he met Pitt, and flattered 
 
 64
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 65 
 
 himself that he began to see signs of a coldness between 
 him and Addington. Tierney was joining the new 
 ministry, and Canning looked forward to quarrels between 
 him and Pitt on questions of finance. 
 
 " SOUTH HILL, 
 
 "Nov. list, 1801. 
 
 "... A. is endeavouring (as in my last letter I told you 
 he would) to strengthen himself as fast as possible, in- 
 dependently of P. Sheep as he is, he is calling in the 
 Wolves to his assistance. . . . Tierney's business is 
 notorious, and so far P. sanctioned it long ago, as to agree 
 that it would be prudent to buy him off; but I am 
 persuaded he had then no notion of their bringing him 
 in at home, but looked to his going to the East Indies 
 which at first A. looked to, also, and which T. himself 
 very prudently pretended to be ready to accept, until the 
 negotiation had gone too far to be broken off and then 
 he suddenly bethought himself of what do you think ? an 
 aged motJier, whom he should perhaps never see again, if 
 he were now to leave the Country. And with this plea 
 A. was dolt enough to be satisfied and so Tierney is to 
 be his bully in the House of C. ... 
 
 " I am to see P. again on Monday or Tuesday when I 
 go to Town in order to dine at Blackheath and he has 
 promised to come here as soon as the Session of Parlt. 
 is over. Bad as the Peace is (and it is worse than my 
 most sanguine confidence in A.'s baseness and Jenksbury's 
 diplomacy anticipated), I am consoled for it by the one 
 consideration that, being once made, it removes the only 
 subject of strong practical difference of opinion between 
 P. and me. As to all that must follow, of large peace 
 establishment, of active vigilance, of jealous preparation, 
 his opinion is as determined as mine. He tells me that 
 
 5
 
 66 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 A. thinks as he does. But I do not much believe it or 
 at least that he will long continue to think so. If not 
 Then 
 
 Part of the letter is taken up with Frere's affairs. Frere 
 had talked of asking leave to come home, and Canning, 
 although longing for his presence and sympathy, was 
 obliged to dissuade him frofn the idea. " You could not 
 live much with me without exciting suspicion and giving 
 room for numberless misrepresentations and falsehoods, 
 of which the most impudent and malignant are daily 
 fabricated, and willingly credited by the Addingtonians. 
 You could not conceal your opinion upon the Peace and 
 you could not give it, not only without offending your 
 employers, but without separating yourself from P. ... 
 You will not suppose that I do not wish you here. But 
 I should act very unfairly by you if I were therefore to 
 conceal from you my firm persuasion how much better 
 you are where you are." 
 
 At the end of the year, Frere received the offer of being 
 transferred to Madrid, which at first he was anxious to 
 decline. He preferred Lisbon as a residence, and had 
 no wish to lay himself under the shadow of an obligation 
 to the new ministry. Canning discussed the matter on 
 December 2Oth, in a letter of three sheets, with that 
 mixture of absurdity and seriousness characteristic of 
 himself, and came to the conclusion that " if you go to 
 Madrid, you must make it appear, you must record it, 
 (which a private or separate Letter to Mr. Secretary 
 Hammond on office paper would do), as a sacrifice of your 
 own comfort (if you feel it so), and at least as a thing 
 that you do not desire that you had rather had passed 
 from you but that you will take if it be any accom- 
 modation to the King's service." Frere did accept the
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 67 
 
 appointment, but he was not transferred to Madrid for 
 nearly a year. 
 
 There is a gap of a couple of months in the corre- 
 spondence. From another source Mrs. Frere's letters to 
 her son we learn that it was occasioned by the alarming 
 illness of Mrs. Canning. Her husband sat up with her at 
 night, and grew thin with anxiety and watching. When 
 Canning wrote on February I5th, 1802, she was able to 
 leave her room, and he could turn his mind once more 
 to his schemes for annoying " the Doctor," as Addington 
 was now universally nicknamed. 
 
 "... I am agoing to make a motion. A. proposes to 
 sell the lands in St. Vincent's and Trinidad. I propose 
 that he shall not at least without limitations and restric- 
 tions, such as will prevent the increase of Slave Trade and 
 so make his sale unproductive. Slave Trade, you know, 
 is a subject which has nothing of party politicks in it. It 
 was therefore free to me to take it up. And Pitt must be 
 with me. Indeed, he is so. I showed him my plan when 
 he was here (he was here for a couple of days the week 
 before last), and he approved it. Not but that he is sorry 
 that I have such a handle to plague A. And not but what 
 A. is just as mad with me as if it were a hostile question, 
 and so considers it. But that I cannot help. I am all 
 meekness and disclaim hostility. . . . 
 
 " While I was in London last week, I happened to go 
 into the House on the night of a debate on the Army 
 Extraordinaries. You will have read it in the newspapers. 
 Tierney, you see, abused Pitt without reserve, and praised 
 A. at P.'s expence for an act which not A. but P. had 
 done (the sending a commission to the West Indies but 
 no matter what). A. said not a word, till little Scroggs 
 got up and in the genteelest manner imaginable set Tierney
 
 68 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 right A. then rose and admitted that P. had the merit 
 of the transaction, but it had slipped his memory. O ! how 
 I enjoyed this, and how I did write about -it to Pitt, who 
 is at Walmer, the next morning ! not violently not a bit 
 do not imagine it simply a narrative of what I had 
 heard pass, and almost without comment." 
 
 Canning then explains why he had not taken upon 
 himself to defend Pitt the reasons being, that his enemies 
 would have seized upon the opportunity of persuading 
 Pitt that he had taken the matter up intemperately. " As 
 a spectator they dreaded me more, and hated me quite 
 as much if I had taken part, they could have misrepre- 
 sented me. Now they know I have to represent them." 
 He adds, characteristically, " Not but that, with all these 
 wise reasons for holding my tongue, I should have found 
 it utterly impossible to restrain myself, had not William 
 Dundas said quite enough to make the incompatibility 
 of Tierney's and Pitt's continued support to the same 
 administration quite evident." 
 
 Where were all the wise resolutions not to be factious, 
 not to be led away into reckless provocation ? They were 
 broken at the outset as was that promise not to laugh 
 at Addington's ministry, which Pitt exacted at the time 
 of his retirement When Canning next wrote to Frere, 
 about two hours after dinner, on the evening of Sunday, 
 March 7th, "Joan " was busy at the opposite side of the 
 table by the drawing-room fire, copying out various 
 manuscripts that were to disturb " the Doctor's " peace. 
 One of these was in verse, and had its origin in the following 
 circumstance : 
 
 " In one of the speeches which the Dr. made upon the 
 repeated adjournments at Christmas, he declared that he
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 69 
 
 had long doubted whether to adjourn or no but that with 
 him ' to doubt was to decide.' ' What a d d decided 
 fellow this is,' says Leveson in a letter to me soon after, 
 ' he is always doubting.' On this hint I wrote the 
 stanzas are a defence of the Doctor's dictum." 
 
 The poem is among the other papers ; it is ,not 
 particularly amusing, and the last of the six stanzas will 
 give a sufficient idea of the style : 
 
 " If Pitt would hear his Country's voice, 
 Say, wouldst thou point thy Sovereign's choice 
 
 To worth and talents tried ? 
 Shake not thy empty head at me, 
 Thy modest doubts too plain I see ; 
 
 To doubt is to decide." 
 
 Pitt, unfortunately for Canning's hopes, was not going 
 to pick a quarrel with Addington : 
 
 " I was not disappointed (though provoked), when I 
 found, upon his coming here last week, that he had ' had 
 an explanation that was perfectly satisfactory,' in short, 
 that, not choosing to resent the insult and treachery as 
 they deserved, he had agreed to take the best apology 
 that could be trumped up for him, and to think or say 
 he thinks no more of it. I did not attempt to combat 
 this magnanimous resolution. I only laughed, and said it 
 was magnanimous, and bepraised and befooled it." 
 
 Canning then discusses the prospects of peace, which 
 were doubtful. "If the Peace is concluded, it cannot last 
 six months (even supposing three of them to be occupied 
 with the bustle of a general Election), unless Bonaparte 
 changes his system which is not very likely or is over- 
 thrown, which would be too provoking a piece of good
 
 70 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 luck for this wretched, pusillanimous, toadeating admini- 
 stration. ... I shall for ever thank God that I had no 
 hand or thought, no privity or concurrence, no share 
 whatever, art or part, in a transaction of such eternal 
 disgrace and infamy. 
 
 "It cannot last ; and but that one must not be too 
 sanguine, as I said before, I should even now be antici- 
 pating in my own mind the triumph of no distant day, 
 when the miserable and insulting experiment of governing 
 without talents (for such is the history of this last year's 
 vagary in this country) should be brought to a shameful 
 end, and the Asses who have been made the subject of 
 it, turned out to derision and brickbats. But one must 
 not be too sanguine. 
 
 " I have stated these wishes to P. more than once in 
 language not more picked and guarded. ' His Honour ' 
 smiles. He will not own it, but he must be weary of the 
 world as it is. 
 
 "We talked last time he was here (Friday sennight) upon 
 this subject. He prophecyed my opposition, but ' let me 
 hope' (said he) 'that it will be a liberal opposition, not 
 savage and personal' ' Why,' said I (which is very true, 
 I think), ' it is not a case that admits of what I suppose 
 you mean by a liberal opposition. I consider the Dr.'s 
 occupation of the Govt. as a usurpation of the vilest kind. 
 When of two men or two parties, who have tolerably equal 
 pretensions to be Ministers you and Fox, Walpole and 
 Pulteney, and so forth one is opposed to the other, each 
 must and will respect the talents of his opponent, and may 
 spare his person while he combats his principles. But 
 where was it in ancient history that, while two great parties 
 were contending for the mastery, the slaves rose and pos- 
 sessed themselves of the citadel ? Both parties joined (did 
 they not ?), and first put the slaves to death, or scourged
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 71 
 
 them soundly, and then betook themselves to the discussion 
 of their quarrel. So is the Doctor's elevation and that of 
 his colleagues a conspiracy against all the talents, of all 
 sides, and sorts. The opposition to him must be an oppo- 
 sition of contempt and derision, of the whip rather than 
 the sword.' He was very angry but not very angry 
 neither. 
 
 " But this is all prospective. It belongs to a new Parlt. 
 For the present I have nothing to do but to hold my 
 tongue like Thady and smoke my pipe and say nothing. 
 
 " Not but even now, though I must not goad and pelt 
 the Dr., as I could wish, I am enabled just to put a thistle 
 under his tail, and P. must aid and abet me. This Slave 
 Trade Trinidad Question is delightful. He writhes and 
 kicks under it, every time that it is renewed by a little 
 hint or enquiry, in the most amusing and preposterous 
 manner. . . . 
 
 " And, truth to say, though to plague the Dr. is some- 
 thing, it is not that only that instigates me for / do feel 
 (you know I do) a conscientious conviction and duty upon 
 the question of the Slave Trade, which has pushed me 
 sometimes almost to extremities with P. himself (about 
 the cultivation of Demerara, Surinam, etc.).* The Devil 
 himself should not persuade me to be more forbearing with 
 the Dr." 
 
 That Canning really took a deep interest in the abolition 
 of slavery has already been shown. In spite of the epithets 
 so freely bestowed on Addington and his party, the spirit 
 in which he set out to torment them is so like that of a 
 mischievous, irresponsible schoolboy, that it is difficult to 
 regard the question seriously. He rushed up to town to 
 obtain documents, and there met the elder Mr. Frere, 
 
 * See chapter III.
 
 72 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 who gave him advice of which he stood much in need 
 concerning the management of his crops at South Hill. 
 
 At the beginning of April Canning and his wife were 
 at Claremount with the Charles Ellises. Mrs. Ellis was 
 already sinking into the decline which soon ended her life, 
 but the whole party were spending the time "very com- 
 fortably, and liking each other and our wives and children 
 respectively very much." The Definitive Treaty had 
 arrived in England, but the orange trees had not, much to 
 Canning's disappointment. By this time it was settled that 
 Frere should go to Madrid, and on the whole Canning 
 approved of the change. 
 
 " Hammond writes to you by this packet, and will tell 
 you how graciously the King expressed his approbation of 
 your appointment, and of his own accord suggested that 
 your brother should go with you. This is very flattering 
 and solidly useful, as it gives you an existence independent 
 of the favour of Ministers. Anti-gallicanism is fortunately 
 your nature, and it is one of the surest claims upon his 
 good liking. Cherish, and do not hide it you can easily 
 let it shine through your despatches though I suppose you 
 must not let it influence your conduct. . . . 
 
 " I have been in Town, but have but just seen Pitt, this 
 week. He is lost. I know nothing that can bring back 
 his importance, and the desideration of him in the country, 
 except a new war and that I take for granted we shall 
 submit to all sorts of injuries and resort to all sorts of 
 baseness to avoid, and with his full countenance and 
 encouragement. You will ask what has worked this 
 change? The Loan and Budget The Loan the most 
 fortunate that ever was made the Budget a fvery well 
 conceived one (as it strikes me), but certainly a very 
 popular one from the single circumstance of the repeal of
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 73 
 
 the Income Tax. That the materials of the Budget are in 
 fact Pitt's, no one doubts and you will not. But A. worked 
 them up himself or rather Vansittart did and his (A.'s) 
 friends know this and say it so that the effect of Pitt's 
 assistance to the degree to which he has availed himself 
 of it, is to pledge P. to the support of everything and to 
 diminish at the same time the notion of the absolute neces- 
 sity of his constant superintendence of A.'s measures. The 
 prsestigia of finance-business are dissolved. What A. has 
 been able to do, no man need despair of doing. Pitt at 
 the head of the Treasury is no longer essential to the 
 salvation of the country. He has been resolutely working 
 his own ruin and I really believe he has at length effected 
 it. I have some slight notion too that he feels it A. has 
 used him like a dog. The manner in which he gave up 
 the income tax in the midst of a clamour raised against it 
 and its authors, as if it were the most vicious in its original 
 principle, the most oppressive and so forth of all the taxes 
 ever invented, was so evidently calculated to make Pitt 
 odious (if not intended to have that effect) that it is quite 
 impossible that P. should have not been sorely wounded 
 by it. I am persuaded he was so. But the way to help 
 himself? His situation is indeed truly pitiable and embar- 
 rassing. I doubt if he has one friend left, who thinks 
 precisely with him, both upon public subjects, and upon 
 what ought to be his personal conduct certainly among 
 those with whom he was in the habit of communicating 
 not more than one if Long be that one as I rather 
 suspect he is. Those whom he put into office or forced to 
 remain there, I do not count. They of course are for his 
 supporting them and thinking of nothing and nobody 
 besides. They are jealous of his intercourse with any of 
 his friends out of office, with Ld. Grenville, with Dundas, 
 with me and I have little doubt show their suspicions
 
 74 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 in a way that makes him uncomfortable. I believe he so 
 far differs with them, and so far only, as that he will not 
 give us up entirely. But I can see by his shirking air (you 
 know it) when they have been endeavouring to make an 
 impression on him. On the other hand, Rose the Bp. 
 of Lincoln* and I perhaps too Ld. Carrington I know 
 not whether any others point out to him occasionally the 
 scurvy treatment which he meets with from the doctor 
 and certainly have no reason to complain of his want of 
 sensibility to the many instances of it, which have taken 
 place of late. But ' as a child when scaring sounds assail,' 
 he seems resolved to stick to them the closer and though 
 he admits our premises, resists all our conclusions. Lord 
 Grenville, and I believe Dundas, differ from him about the 
 peace, which he of course means to support, and pretends 
 to approve even Malta ! Long is the only one that I 
 know, who does not declare a difference of opinion on 
 one or other point. And there are who suspect that he 
 labours hard to counteract all attempts to separate P. from 
 A. and even that he (Long) is in good time to become 
 connected with A.'s administration. . . . For my own part, 
 I begin to grow sick of the struggle, and if it were not 
 for my Trinidad motion (which I will not abandon, both 
 because I am engaged to it, and because I sincerely think 
 I may do good) I should be glad to retire for good and all 
 till the new Parliament and sulk at South Hill without 
 seeing P.'s face, or exchanging a line with him again." 
 
 The orange-trees arrived safely and in good condition 
 on April 25th, as Canning gratefully acknowledges in a 
 letter to the elder Mr. Frere. At the conclusion he earnestly 
 deprecates the idea of J. H. Frere's coming home. " He is 
 better even at Lisbon, in prison with the British Captains 
 
 Pitt's old tutor, George Pretyman [Dr. Tomline].
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 75 
 
 of men of war, or in Lannes' antichamber than here." The 
 postscript is curious. M. Otto had been originally sent 
 over by the First Consul as agent for the exchange of 
 prisoners. One feels how gladly Canning would have 
 incited the mob to break his windows had there been a 
 fitting opportunity: 
 
 " I understood a few days ago from very good authority, 
 that M. Otto in the Illuminations (for which you are pro- 
 bably at this moment preparing to bring your candle from 
 under your bushel) proposed to exhibit his G.R. without a 
 Crown over them not to spare his lamps, you maybe sure. 
 If you happened to have a friend in the Mob to whom you 
 could recommend a particular notice of this circumstance, 
 you might do some service." 
 
 On the same day (April 26th) Canning wrote to J. H. 
 Frere, enclosing a copy of verses : 
 
 " You must not read them till you know the occasion for 
 which they are prepared. They are for singing (not by 
 myself, but by Dignam or some of those fellows) at the 
 London Tavern, at a great Dinner on Pitt's Birthday, the 
 origin and purpose of which is as follows. The day after 
 Burdett's motion, it occurred to some Country Gentlemen 
 namely, to Mildmay and Buxton that it would be a 
 proper testimony of regard to P. to have a public dinner 
 on his Birthday why not on Ris, as Fox's friends do on 
 Fox's? Mildmay mentioned the thing to me, before it 
 had gone any further. It struck me as being capable of 
 being turned to great account, and the better if it were 
 made to originate in the City. I accordingly wrote to 
 Borrowes, to set it agoing without naming me as having 
 suggested it. It took ' like wildfire,' as Borrowes tells me ; 
 and presently ten or a dozen of the greatest names in the
 
 76 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 City Thorntons, Raikes, etc. were down as Stewards 
 the great Room at the London Tavern bespoken and 
 every prospect of an immense attendance. In the mean 
 time the best people of the H. of Commons have been 
 spoken to, and almost uniformly come into the plan with 
 great eagerness. 
 
 " I think you will instantly see all the advantages of 
 such a celebration. It brings Pitt forward again, in spite 
 of himself, on ground of hi^ own, distinct from A. It 
 reminds people that the Man to whom, after all, they owe 
 everything their salvation in the war, if they look back to 
 that, the termination of the war by peace, if they like that,, 
 public credit, etc., etc., is out of place, and likely to remain 
 so ; that the juggle, in the confidence and belief of which 
 they so cheerfully gave their support to A. merely as P.'s 
 substitute, just to make the peace, or to see if it could be 
 made, and in either case to retire immediately and make 
 room again for his principal that this juggle existed only 
 in their own imagination that there Addington is for life 
 like him, or like him not and that the only way to have 
 P. again is to get A. out again, against his will and against 
 P.'s professed wish, also, for, depend upon [it] no City 
 personage believes sincerely in the reality of P.'s self- 
 sacrifice and foolish magnanimity. . . . 
 
 " Thus much for the City. Amongst Members of Parlt. 
 it will afford a sort of test of who are attached to P., who 
 to A. for his sake only artd who for the Dr's own. The 
 Stewards may easily be selected out of those who hold 
 to P. only, and if with a mixture of those who are known 
 to hold the Dr. cheap, at the same time without opposing 
 his Govt, so much the better. The Doctorites will be 
 in an unpleasant dilemma whether to attend and hear 
 nothing of the Dr. nor his peace at a public dinner given 
 within six weeks after the Treaty, and within four after
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 77 
 
 the illuminations than if no such person, or things had 
 existed or to absent themselves, and thereby draw a 
 broad line of distinction between themselves and Pitt's 
 
 other friends 7 must not be a Steward not I 
 
 nor Ld. Grenville nor Windham. But we shall all 
 attend, I hope 
 
 " As for poor P., he will be all astonishment at the 
 fuss made about himself and, if he knew how, would 
 think himself bound to try to prevent it not that in 
 his own secret heart he will so much dislike it, either 
 not he. But he ought to prevent anything that will 
 embarrass A. and divide his friends. He will think and 
 perhaps say so and will try a word or two about the 
 bad taste of a public celebration but there I have him 
 in my power for he has suffered Dundas for these eight 
 or ten years past to give a public dinner on his (P's) 
 Birthday and has dined at it himself, which here we do 
 not wish him to do. He may dine, if he will, with the 
 Dr 
 
 " Criticize and correct the song and if you will, write 
 another, and send it to me. It will arrive in time the 
 Day is the 28 of May. 
 
 " P. was here last week on his road into Somersetshire. 
 We were talking over A's ' power and place.' He said 
 he was now fixed beyond the reach of any assault or 
 machination. I said ' Yes, you have at last cut your own 
 throat and I suppose I ought to wish you joy of it 
 but I cannot. I still hope, however, that there is enough 
 left of you for your friends to make use of against the 
 Dr. without your consent and please God, we will try.' 
 He would have had me explain how but I thought it 
 best to leave him bewildered." 
 
 The song was " The Pilot that Weathered the Storm "
 
 7 8 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 the finest production of Canning's pen, and one of the 
 grandest tributes ever paid by a man of letters to a 
 statesman. The copy (in Canning's own hand) sent out 
 to Frere differs slightly from the version usually printed, 
 the most noticeable alteration being in the last lines : 
 
 " And O ! if again the rude tempest should rise, 
 
 The dawnings of peace should fresh darkness deform, 
 While we turn to thy hopeless retirement our eyes, 
 We shall long for the Pilot that weather'd the Storm." 
 
 The dinner was a brilliant success, notwithstanding the 
 demurs of such old-fashioned Tories as the elder Mr. 
 Frere, who considered it as "a foolish thing, tending to- 
 put Pitt on an equality with Fax." Canning sent a full 
 description of it to Frere in a letter of seven sheets, begun 
 on June ist and finished on June 7th : 
 
 "... I am glad you like the Song. I suppose It 
 may be good as you say so. But it has been received 
 and applauded here (meaning in London, at Merchant 
 Taylors' Hall) with an enthusiasm so much beyond its 
 possible merits, that I was becoming rather ashamed of it 
 especially as I myself, not aware of my being detected 
 as the Writer, took a very fair share in applauding and 
 (if I am not misinformed) in encoring it, at the dinner. 
 But that is no great matter. The Effect and impression- 
 of the Dinner altogether was much more than I could 
 have ventured to expect. As your Father and Hammond 
 were both there, and as they were both writing to you the 
 next day, I need not tell you all that passed Addington 
 not there Hawkesbury coming but retiring to dinner 
 into a private room. Ld. Cornwallis my Lord of Amiens 
 retiring at a proper time into a corner of the room 
 that his health might be drunk with the more delicacy, 
 and returning never the better 820 people present, the
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 79 
 
 flower of every rank and description of persons in London 
 the Song taken in its true intent and meaning repeated, 
 with increased acclamations, and the last verse called for 
 over again these are, I think, the principal features by 
 which you may judge of the tone and temper of this 
 Celebration. 
 
 " For its effect (beyond exciting ideas and impressions 
 favourable to Pitt's return into power) I will not answer. 
 As to P. himself, that the whole thing goes to his heart, 
 and that he feels with a deep and quick sense, beyond 
 what I should have believed him capable of feeling, the 
 testimonies of public and private attachment, I know. 
 But that he will stir hand or foot to place himself where 
 he ought to be, I hardly hope. As to the K(ing) it is 
 not to be disguised that the effect is very probably to 
 harden his mind against P. But that is not doing mis- 
 chief. It was sufficiently hardened before, to make P's 
 recall with entire good will utterly hopeless. And now, 
 if troublesome times should come, while nothing has been 
 done by P. to justify the K. in resistance to the choice 
 of the Nation, enough has been shown of the determina- 
 tion of that choice, to make compliance with it on every 
 account highly advisable." 
 
 Canning then tells the story of the celebrated night 
 of May 7th, when Lord Belgrave's general Vote of Thanks 
 to the late Ministry was passed by 222 against 52, in 
 spite of the resistance of Fox, Tierney, Grey, and others, 
 and followed by a Vote of Thanks to Mr. Pitt by name. 
 This, of course, was delightful to Canning, but he had 
 intended a still greater coup : 
 
 " The Plan was originally thus Belgrave had given 
 notice of a Motion to thank P., which, upon consultation,
 
 8o J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 he softened into a general Resolution of approbation to 
 all mankind, 'the Army, Navy, Pulpit, Bar, and Stage' 
 or according to another formula, by which I intend 
 to illustrate it, ' All the Doctors, both the Proctors, and 
 all the Heads and Principals of Colleges and Halls with 
 their respective Societies.' This I determined should not 
 be, at least should not be the whole. I determined, if 
 nobody else would, / would myself move an amendment 
 to Nicholl's Motion against Pitt (which was to precede 
 Belgrave's) converting individual censure into individual 
 thanks and this determination I communicated to Lennox, 
 Morpeth, Mildmay, Scroggs and others, desiring them to 
 lay their heads together to devise how such a Motion 
 might be best brought forward being perfectly willing 
 to give it into any other hands provided it was brought 
 forward. They thought, and I agreed, that it would be 
 better in the hands of a country gentleman than in those 
 of a friend of Pitt's. Mildmay undertook to move, and 
 Cartwright to second it. So far, all was well. The next 
 thing that I endeavoured to inculcate was, that a most 
 cautious silence should be preserved as to our intended 
 operations, lest the Enemy should change their plans in 
 order to defeat them especially that no confidence should 
 be made to any of Pitt's friends, who have not taken 
 the line of doing what is best for him, without or against 
 his own consent This caution you already antici- 
 pate was given in vain. Up to the very day before the 
 Motion was to be made all was snug. And on the very 
 day I went up to Town in the highest hopes and 
 spirits, fully persuaded that we should come upon the 
 House by surprise, and upon Belgrave and his movers, 
 or stillers rather, like a thunderclap that we should get 
 all the debate upon Pitt personally, and in our own hands 
 while B.'s motion, relegated to the end of the day, would
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 81 
 
 come limping and languid, and be passed without any 
 animated Debate, as a corollary to ours. All this would 
 inevitably have happened, had our counsel been kept 
 but unluckily, the night before the Debate, Mildmay fell 
 in with old Rose, and to old Rose disclosed his intentions 
 for the next day. Old Rose is the person of all others 
 who would have been most delighted with the thing if 
 it had succeeded, and would in that case have had no 
 objection to have owned that he had known it all along 
 but really to know it beforehand while it was yet possible 
 that it might fail, was too much for his nerves. He flew 
 to Pitt. P. put in possession of so awkward a confidence 
 had but one thing to do to set about suppressing it as 
 earnestly as if he really wished it had not been thought 
 of. Rose was employed with Mildmay, and, after I came 
 to Town, with me, for this purpose. I positively refused 
 to interfere, except to urge M. to perseverance. And M. 
 atoned for his indiscretion by his firmness. He positively 
 refused to give the motion up. But the grace, the sur- 
 prize, the effect of the proceeding was ' cruelly mangled ' 
 and, comparatively speaking, 'without signs of life. 1 
 Belgrave, forewarned, changed his separate motion into 
 an amendment to Nicholls, and rose with Mildmay. The 
 Speaker called upon B. of course and there was an end 
 of our fine project or at least of the first part of it. 
 The rest you know from the newspapers. M. made his 
 motion at the end of the night. Addington endeavoured 
 to get rid of it. I supported it (all this, by the way, 
 you do not know in detail from the newspapers, as it 
 passed after the doors were shut ; the same cause pre- 
 vented its being much worth knowing, as there was no 
 use in debating for any extent without a Gallery) and 
 it was at length carried triumphantly, all the world seeing 
 how much in the Dr.'s teeth." 
 
 6
 
 82 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Another cruel disappointment had been Canning's own 
 Trinidad motion. Addington at first was obstinate, and 
 Canning began to indulge hopes of a debate and a 
 division in which Pitt would be obliged to side against 
 Addington. However, at the last moment, whether 
 warned by Pitt, or convinced of the justice of the case, 
 Addington " veered round and pledged himself body and 
 soul" to all that Canning had asked, "and a great deal 
 more," and left Canning obliged "to take Pitt's advice 
 and close at once with Addington's pledges as if I 
 believed them." 
 
 Charles Ellis had sorely disappointed his two uncles, 
 Hervey and Hawkesbury, by voting against the Peace, 
 which "is of course referred to me," observes Canning, 
 resignedly. The remaining four sheets of the letter are 
 taken up with trenchant criticisms of various acquaint- 
 ances concerning whose behaviour Frere had been asking 
 questions. The first of these is " D " evidently Dundas. 
 According to Canning, Dundas had forced the measures 
 for Catholic Relief in 1801, "not that he cared three 
 brass farthings about the Catholic Question but he had 
 for a long time been weary! of his situation,* and partly 
 from fancying that he should like to try retirement for 
 a little, partly from disgust at the K[ing]'s behaviour, 
 who had thwarted him in a good many projects (jobbs 
 some people called them but in one instance unfairly 
 . . .) he was desirous of finding a safe and honourable 
 opportunity of giving up his office." Canning was now 
 of opinion that Pitt was at last goaded into resigning 
 by some of his own followers, who never expected him 
 to retire in good earnest. About a fortnight before the 
 change took place, Canning had warned Wyndham that, 
 once out of office, Pitt would not return easily, but his 
 * Secretary of State for War,
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 83 
 
 advice was thrown away. Since then, Dundas had been 
 gradually leaning to Addington's side, and was about 
 to accept a peerage. He was now staying at Walmer 
 with Pitt, who had declined the pleasure of a visit from 
 Canning, to the great indignation of the latter. Pitt, out 
 of health' and depressed in spirit, probably shrank from 
 discussions, but Canning was persuaded that " there is 
 something in his mind which he wishes to hide from 
 me." Lord Castlereagh was intriguing for office, in case 
 of the promotion of Lord Liverpool or Lord Hawkesbury. 
 " He has taken precisely that line in Parliament which 
 P. laid down for me. Whether he had any difficulties 
 about the Peace, I do not know. If he had he has 
 overcome them manfully / could not. But I do not 
 disguise from myself that in not doing so, I have 
 preferred character and my own consciousness of doing 
 right, to opportunities of fame and power such as may 
 not easily come within my reach again and I am afraid 
 to P.'s friendship or at least to that place in it, which, 
 with such a man, is alone worth holding." 
 
 There was a doubt whether Frere's position at Madrid 
 was to be that of Minister or of Ambassador. Canning 
 speaks of the slights and insults heaped on the British 
 Ambassadors at foreign courts, and ends, despairingly : 
 " Our policy is so obvious in all these respects that I 
 am provoked at our compliance. But I have no hope 
 of the same sentiment being generally felt. Pitt, I am 
 pretty sure, would think it idle punctilio. Alas ! Alas ! 
 It is anything but that. It is as substantial and vital 
 a concern as the Exports and Imports he has taught 
 Castlereagh to quote as the sum of our political existence. 
 Will times, when mind shall have its share again in 
 politicks, ever come round ? or is Tare and Trett 
 established for ever ? "
 
 84 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Mrs. Canning had again been very ill, which may 
 account for the gloomy tone of this letter. She must 
 have recovered before Canning wrote on July 26th, as 
 they were then entertaining George Ellis and his wife. 
 The lady was the daughter of Nelson's old patron, 
 Sir Peter Parker, and Ellis's marriage to her seems to 
 have surprised all his friends. When the rumours of 
 the engagement first reached him, Canning could hardly 
 believe in it, and wrote of it to Frere more as a canard 
 than as a genuine piece of news. The marriage was 
 now an accomplished fact, and the outspoken Lady 
 Malmesbury called it " a very foolish thing " on Ellis's 
 part. Her opinion was evidently shared to some extent 
 by Canning, who, sitting at his writing-table, watched 
 " poor Joan suffering under the duty of entertaining " 
 the Ellises. " Not but I am very glad to see G. E. 
 and / do not mind She G. E. but Shes in general do, 
 I think and Joan is of all Shes the shyest." Under 
 these circumstances he could only spare time to send 
 Frere the following song for September 29th, "which is 
 (or ought to be) Addington's birthday and at least 
 may be celebrated as such at Apothecar/s Hall. N.B. It 
 is supposed to be written bona fide, by an admiring 
 Fool. Does it shew so ? " 
 
 "THE BIRD OF TO-DAY. 
 
 " A new Song as sung at the celebration of Mr. A.'s birthday, 
 at Apothecary's Hall, on the zgtk Sept. 1802. 
 
 " At the feast of St. Michael, when Harvest they house, 
 And rich in the produce of plenty carouse, 
 When tenants their rents are assembled to pay, 
 How cheerful a festival, Michaelmas Day! 
 
 " But we, for the harvest by Addington sown, 
 The full Harvest of Peace, to maturity grown, 
 The Rent of our Thanks to our Addington pay, 
 And this Festival mark as his Michaelmas Day.
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 85 
 
 " Tis thro' Addington's Peace that fair Plenty is ours ; 
 Peace brighten'd the sunshine, Peace soften'd the showers ; 
 What yellow'd the cornfields? what ripen'd the hay? 
 But the Peace that was settled last Michaelmas Day?* 
 
 " The Saviours of States were rewarded of old 
 With statues of Silver f in porches of Gold 
 Twas thus did old Rome her acknowledgments pay 
 For her Capitol saved, by the Bird of To-day. 
 
 "And shall not such Statues to Addington rise, 
 For service more timely for warning more wise 
 For a Treaty, which snatch'd us from ruin away, 
 When signed with a quill from The Bird of To-day. 
 
 " Long may Addington live to keep Peace thro' our borders 
 May each House still be true to its forms and its orders 
 So shall Britain, tho' destined by Gaul for her prey 
 Be saved as old Rome by the Bird of To-day!" 
 
 Owing to a report of Frere's return to England, Canning 
 did not write to him for more than another month. His 
 excuse was that, although the report was soon proved 
 false, "the habit of not writing is very difficult to be 
 broken through, and you must rather praise me for 
 beginning again at all after such an interruption and 
 disappointment, than wonder at my taking so long to 
 recover from them." In the meantime Canning had received 
 fresh overtures from Addington on this occasion through 
 Gifford. Canning was inclined to think that the offer 
 was not genuine, as Pitt knew nothing of it. He broke 
 off his letter at this point on August 28th, to resume it 
 on September /th in a different frame of mind. Pitt 
 and he had met, and were on easier terms. Dundas, 
 as he foreboded, had been intriguing : first, to induce 
 Pitt to take office, and then to creep back into office 
 
 * "Note. Not signed till the ist Octr., but settled finally on the 
 29th Sept., to coincide with the festival of that day. G. C." 
 t " Note. auratis volitans argentens anser 
 
 Porticibus Gallos ad limina adipe canebat. G. C."
 
 86 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 without him, and had been met in both cases with a 
 refusal. All this Canning had from Pitt's own mouth. 
 
 " For some weeks after I had written to you, I sulked, 
 and would have nothing to say to P., thinking he had 
 treated me scurvily. (I think so still) But at length, 
 hearing a rumour of his going I forget when into 
 Somersetshire, or to some distant part, I did not like 
 the notion of not seeing him for many months again, 
 and therefore wrote to desire to know when he was to 
 be in Town, proposing (as I had other reasons for going 
 to Town for a day or two) to time my journey so as 
 to meet him. This Letter produced a proposal on his 
 part to come here. He came. I found him much 
 better in opinion than I had ever seen him disgusted 
 with the Doctor and his system as much as one could 
 wish, but but but as to acting no hopes of that 
 yet. Then he proposed to me to pay him a visit, which 
 I promised and performed my promise last month. 
 I found him alone, and passed three days with him in 
 very comfortable, [quiet, perhaps useful discussion. I am 
 sure he thinks of A. as I do. He thinks of A.'s system 
 of the degradation of the country under it of the 
 contempt which Europe feels, and any Englishman ought 
 to feel for it almost as I do. But what of this, if he 
 is bound to support it ? 
 
 " One most satisfactory acknowledgment I obtained 
 from him in the course of the conversations at South 
 Hill and Walmer that / was right and lie was wrong 
 in the discussion about the propriety of my taking 
 office last year 'that unless I could have re-modelled 
 all my notions of what was right, dignified, etc., in 
 Government, or (what was out of the question) could 
 have altered t/ietrs, I must infallibly have resigned office
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 87 
 
 three months after I had taken it.' Is it not satisfactory 
 to hear this from him ? and at a time too when he is 
 thinking with me and ought therefore to act as (so 
 thinking) he admits I must have done? 
 
 "While I was at Walmer, and when in the intervals 
 of these conversations, I was reviewing the spots where 
 other conversations still more interesting had passed 
 three summers before (for it was at Walmer, you know, 
 three years ago that I first saw my own Joan). When I 
 looked at the cottage where Lady S. E. had lived, during 
 the time that she was negociating for me, and where 
 she afforded me opportunities of negociating for myself, 
 it struck me that Joan and I might pass a few weeks 
 very comfortably in this same cottage ; and I had no 
 sooner let P. perceive the thought in my mind, than he 
 seized it, and pressed our coming there. I agreed. Joan 
 liked the plan. It will do George good. And we set 
 off for Walmer to-morrow." 
 
 It was not so long before this, that Canning had con- 
 sidered his intercourse with Pitt as closed for ever ; but 
 Pitt had only to hold up his little finger for the younger 
 man to hasten to his side. Impulsive, warm-hearted, and 
 undisciplined, he treated Pitt much as he would have 
 treated the father whom he had never known, and whose 
 place Pitt in some degree had taken : he would have shed 
 the last drop of blood in his cause, but nothing would 
 make him obey. 
 
 Canning's stay at Walmer was pleasant to both parties. 
 Their differences, though not forgotten, were softened, and 
 the warm personal affection revived as of old. " I cannot 
 say that he has always cordially agreed with me," writes 
 Canning to Frere, on October 5th, " yet he has every day 
 found it more difficult to maintain a difference of opinion
 
 88 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Bonaparte and the Dr. between them really wrest his 
 weapons from his hands. Would to God he could be 
 brought to see, while there is yet time, that with such 
 Champions as Bonaparte and the Dr. on either side, this 
 country has not a chance of being kept on its legs that a 
 change there must inevitably be, and that there is but one 
 man and that one himself to whom we can look for 
 safety in any alternative, whether of Peace or War. 
 
 " I am persuaded that this is felt more and more in all 
 parts of the Kingdom in the City most especially and 
 that the Dr. could not do better for himself, and can in no 
 other way do common justice by the King or the Country, 
 than to negociate for himself, as quick as may be, a retreat 
 with honours and emoluments, and entreat P. to take off 
 his hands a weight that ought never to have been placed 
 there. 
 
 " No endeavours of mine are wanting to put this 
 necessity in its true light here. And yet I understand 
 that the Dr.'s friends, so far from being obliged to me for 
 the services which they suppose me to be desirous of 
 rendering him, are extremely disgusted and angry at my 
 visit to Walmer. 
 
 " Whatever be the result as to this great Object, I am on 
 other accounts most happy indeed that I have come here. 
 I have had opportunities of quiet, comfortable, uninter- 
 rupted conversations, such as for two years past I have 
 desiderated in vain ; and have had the satisfaction of 
 finding, after that two years' interval, filled as it has been 
 with the most unpleasant events, and with consequent 
 differences of conduct and opinion, no change in P., no 
 diminution of cordiality or confidence, and a gradual, but 
 I think growing approximation of sentiments in regard 
 both to persons and things ; for which I thank Bonaparte,
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 89 
 
 and by which I am almost reconciled to the Dr.'s miscon- 
 duct and folly. 
 
 "It has been an addition to my satisfaction on these 
 accounts, that I think my being here at this time may 
 have been of some use and comfort to P. He was very, 
 very ill when we arrived here, about the middle of last 
 month. The newspapers will probably have told you this 
 but perhaps not to its fullest extent. For one day, if 
 not longer, his life was certainly in danger. God be 
 thanked, all danger and all serious cause for alarm is quite 
 [at] an end. He is recovering strength daily ; and during 
 his convalescence which I of course spared all painful 
 and perplexing subjects of discussion, and endeavoured to 
 make him feel at his ease, as if I had no political notions 
 to trouble him with I have, or rather We have (for Joan 
 is a great help to me in this, as in everything else, and 
 loves poor P., and has always taken his part in the worst 
 times) been in the way to pay him little attentions, which, 
 though nothing in themselves, he has appeared not to 
 dislike at our hands." 
 
 If Frere had been anywhere within reach, Canning 
 would have rushed to him after leaving Walmer. As it 
 was, he had to find some one in whom to confide ; and 
 kindly old Lord Malmesbury, sitting over his fire in 
 Spring Gardens, was startled by a visit from Canning at 
 eleven o'clock at night. Canning poured out the substance 
 of his long conversations with Pitt, and implored Lord 
 Malmesbury to use his influence with the Duke of York. 
 It was thought that the King might be prepared for 
 recalling Pitt through the medium of His Royal Highness. 
 
 There are few things more worthy of respect in Lord 
 Malmesbury's character than his readiness at all times to 
 lend an ear to the schemes, hopes, and grievances of the
 
 90 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 younger Tories. Cut off by his increasing deafness from 
 any very active part in political life, his time and sympathy 
 seem to have been at the disposal of any one who claimed 
 them, and Canning was a special favourite with him. He 
 waited on the Duke of York, who gave a favourable 
 hearing to his representations. Canning, being fully con- 
 vinced that the country was as weary as himself of " the 
 Dumplin ministry" to use a contemptuous nickname of 
 Lady Malmesbury's set to work to collect signatures to a 
 petition requesting Addington to resign in Pitt's favour. 
 Lord Mulgrave betrayed this scheme to Pitt, who had no 
 choice but to command that the petition should at once be 
 dropped. " I am confident perfectly confident," Canning 
 writes to Frere in the August of 1803, " that had not my 
 plan of last November been betrayed to Pitt (by Mulgrave), 
 and had P. done what he ought to have done turned a 
 deaf ear to the disclosure, and let it (the thing) go on as if 
 he had known nothing of it, the Government would have 
 fallen before the end of the before Christmas Session." 
 Lord Malmesbury did his best, remonstrating earnestly 
 with Pitt himself, but to no purpose, and further action was 
 postponed until after Christmas. Lord Malmesbury, 
 disposed himself to wait, with the patience of a man who 
 has lived many years, while privately lamenting that " the 
 four young persons who composed the secret committee 
 were not of sufficient fatJiom for so great a purpose." The 
 four were Canning, Lord George Leveson, Lord Morpeth, 
 and the devoted Mr. Sturges Bourne (" little Scroggs "), 
 whose obedience on all occasions was ultimately rewarded 
 by the posts of Secretary of State for the Home Depart- 
 ment and Lord Warden of the New Forest, when Canning 
 became Premier in 1827. 
 
 Either Canning's time was fully occupied by these in- 
 trigues, and in the composition of satirical verses on " The
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 91 
 
 Doctor," his family and his adherents, or some letters to 
 Frere have been lost. After that written at Walmer in 
 October 1802, there are no more till February 2nd, 1803, 
 when he replied to a long string of questions sent by Frere. 
 The absence of Frere's letter makes it difficult to under- 
 stand the answer, but the substance of it evidently relates 
 to Pitt's conduct, although no name is mentioned. " ' His 
 conscience ' (like Lancelot Gobbo's) ' hangs about the 
 neck of his heart ' or rather his heart about that of his 
 conscience, and will not let him do what he knows he 
 ought to do and so we shall go on in the downward road, 
 nor will he set about retrieving our affairs till there is 
 nothing left to retrieve. 
 
 "He promises great things indeed! He has chalked 
 out a course for himself, which in three or four stages is to 
 lead to vigorous action ; but at each of these stages there 
 are stops and conditions to be interposed, of which those 
 whose interest it is, will easily know how to take 
 advantage : first by smooth words to obtain a remission of 
 his exertions, and then by delay to disappoint their object. 
 He will join in no retrospective censure ; because that 
 exposes them without producing any immediate public 
 good. He will join in no prospective resolution ; because 
 that implies a distrust of them, which it is impossible for 
 hint to avow without directly countenancing an attempt to 
 turn them out. Then who to succeed them ? If himself, 
 is not that selfish, etc. ? This is the course of miserable 
 apologies for an inaction that he is ashamed of. And he 
 reconciles it to himself by the determination that they 
 shall know from him what he thinks they ought to do, 
 and if after knowing it they act against it, or not up to it 
 then indeed. . . . Alas ! alas ! alas ! Even then, I am 
 afraid, new excuses what is now in prospect will then be
 
 92 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 past and then there is an end of the public good to be 
 done and censure for censure's sake he will be as far as 
 ever from agreeing to. I see no hope therefore : Holland 
 will follow Switzerland Malta, the Cape. And the next 
 Session of Parliament (if we survive as an independent 
 country so long) will begin with the same expectation of a 
 better system, and will end with the same disappointment. 
 Yet Malta and Holland are the two points to which he 
 swore ! ! ! I wish I could yet trust his oath but I dare 
 not" 
 
 Frere had suggested resigning his post at Madrid, or, at 
 all events, coming home for a short holiday, but Canning 
 would not let him think of either proceeding. " I would 
 give anything (except George or William Pitt, my new 
 little boy) to have you here for a few days, if you could be 
 back again at your post, without having been missed there, 
 or known to be here ; but I would not for any consideration 
 that you should run yourself into such difficulties as a week 
 spent in London during the Session would necessarily bring 
 upon you or should incur to no purpose the regrets and 
 mortifications of a life of idle indignation while there is yet 
 a chance, however remote, of your being made useful where 
 you are, or being useful by your own making." 
 
 Canning's desponding view of public affairs was partly 
 occasioned by his private anxieties. The birth of her 
 second son in December had made Mrs. Canning seriously 
 ill, and when her husband wrote to Frere, six weeks after- 
 wards she was only able to move from her dressing-room, 
 and had not yet ventured downstairs. Charles Ellis, one 
 of Canning's most valued and intimate friends, was on the 
 point of losing his wife, who had been sinking into a decline 
 for more than a year. Charles Ellis seems to have been 
 one of those unlucky men who are always getting into
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 93 
 
 difficulties. He is seldom mentioned in Canning's letters 
 otherwise than as " poor Charles," with details of his last 
 misfortune whether falling from his horse, losing his seat 
 in Parliament, or bringing home his wife's corpse from the 
 Continent. His anxieties for " Joan " had not prevented 
 Canning from getting into mischief. Old Lord Malmesbury, 
 his confidant in all such matters, had endeavoured to soothe 
 his impatience, and represent that he must make allowance 
 for " hitches." About a week after the letter to Frere had 
 been sent off, Canning descended upon Lord Malmesbury 
 with a letter of eight pages addressed to Pitt " too long," 
 sighed poor Lord Malmesbury, who had to read it, then and 
 there. Pitt, when in town, had been rather reserved, and 
 had not written to Canning since he went away. This led 
 Canning to infer that "he was going on wrong," and 
 occasioned the letter, which Lord Malmesbury pronounced 
 " too admonitory and too fault-finding for even Pitt's very 
 goodhumoured mind to bear." Canning, however, persisted 
 in sending it, and received, as he deserved, a short dry 
 answer from Pitt. Canning was then hurt and sore, and 
 Lord Malmesbury " preached patience," a virtue which the 
 good old gentleman himself must have had opportunities of 
 practising at that time. 
 
 The negociations for peace were not proceeding smoothly. 
 Napoleon, deceived by the readiness with which we had 
 agreed to the Preliminary Articles, demanded further con- 
 cessions. It was evident that war must soon follow, and 
 in the March and April of 1803 an attempt was again 
 made to bring Pitt back to office. Each side declared 
 that the first overtures proceeded from the other. There 
 seems to have been some misunderstanding between the 
 principals, which, no doubt, their followers did their best 
 to increase. Without entering into the details, it is 
 enough to say that Pitt at first showed no unwillingness
 
 94 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 to take office if the King wished him to do so, and to 
 join forces with Addington. But the same Cabinet could 
 not possibly include Addington and the Grenvilles, who 
 were among the most able of Pitt's supporters, and the 
 negociations were broken off amid angry recriminations, 
 leaving Pitt, in Lord Malmesbury's opinion, farther than 
 ever from office. 
 
 Malta, which Canning had prophesied would " follow the 
 Cape," was the final cause of our rupture with France. On 
 May 1 8th, 1803, war was proclaimed in the King's name. 
 A change of some kind seemed imminent, and all eyes 
 were turned to Pitt, who had resumed his parliamentary 
 attendance. Canning hurried up to his favourite quarters 
 with Leveson at Whitehall, leaving his wife and children 
 at Welbeck, to which place Mrs. Canning had been taken 
 after her confinement, as South Hill was in the hands of 
 workmen. " I am an unnatural husband and father to 
 have been away from them so long, but it was so much 
 better for them than being cooped up in Town," pleaded 
 Canning. 
 
 There had been an important division in the House 
 of Commons on the night of Friday, June 3rd. Colonel 
 Patten moved for a Vote of Censure on " the remissness 
 and want of vigilance of the Ministry previous to the 
 Declaration of War." The course of action which Pitt 
 had marked out for himself forbade him to join in 
 the censure ; on the other hand, he could not openly 
 support the Ministers against his own party. He there- 
 fore moved "that the question should be put by, and 
 that the House should proceed to the Orders of the Day." 
 Only fifty-six followed him into the lobby, and Canning 
 was not among them. The King and the Ministry 
 openly rejoiced at this signal defeat, and Canning was 
 not altogether sorry for it.
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 95 
 
 " WHITEHALL, June gth, 1803. 
 
 "... Now shortly for Politicks. 
 
 " Our great project for the Session has failed. A. is not 
 out. Nor P. likely to be in. But the next best object is 
 fully attained. P. is completely, avowedly, unmistakeably 
 and irrecoverably separated from A., and if not in direct 
 hostility to him, restrained from being so only by 
 consideration for the K[ing]. 
 
 "This consideration prevented him from speaking out 
 on Friday night what he thought of the conduct of the 
 Ministers in the late discussions with Ffrance]. He took 
 a middle line, which as middle lines generally do, and 
 generally ought to do, led to discomfiture and disgrace. 
 He divided but 56. We his friends, who had already 
 declared against A., could not in honour or consistency 
 follow him in this Division (one or two did but in mass 
 we could not) we had afterwards a Division of our own 
 when Pitt was gone out of the House. See here it is and 
 divided for your information into its Classes " : 
 
 Then follows a list of names, divided by Canning into 
 " Grenvilles and Windhams " " Us or P.'s friends " and 
 " Ld. Fitzwillms." Among " Pitt's friends " are of course 
 the faithful three, Leveson, Morpeth, and Sturges Bourne. 
 The last named also voted with Pitt ; one hopes that 
 Canning forgave him for it. 
 
 " All P.'s moderate friends went away. 
 
 " Fox, and most of his immediate followers did the same. 
 
 "Those of old Opposition who did stay, voted with 
 Government. 
 
 " Bootle shirked, and Boringdon voted with Government 
 in the H. of Lds ! ! ! after joining for the last two months 
 as heartily as heart could desire, in the cry against the Dr.
 
 96 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 No matter. I am glad he has been brought to the test. 
 Others (upon the whole) stood it well. And we could 
 muster a few more than are here recorded. 
 
 " Now one word about yourself, and I have done. 
 
 " I hear from Hammond that you have not been very 
 diligent in writing lately. For God's sake mend this fault. 
 Make the very best use you can of the time that you have 
 to remain. For many reasons you ought to take special 
 care to give no prise against you. But even without this 
 prudential consideration, recollect how kindly, with what 
 marked kindness and attention the K[ing] has behaved 
 towards you, and pray do not let him have to think that 
 he has spoiled you." 
 
 As soon as he could possibly do so, Canning left town 
 for Welbeck, with the intention of not again setting foot 
 in the House until the autumn session, at all events 
 perhaps not then, " unless Pitt should in the interval have 
 seen fit to take some more decisive line of his own." But 
 only three weeks had passed in making holiday with wife 
 and children when Canning was surprised by the sight of 
 a division in the House on an amendment of Pitt's to the 
 Property Duty Bill. Forgetting all his grievances, real and 
 imaginary, he rushed up to town, " in the hopes of being in 
 Pitt's next minority." He arrived too late to take part 
 in any division, but his presence at Pitt's side for a week 
 together, disposed of the rumours of a quarrel between them 
 which had been spreading ever since the night of Colonel 
 Patten's motion. It was also a gratification to Canning to 
 see how completely Pitt was now separated from Addington, 
 and to watch " his contempt, dislike, and thorough ungovern- 
 able indignation against the Dr. and his whole system. It 
 was so much satisfaction to me, whom he and his neutral 
 friends, the Camdens, Villiers, (Longs perhaps,) had been
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 97 
 
 accusing of passion and acrimony, to find that P. was in 
 a temper to which mine was mildness, whenever he was 
 personally opposed to A., and that he had in the judge- 
 ment of impartial people, and still more (as you may 
 suppose) according to the cry of the Ministerialists, infused 
 into the debates a degree of contemptuous asperity not 
 likely (one should imagine) to be generated upon the 
 modifications of a Tax Bill." 
 
 This, however, was a matter of personal triumph, and 
 Canning grieved over the thought that Pitt's conduct 
 towards Addington was not likely to be appreciated by the 
 general public. " Whether . . . the plain unrefining down- 
 right fatheaded Public will see nothing in the distinctions 
 which he has taken but bad generalship, clumsy opposition, 
 good opportunities romantically lost, and ill ones sought 
 for to repair them this I do not pretend to determine." 
 Leveson was of opinion that Pitt had done himself good 
 and the Government harm, so far as the House of Commons 
 was concerned. " And the Lion, with whom I have been 
 in constant communication since November upon these 
 subjects, and whose notions have for the most part been 
 precisely the same with mine, who thought with me before- 
 hand of what P. ought to do writes me to me that he is 
 perfectly satisfied upon reflection that what he has done 
 is upon the whole the best ; that the Public in time will see 
 it all in a right point of view ; that it goes to the support 
 of P.'s character which is all in all ; and that ultimately 
 such a system of conduct steadily pursued, under all 
 difficulties and discouragements, must bring him back to 
 the administration, much more surely than any shorter and 
 quicker and bolder course could have done. So be it." 
 
 But Canning himself could see " no reason now why 
 A.'s administration should not hobble on, and outlast the 
 Country. And this is the more provoking, as I do really 
 
 7
 
 9 8 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 think that there are means and hopes of raising the 
 Country to a pitch of glory and power, such as it has 
 never attained before, if the administration were in able 
 hands. Nay, I am not sure that the tendency to rise is not 
 so strong that it will rise, in spite of the overlaying sup- 
 pressive stupidity of the present people. And then they 
 will have the credit of what they could not help, and a 
 long lease to ruin us at their leisure." 
 
 Two enclosures were in this letter, which was dated 
 from Elford, where Canning was staying with Sneyd 
 in August. The first was a pamphlet recently published 
 by Hatchard. Its name is not given, and the pamphlet 
 itself is not to be found, but it must have been the 
 " Cursory Remarks upon the State of Parties, by a Near 
 Observer," which caused a great sensation in the summer 
 of 1803. The author was unknown, but Canning believed 
 him to be a member of the House of Commons " from 
 many minutiae which would have escaped a person out of 
 doors." Hatchard refused to disclose the author's name, 
 but he brought Canning the proofs of the part relating to 
 himself, offering to refuse to publish it, if Canning objected. 
 The pamphlet professed to give an account of the recent 
 negotiations between Pitt and Addington. It accused 
 Pitt of deceit in pledging himself to support Addington's 
 Government without having the least intention of fulfilling 
 the pledge, and of making no effort to restrain his own 
 party. Canning was singled out for special blame : 
 
 " Mr. Pitt unequivocally approved the peace. Mr. 
 Windham, the Grenvilles and their adherents as decidedly 
 affected to lament and condemn it ; while the personal 
 friends of Mr. Pitt, and the members most attached and 
 devoted to him by the habits of private life, took the liberty 
 of disclaiming him for their leader, and indulged in every
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 99 
 
 species of rancour, malice, and hostility against the person 
 who had the presumption to fill his vacant place in the 
 Cabinet. Of this party, Mr. Canning, if not the founder, 
 had the reputation of being the leader." 
 
 The " Near Observer " then made merry over Canning's 
 displeasure at Pitt's refusal to join in the vote of censure 
 against the Government : 
 
 " Mr. Canning's indignation has carried him so far that 
 he has scarcely since made his appearance in the House, 
 but I hope he will forgive the weakness of his right 
 honourable friend and return." 
 
 He taunted Canning with being " a mere partisan and 
 stickler for the house of Grenville," and asked him 
 
 " Whether he had been juster to himself and to his own 
 just pretensions and character than we have seen him to 
 the sensibility of his friend and patron, when he con- 
 descended to become a hero of squib and epigrams, a 
 leader of doggrel and lampoon, a power in the war of 
 abuse and invective, an instrument of Mr. Windham, and 
 an auxiliary of Mr. Cobbett ? " 
 
 With this pamphlet Canning sent to Frere a copy of 
 Pitt's final letter to Addington at the time of the negotia- 
 tions in the spring. It was copied by Sneyd, because Mrs. 
 Canning, who generally acted as her husband's secretary, 
 was too unwell for the task. 
 
 " P. at the time he gave it to me absolutely forbade its 
 being communicated except to two or three Persons then 
 in London. But the transaction is now so long past 
 that it is a matter of history, and the representation so
 
 ioo J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 impudently given of it in the Pamphlet makes it necessary 
 that the true statement should accompany it. This letter 
 from P. to A. was the conclusion of the negotiation. A., I 
 believe, did reply to it but his reply was mere botlier and 
 lame exculpation and profession ; except indeed that he 
 insinuates, or rather asserts .pretty roundly, that P. first 
 intimated to him, A., his desire to be brought into office 
 and that he, A , thought he was coming up exactly to his 
 wishes in proposing to bring him in as he did, with the 
 present Govt. and in aid of it. This P. says is a lie. 
 
 " For the rest you will find the pamphlet entertaining 
 enough, and may rely upon it as their party creed. I 
 think it may be well answered and have had some 
 thoughts of answering it myself, but I shall probably be 
 too lazy, and I shall at all events wait to see what turn P.'s 
 mind takes towards the Meeting of Parlt. in November, 
 before I make up my mind whether to give myself any 
 more trouble about party politicks in or out of Parliament." 
 
 At this time Canning's opinion was similar to that ex- 
 pressed by Lord Lovat on his way to the scaffold " the 
 mair mischief, the better sport." He believed that he 
 should be asked to make answer to the " Near Observer," 
 and Mrs. Canning, to whom all his speeches and writings 
 were rehearsed, must have been called upon to admire 
 many shrewd sarcasms during the summer's recess fresh 
 " thistles " to irritate " the Doctor." The semi-official cha- 
 racter given to the attack upon Pitt by the fact that 
 copies of the Pamphlet were sent to several persons by 
 Mr. Vansittart, secretary of the Treasury, and the sensation 
 that it caused in the political world, made an answer of 
 some sort necessary ; but Canning was not requested to 
 supply it. Even had the authorship been kept a secret, 
 his style must have betrayed him. Any reply from his
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 101 
 
 hand could only cause fresh irritation to the other party, 
 and would have no weight with the sober-minded individuals 
 on both sides, who regarded him as a troublesome young 
 man with a lamentable want of control over his tongue 
 and his pen. The disappointment was extreme, and when 
 Canning next wrote to Frere on November 23rd "the 
 Doctor's pamphlet " had become " the most atrocious 
 instance of private ingratitude and personal injustice that 
 ever was published. Such as it is, it gives you a better 
 notion than you could have acquired anyhow else of the 
 views, the language, and the temper of the Addingt. 
 Ministry. They have certainly thrown off P. entirely, 
 and defy him. 
 
 " I hoped by this time to have had an answer to this 
 Pamphlet to send you. And it is not my fault that I have 
 not one to send you of my own writing. I should have 
 been very glad to be asked to undertake the answer. 
 Unasked I would not meddle with it. Proffered services 
 are too cheap to be prized. And I am now pretty well 
 used to the difference between open and tacit encourage- 
 ment ; and know what it is to act upon one's own conviction 
 that what one is doing is agreeable to those for whose sake 
 it is done, at the risque of being disavowed in the face of the 
 world for an irregular and an ungoverned zeal if the result 
 should be unsatisfactory, or the policy of the hour changed. 
 Had P. expressed a wish, and promised to abide by my 
 answer, I should have been ready to do my best, and I 
 could have done better than I ever did anything. I am 
 sure I could. But I hope it was not from a sneaking dis- 
 position to separate his case from that of his friends I 
 hope it was not from that motive that he preferred putting 
 the business into other hands. But in other hands I am 
 afraid it is whose I know not. I only know that the
 
 102 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 opportunity of publishing it to advantage is lost by having 
 deferred it till after the meeting of Parlt., till the minds 
 of people are full of other matters, and the attack itself 
 forgotten tho* the mischief done by it is not likely to 
 be so soon effaced." 
 
 The person whom Pitt selected for this delicate task was 
 a Mr. Courtenay, son of the late Bishop of Exeter, and 
 author of an essay on finance which had met with general 
 approval. His pamphlet was written from Long's notes, 
 under Pitt's superintendence, and is entitled " A Plain 
 Answer to the Misrepresentations and Calumnies contained 
 in the Cursory Remarks of a Near Observer, by A More 
 Accurate Observer." There is none of Canning's sparkling 
 wit, none of the keen lashes with which he could make his 
 enemies writhe in impotent fury. The dignified self-restraint 
 of its tone contrasts favourably with the violent invective 
 of the " Near Observer " ; but the impression left on the 
 reader's mind, whether by accident or design, is that Pitt 
 was separating himself from Canning. There is a sharp 
 hit at Vansittart in the suggestion that, if Mr. Pitt were 
 supposed capable of guiding Mr. Canning, Mr. Addington 
 might be able to influence the Secretaries of the Treasury. 
 Further on it is distinctly stated that " Mr. Pitt disapproved 
 highly of Mr. Canning's parliamentary conduct." 
 
 After this, reconciliation between Pitt and Addington 
 was impossible. The Grenvilles and Windhams had now 
 coalesced with Fox, and after vainly endeavouring to gain 
 Pitt to their side, began a violent attack upon the Ministry 
 in Parliament. Pitt was, according to himself, "assailed 
 in prose and verse" by his "eager and ardent young 
 friends " Canning and Leveson. Canning was like a hound 
 in leash, fretting and chafing at the delay which was really 
 occasioned more by the state of Pitt's health than by any
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 103 
 
 other cause. " He pauses and hesitates and shirks 
 and shuffles to avoid going into direct open avowed parlia- 
 mentary opposition but it is all in vain. Go he must, 
 like all Ex-ministers before him a little sooner or a little 
 later and if he will not let me go before him, I must wait 
 his time." 
 
 One is irresistibly reminded of the witches' song that 
 Gillies Duncan chanted to King James : 
 
 " Cummer, go ye before, 
 
 Cummer, go ye ; 
 Gif ye will not go before, 
 Cummer, lat me." 
 
 But Canning was true to his chief. Among the papers 
 at Roydon is a copy in Canning's own writing, of a letter 
 to Lord Grenville, dated February 2oth, 1804, in which 
 he declares himself " unpledged as to any connection with 
 any New Government (however otherwise unexception- 
 able), in which Mr. Pitt should not be included." 
 
 Another of the King's attacks of mania precipitated the 
 crisis, and Addington was forced to resign in April 1804. 
 
 Canning had busied himself with the scheme of " a 
 comprehensive administration," which should include Fox 
 and Grenville. Pitt was willing enough, and the obstacle, 
 as usual, came from the King, who positively declined to 
 admit Fox. Lord Grenville refused to take office without 
 his new ally, to Pitt's bitter indignation, and Canning at 
 first would accept no post under the new regime. He 
 gave as his reason that "he was not yet ripe for office." 
 Perhaps he was piqued at the downfall of another of his 
 airy castles perhaps he was beginning to see how much 
 harm he had done to his chiefs cause in the last three 
 years perhaps he was honestly weary of the plotting and 
 chicane, the petty jealousies and the " tangle and toil that 
 none can unravel." But his moods were of short duration,
 
 io 4 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 and in the end he consented to become Treasurer of the 
 Navy. 
 
 Unfortunately for us, Frere left Spain in the summer 
 of 1804, and we have only a few triumphant lines sent 
 by Canning to reach him at Madrid before he set out on 
 the homeward voyage : 
 
 " How P. at length came forward in Parlt how the 
 Government was obliged to turn itself out how the scheme 
 of a large, comprehensive Administration had nearly 
 succeeded, and by what means it failed how I did all 
 I could for it, and how I would fain have been left out 
 of that which was formed instead of it, but how, in spite 
 of myself, I am Treasurer of the Navy are matters for 
 many a long conversation, and would swell my letter 
 beyond even the bulk of that which was lost in 1801. . . . 
 I long to see you. Pray depart from your sworn silence 
 for once, and give me due notice of your coming, that I 
 may be sure to be at home to receive you, or (what if 
 I had proper notice I would do) may endeavour to meet 
 you on your road to London. 
 
 "My wife and children (three in number, the last a 
 girl) are all well. Ever yours, G. C." 
 
 In a postscript Canning adds that Leveson has been 
 appointed Ambassador to St. Petersburg, and that Charles 
 Ellis is going to Jamaica. "If you were not returning, I 
 should feel very desolate at parting with Charles and 
 Leveson. Come therefore, ;is quickly as you can." 
 
 With Frere In England there was no necessity for 
 Canning to write long letters, and a few notes of the 
 most trivial character are nearly all that can be found 
 to illustrate Pitt's last years of office. We can gather 
 that those years were disturbed by squabbles among 
 Pitt's own followers. In December 1804 Lord Harrowby
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 105 
 
 met with an accident which compelled him to retire from 
 the Foreign Office, and in the shifting of places that 
 followed, Pitt seized the opportunity of bringing in 
 Addington under the new title of Lord Sidmouth, as 
 President of the Council, thereby causing much ill-feeling. 
 Canning promptly tendered his resignation, but was in- 
 duced to withdraw it. Lord Hardwicke and Mr. Foster 
 had a violent quarrel, which Canning describes Pitt as 
 attempting to reconcile "in his usual balancing way." 
 Canning and Pitt were returning to their old affectionate 
 terms, as we learn from a letter of Charles Ellis's sent 
 to Frere from Jamaica : 
 
 "Feb. yh, 1805. 
 
 " Canning will not write as much about himself as I 
 should be anxious to know, and nobody can do it as well 
 as yourself, if you will only write just that sort of account 
 which you would yourself like to receive. As there is 
 nobody in the House between him and Pitt, this Sessions,, 
 must, I conceive, be of the greatest importance to his 
 Parliamentary Reputation, and I trust he will be able 
 to improve so fine a Situation to the utmost. It gave 
 me the greatest Pleasure to learn by his last Letter that 
 they were returning to their former footing of cordiality,, 
 and that P. was weary of the vagaries which had from 
 time to time estranged them during the Goose administra- 
 tion, and particularly that you had been in some measure 
 instrumental to their Return." 
 
 Lord Sidmouth soon found his position intolerable, and 
 resigned, as was announced to Frere in the following lines 
 scribbled on a small sheet of notepaper : 
 
 " Sat., //y 6, 1805. 
 " The Doctor is out again, 
 So things may come about again."
 
 106 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Otherwise, there is scarcely an allusion to public events 
 in Canning's letters to Frere during the rest of the year. 
 There is an account of a meeting with Pitt, who was 
 " proud and really with justice of his Continental Con- 
 federacy " ; and an allusion to a visit paid by Canning 
 and his wife to the King and Queen at Weymouth, where 
 they " were not over and above well received." 
 
 The first indication of the blow that was to fall on 
 England and on Canning himself occurs in a note to 
 Frere dated from South Hill, January gth, 1806. 
 
 "My Dear Frere, 
 
 " What has become of you ? ... I am here till 
 next week. Pitt I hope is coming here on his way from 
 Bath. He is very ill, and the Continent worse. But He, 
 I hope, will get better." 
 
 Frere was apparently staying with his brother Edward 
 at Clydach, far removed from newspapers and dispatches. 
 This letter is followed by two hurried scrawls, from Charles 
 Ellis, sent one after the other, in the hope that they might 
 reach Frere somewhere and somehow. Pitt is dangerously 
 ill dying and Frere must come to comfort Canning. 
 
 Last of all comes a little scrap of paper torn from the 
 end of another sheet, on which Canning has written a few 
 lines to Frere. He tries to discuss some paper which 
 has been sent for his inspection, breaking off abruptly 
 with " God bless you," and then his overwhelming grief 
 finds expression in the piteous cry " But five hours dead ! 
 nay, not five, not so much ! and to be mentioned already 
 merely as a fact. Alas ! " 
 
 Pitt was stricken down before his work was done ; and 
 Canning, to whom part of the task Catholic Emancipa- 
 tion had been bequeathed, was destined never to complete
 
 CANNING, PITT, AND ADDINGTON. 107 
 
 it, although his life was to be spent in toiling for its sake. 
 Disinherited by his parents' follies of the wealth and 
 position that should have been his by right of birth, dis- 
 inherited by his own good qualities as well as by his own 
 follies from the political influence that should have been 
 his by right of surpassing talents, he was now to face 
 the world " a masterless man." In those few years in " the 
 camp of observation on Bagshot Heath," as his enemies 
 nicknamed South Hill, he had sown the winds of mockery 
 and dissension. He reaped the whirlwinds of envy, malice, 
 strife, wilful misunderstandings, and incurable prejudices, 
 that were to toss him hither and thither, just as he seemed 
 to be nearing the goal of his hopes, until the summons 
 came for him to follow his old chief once more.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 
 
 "AN Irishwoman born, whose family are proud indeed, 
 
 J~\. and whose more Mature Years were Spent in 
 
 Scotland, where that foolish pride was not lessen'd by 
 
 everything I had met with there." 
 
 ELIZABETH JEMIMA, Countess of Erroll,to J. H. FRERE. 
 
 There is a tradition that John Hookham Frere was one 
 evening at a party in a London house where he was 
 introduced to a very beautiful woman. They went 
 together to supper, but, on the way downstairs, he became 
 so interested in conversation that he drank off the glass 
 of negus (other versions make it a glass of champagne or 
 a cup of coffee) that he had procured for her, and offered 
 her his arm to return to the drawing-room. In after 
 years she would tell the story with infinite zest, and add, 
 " This convinced me that my new acquaintance was at 
 any rate very different from most of the young men around 
 us." This good-humoured lady was destined to exercise 
 a strong influence in Frere's life. 
 
 Elizabeth Jemima, Countess of Erroll, was one of the 
 daughters of Joseph Blake, Esq., of Ardfry, whose eldest 
 son was created Lord Wallscourt in his father's lifetime. 
 The date of her birth is uncertain. 
 
 Ardfry, in County Galway, is said by a contemporary 
 
 1 08
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 109 
 
 to have been " the real model of Castle Rackrent," and the 
 glimpses of the Blakes incidentally afforded to us by their 
 correspondence show them to have been very Irish. 
 Elizabeth's portrait, painted by Sir Martin Shee and now 
 at Roydon, represents an extremely handsome girl with 
 large dark eyes and masses of dark hair. She wears a 
 scarlet riding habit and broad-brimmed hat, and looks out 
 of the picture with the masterful smile that may have won 
 the heart of George, fifteenth Earl of Erroll and Lord 
 High Constable of Scotland, whom she married on January 
 25th, 1790. Little is known of her life with her first 
 husband, but tradition says that he left her to the care 
 of his mother and sisters in the depths of the country 
 perhaps at his family seat, Slains Castle. Readers of 
 Corinne will remember how Madame de Stael's heroine 
 found the English ladies sitting solemnly round the 
 tea-table in the absence of their husbands ; but even this 
 harmless amusement was forbidden by the Countess- 
 Dowager. Lady Erroll's maid therefore used to brew " a 
 pot of tea " over her mistress's fire, and the young ladies 
 were in the habit of stealing to their sister-in-law's room 
 after their mother had retired to bed, to enjoy themselves. 
 One night, as they were all gathered en deshabille^ the 
 door was suddenly flung open and the Dowager entered, 
 awful as Lady Macbeth, in nightdress and nightcap. 
 She swept one indignant glance round her, and then 
 stalked from the room, leaving the assembled ladies shaking 
 in their slippers. 
 
 In June 1798 Lord Erroll's death took place under 
 melancholy circumstances, according to De Quincey, who 
 met the young widow and her sister travelling by the canal 
 steamer from Tullamore to Dublin, and was struck by 
 the overwhelming grief of Lady Erroll and the radiant 
 loveliness of Miss Blake. " Lord Erroll had been privately
 
 no J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 intrusted by Mr. Pitt with an official secret viz., the 
 outline and principal details of a foreign expedition ; in 
 which, according to Mr. Pitt's original purpose, his lordship 
 was to have held a high command. In a moment of 
 intoxication, the Earl confided this secret to some false 
 friend, who published the communication and its author. 
 Upon this, the unhappy nobleman, under too keen a sense 
 of wounded honour, and perhaps with an exaggerated 
 notion of the evils attached to his indiscretion, destroyed 
 himself. Months had passed since that calamity when we 
 met his widow ; but time appeared to have done nothing 
 in mitigating her sorrow."* 
 
 This story is in some degree confirmed by a letter 
 from Henry Dundas (afterwards first Viscount Melville) 
 to J. H. Frere in December 1800. Frere had recently 
 been appointed Envoy to the Court of Lisbon, where 
 Lady Erroll was ordered to spend the winter. Lisbon was 
 a favourite health resort in the last century.f 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " I take the opportunity of sending under your Care 
 some Letters for Lady Erroll to recommend her to your 
 particular Attention. I learnt that you got acquainted 
 with her at Falmouth. She has great Merit, and has had 
 a very unfortunate Life, and will be much flattered by any 
 Civility you can shew to her." 
 
 In a foreign country, such an acquaintance would soon 
 ripen into intimacy, and when Lady Erroll returned to 
 England, she was on the most friendly terms with Frere 
 and his brother Bartle, and also with their friend Mr. 
 
 * Autobiographic Sketches : " Premature Manhood." 
 
 t Thus Mr. Mundy takes his delicate wife to Lisbon in 1781, and 
 
 Sally Shilton, George Eliot's " Caterina," is sent thither in 1792. (See 
 
 The Cheverels ofCheverel Manor.}
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. in 
 
 (afterwards Sir Robert) Ainslie. At first Bartle seems 
 to have been her favourite. 
 
 " If I was to wish for a lover, I should exactly wish 
 such a being : he has all the little ways to the heart," she 
 confessed ; and she kept up a correspondence with him,, 
 sending and receiving numerous messages to and from 
 " His Excellency." Her earliest dated letter to J. H. Frere 
 was written in 1 804, but, as some of the correspondence has. 
 been lost or destroyed, it is possible that she may have 
 begun to write to the elder brother before that time. 
 
 From this point until the time of her marriage with 
 him she wrote constantly and voluminously, telling him 
 all that she saw, heard, did, or thought. After taking 
 away all that was meant for him alone and could interest 
 no one else, we have enough to give a vivid picture of 
 the writer, a typical Irishwoman, careless, warm-hearted,, 
 quick-witted. At one moment she is crying herself blind 
 over Bartle's illness, at the next she is laughing at the 
 extraordinary behaviour of the Russian Embassy ; to-day 
 she may be sitting by her fire in " Old Cat Hall," thinking 
 of her latter end, and hoping to make a handsome corpse ; 
 to-morrow she is making charades with a party of friends, 
 giggling like a school-girl, until she has " a Red face," or 
 dancing, the gayest of the gay, at a children's ball. No- 
 consideration can stay her either from cutting a joke at 
 her friend's expense, or from hotly defending an absent 
 foe ; and while she is ready to advance a large sum to- 
 relieve an embarrassed sister-in-law, she forgets to pay 
 her milliner i i6s. for "a white Oldenburgh bonnet." 
 
 She had a suite of rooms at Hampton Court Palace, 
 but, cordially detesting "Old Cat Hall" and all its 
 inmates who must have been considerably tried by 
 her vagaries she was always ready to escape to other 
 surroundings, and there were no lack of opportunities for
 
 ii2 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 flight. The childless widow, said to have been one of 
 the most beautiful women of her time, was a welcome 
 guest, and she boasted that it was never any trouble to 
 her to make herself agreeable in society. She might easily 
 have consoled herself for the loss of her first husband, but, 
 whether Frere had already made an impression on her 
 heart, or whether she was reluctant to tempt fortune a 
 second time, there is no whisper of any lover but himself. 
 
 After reading through the correspondence, one is left 
 to wonder at the perversity of some modern writers, who 
 talk of the modesty and refinement of our grandmothers 
 and are shocked by the outspokenness of the ladies of our 
 own day. Our grandmothers had their own code of what 
 was correct in speech and morals, and did, or did not, 
 act according to it ; but it was a different code from ours. 
 Lady Erroll was a woman of exemplary life, against whose 
 character there was never a breath of scandal ; but she 
 tells stories that cannot, for very decency, be repeated in 
 full, and enters into medical details that would only interest 
 a physician. 
 
 The work of deciphering her letters has been a task of 
 difficulty. Her ladyship wrote in large scrawling charac- 
 ters, which seem at first sight clear and bold, but which 
 prove almost illegible. Her use of capitals is eccentric, even 
 for those days, her spelling is arbitrary, and she never 
 condescends to put any stops. " I wish I could write 
 better I can't read this myself," she observes at the end of 
 a long letter. She often forgot to put the date, and it has 
 not always been possible to supply the omission. 
 
 The first of the dated letters was written on May 3rd, 
 1804, when Pitt had at last returned to office. Lady 
 Erroll was displeased with the new administration. "In 
 truth I like it less every day, though I know it is Right I 
 should like it, but I can't for my life, in my Heart
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 113 
 
 I see everything in the present administration to disgust 
 me, and nothing to please. I hear that Ld. G. Leveson 
 does not go to Russia and that the Boy Palmerston goes, a 
 very fit person (I suppose of experience) to be Ambassador 
 to such a Court of so much consequence to this Country, 
 but I can't believe it, such nonsense ! It would appear 
 almost that Mr. Canning has chozen all his Ambassadors 
 from Ld. Malmesbury's Dinner-parties in Spring Gardens 
 
 and Faggs too Fitzgerald met Ld. Sefton and 
 
 Will m Wyndham at a Borough Brokers on Tuesday last 
 where he went to buy a Seat for his son, there were four 
 Seats to be Sold but no body was allowed to have the 
 two Maidstone Seats who Voted with the present Ministers, 
 therefore he was off, and the terms of the other two not 
 fair he thought." 
 
 It is possible that some of Lady Erroll's aversion to the 
 new ministry arose from the fact that Canning was one of 
 the members. She feared and disliked him partly, it 
 may be, from a natural jealousy of her lover's dearest 
 friend, but also from a woman's instinct that he was 
 working against her. Canning, happy in a perfect wife, 
 had views of his own about Frere's marriage, and did not 
 think the careless, unbusinesslike Irishwoman the best 
 helpmate for the man who was already known as "the 
 most indolent of God's creatures." " Do not open this 
 before that Canning man, I am afraid of him," begs a post- 
 script scribbled on the margin of a sheet. Although she 
 was ready to send her letters to Canning's care so as 
 to avoid exciting comment among Frere's relations, and 
 although, as we shall see hereafter, she turned to him when 
 in real anxiety about Frere, she could never refrain from a 
 disparaging remark about " your pet Mr. Canning," and 
 whatever he did was certain to be wrong in her eyes. 
 
 8
 
 ii 4 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 There are several ways of spelling her title, and others 
 must sometimes have made mistakes ; but when Canning 
 unwittingly leaves out an " 1 " her ladyship, whose own 
 spelling is not beyond reproach, is mortally offended. 
 Her jealousy breaks out in such flashes as these : " I am 
 afraid they [i.e. Frere's family at Roydon] will think I am 
 the Real Cause of y r staying in London, but I could tell 
 them that it is Mr. Canning that you can't exist without" 
 . . . " Y r Mr. Canning I see has been barking at the 
 landed property Bill." ..." I dare not allow myself to 
 expect you here as I shall, I know, only disappoint myself 
 by doing so, as after Wednesday next you will be 
 Watching the fighting of the House of Commons and 
 never from Mr. Canning's side and adieu to poor old 
 Woman." . . . "That Canning Man takes away my own 
 Man from me. If he goes on so, I shall begin to believe 
 the Naughty people who told me that he was ' a most 
 Selfish Man' you made me believe the contrary, but you 
 have not produced the proofs." 
 
 One of the liveliest of her letters describes how her 
 friends tricked her into meeting Canning at a dinner-party, 
 in June 1805 : 
 
 " Lady Georgina Eliot . . . was to have a big Dinner 
 and which I was obliged to fix myself. I was going to 
 Wimbledon to my Dear Melville pet and I was order'd to 
 make him fix a day to meet Count Worenzow,* his 
 Daughter, the Harrowbys,f and some of the Hopes, those 
 were the people Mr. Eliot told me to name to him. . . . 
 Lord Melville fixed upon the 29th. ... I return'd here on 
 Friday Evening that I might with Miss Eliot (the Nice) 
 
 * Count Simon Woronzow, the Russian Ambassador. 
 
 t Lady Georgiana Augusta Leveson-Gower, daughter to the Marquess 
 of Stafford, married the Hon. William Eliot, afterwards second Earl of 
 St. Germans. Lady Harrowby was her sister.
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 115 
 
 arrange the Rooms and see all in proper order, we both 
 got up early and gather'd all the flowers we could and 
 Dress'd the Drawing Room, after, I dress'd the lady of the 
 House to great advantage, as she thinks no body does for 
 her so well, and she did, poor thing, look very well and was 
 in Excellent spirits and put me in High Spirits also, she 
 desir'd me to look well and put on all my agreeables for 
 Count Worenzow, but I had Walk'd so much in the Heat 
 of the day and was busy till past five that I was quite in a 
 Real Heat and my Red face bore testimony of it pretty 
 well, lord Melville's excuse which arrived with a tender 
 note to me, besides, did not even Cool it, nor Dressing in 
 a Hurry and I was not able to go down before the 
 Worenzows came in, tho' Miss Eliot told me I never 
 look'd so well, but I was uncomfortably Hot and I had a 
 great Hot Dinner in View. I waited for the arrival of the 
 the Harrowbys who are always late, that I might get in to 
 the Room with them. I heard the Sign (?) at the Door, 
 my Windows are not front, and therefore I hustled Down 
 Stairs as fast as possible and as I was upon the last Step 
 close to the Drawing Room Door as you know, I found 
 myself exactly close and opposite to whom, Do you think ? 
 No, you never can guess, the last person I expected to 
 see or indeed wish'd to see, but there was not a possibility 
 of a Retreat for me, when I saw a profound bow, and my 
 Eyes met such a pair of dark penetrating Eys (sic\ can 
 you guess? that CANNING Man he was announced 
 loud and he would let me pass in before him. I thought I 
 must have died ; Lady G. was afraid to look at me, and so 
 was Eliot too for they had play'd me a trick and injoy'd 
 in their Hearts how Compleatly I had humour'd it by a 
 Mistake and they guess'd my misfortune immediately. I 
 set myself as near the Door upon the Sofa and behaved 
 very pretty. I had taken my Determination in the instant
 
 ii6 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 and followed it up, I saw Charles Bentinck and glad to do 
 something I gave him a kind nod and he return'd a fine 
 low bow and after Whisper'd Mr. Eliot Mr. Canning had 
 got to the Window with Worenzow by this time but I saw 
 Eliot ready to die with laughing to himself and presently 
 up Bentinck came to me telling me how glad he was to see 
 me look so beautiful and in such High Health and excused 
 himself over and over for having taken me for Mrs. 
 Canning yet he thought she was not so tall and he kept 
 his Glasses stuck before his eyes the while. All this he 
 said loud enough for all the circle of ladys to hear and 
 Lady Georgiana look'd so funny and injoyed it so much 
 that I could kill her and I gave her many a Reproachful 
 look all the day, for I could not get near enough to speak 
 to her. Miss Eliot and I had fix'd to sit on each side of 
 Eliot at the foot of the table where 1 2 people were to sit 
 and I saw the Canning man close at my elbow ready to 
 pop into the next but I put Miss Eliot Down Close to me 
 and he sat the other side of her which did not save me 
 from him as she is like a thread-paper and he saw me 
 before and behind her and talk'd to me and indeed was 
 very Civil to me, and I was obliged to laugh at some of his 
 fun which I had settled not to do (is that not like me ?) but 
 I could not Help it, and as I had determined to laugh the 
 day out, I went on and did not think of anything. I saw 
 Lady G. from the Head of the table smiling at me and 
 watching me, and I made angry faces at her and while I 
 was doing so she Call'd out and said ' Pray Mr. Canning, 
 tell me have you heard from y r friend Mr. Frere since he 
 left Town ? ' I did not hear his answer but she was going 
 on, a great many people were talking loud but I felt that 
 my face was no longer Red and I felt very sick and that 
 goodnatured Eliot close by me saw it in a minute and said 
 ' Come, let us have a glass of y r favourite red wine ' and
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 117 
 
 filled it while he spoke without seeming to look at me. I 
 took it off without looking at him and in the instant 
 Mr. C. turn'd Round and said ' Pray Lady E., have you 
 been long return 'd from Bath, you were very ill when you 
 went there and I am glad to see you so perfectly well ' the 
 letter he frank'd to me there and how lie could have heard 
 of my illness came across my mind immediately and his 
 only having stop'd talking of you to Lady G. but I 
 answer'd very well according to the System I had arranged 
 in my mind for the Day. After Dinner he got by me and 
 we talk'd a quantity and I kept hard at work with Lord 
 Melville. I was so much afraid he should name any body 
 else and I began after the Dinner Scene to feel that I could 
 not manage such an attack and Ld. Melville's subject * gave 
 me plenty to keep going, one stop I was afraid of, for I was 
 determined he should not pity me ... I can see you 
 laugh so Heartily at my Running down stairs to meet the 
 Man in the World I most dreaded to meet and who I 
 never thought of, but the Eliots thought that I would not 
 say why but would send an excuse if I knew he was 
 invited and I, knowing you were safely lodged in Wales, I 
 never thought about who was invited. . . . Had you been in 
 London you would have been asked unknown to me and I 
 should have pop'd upon you and Canning together, which 
 would have been only a degree Worse as I am convinced 
 that Man's Eyes see through one, and yet I think I 
 deceiv'd him pretty well tho' he did look me through and 
 took opportunitys of speaking often to me and fixing his 
 eyes upon me, and unfortunately the things I usually eat of 
 were before him and that Wicked lady G. Eliot always 
 said ' Pray Mr. C., Help Lady E. to that as she likes it, but 
 Help her as if you Help'd a bird ' and that obliged me to 
 Speak to him which she wanted. ..." 
 
 * Lord Melville's impeachment.
 
 n8 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 In spite of her dislike to her lover's friend, Lady Erroll 
 was ready to be his champion when others attacked him. 
 In December 1804, when Lord Sidmouth had agreed to 
 join Pitt, and it was generally thought that the same 
 Ministry could not include him and Canning, she writes : 
 " Ld. Glasgow gave me a whisper when I was going out 
 that he heard that Ld. Sidmouth was to come in and 
 Canning go out as those two it was thought could not 
 Stay in together. I did not believe that Canning was 
 going out but I believe Ld. Sidmouth wants to replace 
 the Duke of Portland * which Ld. G. said was the place 
 named for him. I am obliged to say that I forgot 
 entirely at that instant that I hated Mr. Canning. In 
 short I did not feel certainly in the Humour to say 
 / hate that Canning man" 
 
 More than ten years later Canning was in evil plight. 
 His steady refusal to take any part in the proceedings 
 against the Princess of Wales had injured him with the 
 Regent as much as his faithfulness to the cause of 
 Catholic Emancipation, bequeathed to him by Pitt, was 
 to injure him with the extreme Tories. His unpopularity 
 had increased on all sides, and a pretext was found for 
 attacking him in the insinuation that his special diplomatic 
 mission to Lisbon had been created merely to enable 
 him to take his invalid son to a warmer climate. Lady 
 Erroll's generous, illogical soul was at once in arms for 
 the man whom she detested. " I hear Canning is 
 certainly coming home. I hope his appearance will do 
 away all this odious public impression against him and 
 which now has taken a Regular bad form, he is only 
 named as if politically dead. It was much better when 
 they abused him and argued upon the impropriety of 
 * As President of the Council.
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 119 
 
 the Mission, but now the tone is changed, and one hears 
 what an End Canning has Made of himself, another 
 says how sorry I am for him, then again, how that Man 
 with Talents to be at the head of Everything has lost 
 himself and forfeited the Confidence of the Country ! 
 Within the last four months I have been hearing all 
 this and a great Deal more and observed progressively 
 the abuse Change into this bad Stile. I hate to write 
 this to you but that I think it is Right you who are 
 one of his best friends and possesses his Confidence should 
 be aware of it all and perhaps give him some necessary 
 hints when he arrives, as he may do something to stop 
 the odious progress. One can Hardly suspect Castlereagh 
 could be bad Enough to bring him into this Scrape on 
 purpose, with an appearance at the Same time of Serving 
 him, to lose his popularity, and yet it is gone abroad 
 that Ministers knew no Prince was coming to Portugal 
 when they sent him to comp* [compliment] one, and 
 therefore allow Every body to see that it was merely 
 a Job to employ and inrich Canning who had Talents 
 to command Everything in a fair way." 
 
 An undated letter says : " I heard much of you at 
 Dinner yesterday, and if you heard and saw me when 
 I took Canning's part, who was abominably abused, you 
 would not think that I HATED him. I do not know 
 why but I cannot indure to hear him pulled to pieces 
 for I know he is a man of parts and of Strict Honor." 
 
 All this has carried us far from the political appointments 
 of 1804 that displeased Lady Erroll so severely. The 
 fashions of that year were no more to her taste. 
 
 ST. ALBAN'S ST., July 3, 1804. 
 
 " I can assure you that I never saw in all my life 
 such a terrible set of Coxcombs as the New set of London
 
 120 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 men are, their Crops are cut in the oddest Manner, 
 some have hair Curl'd at the top of the Head all along 
 like a Real Coxcomb and others have it all forced up 
 behind with something or other which makes the Short 
 Hair look like a Porcupine or [as] if they [were] frightened, 
 and I saw one Handsome Man, as they call him, with 
 his Coxcomb along the top of his Head, but below it 
 His Hair divided as Mine is and put behind his Ears, 
 he look'd exactly like a Woman. It was quite a treat 
 to me to see Ld. Boringdon and Ld. Villiers come in with 
 their Brides, Dress'd like Gentlemen, their Hair powder'd 
 and Ty'd." 
 
 Lord Boringdon's bride was Lady Augusta Fane, 
 daughter of John, Earl of Westmorland. Canning, in 
 a letter to Frere written at this time, calls her " a very 
 beautiful girl of seventeen," but every one did not admire 
 her. Lady Erroll writes to tell Frere that " Mrs. Canning 
 made a Compleat Conquest of Mr. Eliot yesterday and 
 I believe he Grudged the Privy Counsellors their privilege 
 more than ever on that account, the two Brides he did 
 not at all like particularly Lady Boringdon [whom] he 
 thinks Horrible not like a Woman, you need not tell 
 this to anybody, he was very funny about her I assure 
 you and made me laugh quantities and about the 
 observations of her having grown since her Marriage, her 
 age, etc., etc., he said they must have meant her immense 
 Arms which she did not know what to do with." 
 
 In the autumn of 1804 Lady Erroll was staying with 
 the Eliots, " who are the people in England I am most 
 at my ease with and who treat me and Really love me 
 as they would a Sister and nurse me and take care of 
 me when I am ill and uncomfortable." On this occasion 
 she had to play the nurse, as the children, who were all
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 121 
 
 ill with measles, caught scarlet fever on their recovery. 
 " Here I am for another Month, I suppose," writes Lady 
 Erroll, consoling herself with the thought that she was- 
 " of great use and of great consequence to Lady G." 
 She must have been glad of a little rest at Bath, where 
 we find her in November drinking the waters, and as 
 usual surrounded by friends, among whom a certain 
 Mr. Livingston was prominent. He was an elderly beau 
 who had visited nearly every court in Europe, and was 
 on the most confidential terms with Lady Erroll, whom 
 he considered as his charge. One of her letters begins 
 with bantering congratulations to Frere, who had just 
 been made a Privy Councillor. 
 
 "BATH, Jan. list, 1805. 
 
 "If I had been able, my Dear Right Honble Friend 
 to write to you before, I should not have done it, as 
 I thought it would make you a great deal too pert and 
 Vain to be sworn into a seat at the Privy Council and 
 to Receive a letter from me in the same Week, yes, me 
 (I suppose you will say ' and I am not at all Vain ') 
 but I am not by any means Certain that I do not Still 
 prefer his old Excellency Sitting under the Rural Canopy 
 of Chestnuts in 'Cintra's Shades' kissing one's Hand> 
 to the Gold-embroidered Canopy at St. James's, doing 
 the same Homage to George the 3rd take that, Mr. 
 Privy Councillor, and you may be jealous of his old 
 Excellency if you like, I confess I like him and love 
 him. ... I have got a most Scolding letter from my 
 Down Mother in law for coming here without a Man 
 Servt. and a kind of Nurse Maid and not content with 
 that she wrote a letter to old Livingston to whom she 
 has not Written for some time, and at which he has 
 been affronted to beg him to speak to me and to
 
 122 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 attend to me as I ought not to be without proper 
 attendance, so you see I have made peace between those 
 two old Creatures without intending it for he is delighted 
 to get such a letter of Confidence from her and they 
 write every day now about me. ... I did not know 
 you were Sworn in till after that old Livingston sitting 
 at the foot of my bed said to amuse me 'So I see 
 Mr Frere is made a privy Councillor.' The light was 
 in my face and I had Courage, nervous as I was, to 
 answer 'Oh, he is, I am glad, but I had heard at the 
 Eliots he was to be, before I left Town ' and as I do 
 not mean to encourage y r Vanity I will not tell you 
 how anxiously I made my Maid bring me all the 
 Newspapers when he was gone and I saw it over and 
 over in different Ways." 
 
 Mr. Livingston seems to have been privileged to walk in 
 and out of Lady Erroll's bedroom at all times. A month 
 later, she writes, " I have not a moment and Livingston is 
 constantly in the Room, he sat by me yesterday while I 
 was dressing [in] his French Stile, and as there was an 
 English Hair Dresser we spoke french all the [time], he 
 was delighted, it put him in mind of 'the days of his 
 youth,' and he always admires me more in my bed and at 
 my Toilette and he was pleas'd and he amused me much 
 with his old parts anecdotes and he put me in humour and 
 I look'd pretty of course when I went out and he told me 
 to be satisfied and that was something you know, in 
 my favor." 
 
 She reciprocated Livingston's attentions by calling on 
 him when an illness confined him to his room, and another 
 letter describes her visit to the invalid. " He looks so 
 pretty with a flannel gown and a Stick up Night cap. 
 Lady Nelson detected me with him yesterday, she miss'd
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 123 
 
 him at the partys and she Call'd and immediately come up 
 stairs and said she would see him in or out of bed and in 
 she came so grieved and Concern'd that I shall like her 
 ever again, she is a most pleasing Woman and I think his 
 lordship has a bad taste to prefer that old beast Lady 
 Hamilton to her." 
 
 In the July of 1805 she was back at Hampton Court, 
 consoling herself by visits to Town where she met several 
 of the Frere brothers. " I am obliged to say that y r father 
 has much reason to be proud of his family from all I have 
 seen ... I am in mourning for an Uncle in law. It is 
 the second time I have put it on since I was married for 
 the same Woman's two, old men both. I wish I could find 
 out a 3rd old man for her, Livingston is too Young by far 
 for her taste ; he is now in Wales he tells me upon a fright- 
 ful Coast, not a Tree Tenby, a bathing place in South 
 Wales. I have really been annoy'd here by Music playing 
 all Manner of tunes Sunday Evenings under my Windows 
 and every body Walk like a Vauxhall, full Dress'd. I was 
 obliged to sit by myself all the evenings as I could not go 
 to my Wilderness without Walking thro' this ful Dress 
 Mob and I have not Confidence enough to tell people that 
 they are doing wrong and to pretend that I am better than 
 other people, and particularly as there is a Clergyman and 
 his family in the Palace a witness of what is without Joke 
 quite Scandalous. I don't care if you laugh at me for this 
 but I cannot Help feeling Shock'd at what I can't get 
 away from, as it is Close under my Windows and I have 
 no Retreat from it." 
 
 Among Lady Erroll's elderly admirers no one was 
 more attentive or more favoured than Henry Dundas, Lord 
 Melville, who first recommended her to Frere's attentions. 
 The attachment was platonic on both sides, but the lady 
 amused herself by teasing Frere with details of the favours
 
 124 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 bestowed on "my Old Darling Melville." " I had a visit from 
 Ld. Melville this morning : he was in High Spirits and looks 
 young and gay and made love as usual ... I have had 
 two long Mornings of lord Melville at H. Court and four 
 kisses of course, one always coming in and one going 
 away " ..." I have heard by this post that my Dear 
 Ld. Melville has given me a 50 gun Ship for a friend 
 of mine." 
 
 After reading the last extract, one is less disposed to 
 wonder that Lord Melville was impeached on the charge 
 of misapplying the money voted for the Naval Estimates. 
 In many respects he had been an active and efficient First 
 Lord of the Admiralty, but he had allowed his subordinate, 
 Mr. Trotter, to keep a portion of the public money at his 
 private bankers and there were entries made of large 
 advances for " secret service," of which he could give no 
 account. Every other Head of a Department must have 
 done the same, and Pitt himself was not guiltless ; 
 unfortunately, Lord Melville was unpopular with the 
 Opposition, and the chance of striking him a blow, and 
 at the same time affecting superior virtue, was too good 
 to be lost. Some of Pitt's own colleagues turned against 
 him, amongst them Lord Sidmouth, to whom this seemed 
 a favourable opportunity of exhibiting the narrow-minded 
 rectitude which made him so respected by the King and 
 the British public. By a curious coincidence Dundas had 
 carried a bill in 1785 to prevent the Treasurer of the Navy 
 appropriating the public money to his private use. 
 
 Lady Erroll was furious with every one, and particularly 
 with the culprit for his lame defence, and with Frere for 
 not having been present : " You cannot imagine how I 
 have felt for my unfortunate friend Lord M. altho' I had 
 no hopes from his Speech, and when Mr. Eliot came home 
 in Spirits and repeated the Substance of it to me assuring
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 125 
 
 me at the same time that it had made a very great impression 
 upon the house, but when he mention'd what he said about 
 Scotland I was indeed thunderstruck, tho' that did not show 
 that he used the money for his own private purpose, yet it 
 allowed the opposition to believe that he apply'd the Navy 
 Money to buy Scotch Members, which tho' serving 
 Government is a kind of thing that should never see light, 
 and what he has, all his life been accused of, and it is hard 
 he should suffer for his zeal to serve his country." 
 
 In July 1805, Gillray published a caricature representing 
 Lord Melville as the " Wounded Lion," assailed by asses, 
 conspicuous among whom are Lord Sidmouth's brother 
 and brother-in-law, Hiley Addington and Bragge. This 
 paper was lying on Lady Erroll's sofa at Hampton Court 
 at eleven o'clock on a July morning when Lord Melville 
 walked into her sitting-room, and hearing that she was 
 still in bed, opened her door and told her "to get up 
 immediately and not be so lazy and Idle." " I was 
 obliged to Scold him out of my Room," she says naively. 
 While she dressed herself, Lord Melville enjoyed the 
 caricature, which he had not seen, and then sat down 
 with her to eat " a Venison Pasty." 
 
 " Our public news is very bad indeed 
 
 of every kind, and I think people really are alarm'd 
 about the Invasion as they believe it likely independant 
 of the good private information they have that the Great 
 Emperor wishes to get it over before he engages in the war 
 against Russia. Did you know this Russian Ambassador 
 who is arrived here from Madrid ? he arrived three days 
 ago at Thomas' Hotel in Grand Stile 33 of them altogether, 
 and they have made such a Riot in the Hotel that three 
 families have been obliged to take lodgings in the Sqr to 
 get away from their Bustle and Noise, the Courier came
 
 126 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 up to the Sqr full gallop with a Jacket all over Gold Lace 
 cracking his Whip as hard as he could and without getting 
 off his Horse he calls out in bad English Ho! one pot 
 Porter, 2 pot, and three, and he finished the 3 on Horse- 
 back as quick as he could one after another to the great 
 amusement of all the John Bulls who had gathered around 
 him by the Cracking of his Whip and his foreign look and 
 laced Jacket. Can't you see it all? he then got off his 
 Horse Drunk, with the 3 Pots Porter and Danced about 
 to such a degree that the Mob laughed so much that he 
 got into a Rage at last and with difficulty Mr. Thomas got 
 him into the House ; he ordered every Room in the House 
 and such a Dinner as never was heard of. You can't 
 conceive how much it amused and foolish as it was, I 
 write it on purpose to amuse you. Don't be affronted, 
 trifles sometimes have entertained the most profound 
 philosophers." 
 
 Lady Erroll's parting present to the Eliots was her own 
 portrait by Cosway, which is still in existence and was 
 shown at the Guelph Exhibition. " It is a great deal too 
 handsome for any body I think ; he has given it a Remark- 
 able fine Countenance grave and thoughtful." When it was 
 finished she considered it " very Stupid looking and solemn." 
 Certainly the melancholy figure with the beautiful neck and 
 bust who leans her head on one arm, and holds a half-closed 
 book, is not what one would have expected the writer of 
 these letters to be. 
 
 On September 1 5th she writes a good scolding to Frere, 
 which, by all accounts, he richly deserved. " I have heard 
 from Every quarter ' what can have become of Frere ? 
 where has he hid himself? ' The Princess of Wales has 
 plagued Lady G. Eliot about it and said ' For my partjl 
 believe Mr. Pitt has sent him to Madrid, unknown to
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 127 
 
 anybody to arrange there, or elsewhere, it is so Stupid of the 
 Man to get out of the Way of his interest so intirely when 
 he ought to be in the Way ' then the Harrowbys when 
 they were here said over and over ' where can Frere be ? *" 
 The fact is that you have been imprudent to get out of 
 the Way when there is nothing to do but to meet Mr. Pitt 
 and all such people at Dinner and parties of every kind, 
 and which is always the time for a Man who is looking; 
 forward to arrange a good Winter for himself. If Mr. 
 Pitt was only to meet people in London while parliament 
 is sitting, he could never form a friendship or like anybody, 
 he has not time, and it is exactly those foolish summer 
 parties which he likes so much that afford good fortunes 
 to so many who you know have no Real Merit to Advance 
 them otherwise. He is like a School Boy, he is in his 
 Holidays as gay as anybody and as foolish and is Dining 
 with everybody, looking at a Dock, going in a Boat, or 
 something, and he is toadied the while and can find out 
 easily the Talents of a Man in such Mixtures, here is a 
 Preaching with a witness you will say but it will have no 
 effect, as I believe like the Princess of Wales who said the 
 other day ' Mr. Canning says very true about Mr. Frere, 
 that where ever he goes there he sticks and never wishes to 
 move. What a pity he is so indolent,' she added, . . . The 
 Princess of Wales has been here always talking of you, she 
 never ceases to talk of you and me to Lady G. Eliot who 
 told me she Worried her about us, and asked so many 
 questions that she was always obliged to be upon her guard 
 when she spoke to her, and particularly this last day, when 
 she (lady G.) told me she saw evidently she wanted to find 
 out whether you and I wrote to one another and whether 
 we quarrelled or not, she seemed to hint that we were no 
 longer friends, in short she was very tiresome and disagree- 
 able lady G. told me, and that she got nothing for her
 
 128 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 pains . . . She [Lady Georgiana] goes on board to-day 
 and I am playing the fool dreadfully. . . . Mr. Pitt asked 
 me one of the days he was here if I thought Mr. Long 
 would do well for Ireland. I told him I did not know, as I 
 had not the pleasure of knowing him sufficiently for me to 
 judge, but that I believed Ease of Manners and openness 
 of address was the only thing which could succeed in that 
 Country ; he said ' I believe you.' " 
 
 From all these troubles and vexations Lady Erroll was 
 glad to escape to Lord Keith's house near Ramsgate where 
 she spent part of the autumn. A large number of her 
 friends were in the neighbourhood and they dined by turns 
 at each other's house " one set of us like one family." In the 
 morning the ladies sat on the pier and watched the troops 
 embark. " It was the fashion for the ladies to meet in the 
 fine new pier Room from which we saw all the troops 
 march under the Window and Step off the Pier into the 
 transports ; 3,000 already are gone, those we have sent off 
 were the Germans and certainly the finest-looking Men I 
 ever saw, the Ladies lost their Hearts to the Officers who 
 came in to us in the Pier House and each Regt. made their 
 Respective Bands Play for us, on Tuesday the Guards 
 embark and I suppose the mornings will be spent in the 
 same way. ... I can't Help laughing perhaps too much at 
 some Quizes who Ld. Keith must ask here and as we all 
 understand our looks we do sometimes behave naughty, 
 yesterday it was not all my fault tho' they left most part 
 of it at My Door, the Mansfields and a great many people 
 Dined here. I sat next to Lord Keith who is ever saying 
 something in my Ear to set me off, on my other side was 
 Lady C(atherine) Harris quite as bad in her quiet way, 
 Lady Mansfield opposite with that little fright Souza by 
 her who would talk Constantly English Portuguese and 
 french well mix'd up together, he always appealed to me
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 129 
 
 about Portugal. I touch'd my neighbours and prais'd it 
 beyond anything, they were Ready to Die as the Man 
 went on an hour then with his certamenta que sim and my 
 two Neighbours and the Company laugh'd so loud and so 
 much that the little Man laugh'd with us and thought he 
 was [a] delightful Creature." 
 
 A letter written in the following month describes a 
 characteristic proceeding on the part of this delightful 
 Irishwoman. It is impossible to make out what actually 
 took place, but it seems that, having to send money to a 
 poor widow, she mislaid some bank-notes and suspected 
 her man-servant of taking them, However, he was proved 
 guiltless, although " a 10 Note" was missing "which has 
 not Cast up yet but which I am persuaded is poked into 
 some letter which I have not as yet answer'd and will 
 come to my hand in a seasonable time perhaps." 
 
 No wonder that her ladyship was the despair of every 
 one who attempted to do business with her ! On another 
 occasion she writes, " Here is a fine Bore this instant come 
 in to me, a letter from the Grandfather of my Nephew 
 (Lord Wallscourt) to whom my Brother sent a proper full 
 copy of my Father's Will, and as he is in Town I was 
 order'd by Fitzgerald to send for their Copy or a Copy of 
 it that he might save me by seeing it, and yet this foolish 
 old Man writes to me that I must go to his House to. 
 Read it myself as it is too long for him to Copy and yet 
 he expects me to read this long very long thingumbob." 
 A little later, we find "You must not look this Way 
 tomorrow, as I am obliged to give up the early part of 
 the day to Mr. Fitzgerald (Master of the Rolls Elect) 
 and for what, do you know? to be scolded in the most 
 unmerciful Way for an Hour and to hear nothing but 
 Chancery business, Trustees powers, accumulated in trust 
 Money, accumulation upon that interest, did you ever hear 
 
 9
 
 130 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 such Words and such a bore ? He began to scold to-day 
 but I told him it was Sunday and it was not proper to 
 be angry, but that tomorrow at one o'clock he might 
 Scold till Night if he liked. At the same time I assured 
 him that it was out of his power or of any other persons 
 to make me like myself first. He says I think of no body 
 but my Brother. I did not like to say he told a Story and 
 I have promised in the most Solemn Manner to attend 
 to all he had to say tomorrow provided I was not the 
 Object of the business, in short [he was] to say it was 
 the case of a Mr. Something and not Lady Erroll's ; he 
 declared I was incorrigible but that I always got the better 
 for all that. Adieu, I am going to Dress for a Dutchess 
 of Gordon Dinner with all my old Friends."
 
 VI. 
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO 
 (continued}. 
 
 1804-1808. 
 
 THE winter of 1805-6 passed away monotonously for 
 Lady Erroll at Hampton Court. She saw little 
 of her own friends, and yet could not enjoy solitude in 
 peace, owing to the frequent interruptions of the other 
 inmates of the Palace. She concludes a letter with " The 
 Cats are coming, I hear them Ring, and even hear them 
 Squalling, is Lady Erroll at home? What would they 
 say if they knew I was Writing to a Beau ? " 
 
 In the spring of 1806 she was again in Town, and 
 the following letter, dated " Fenton's Hotel, March 7th," 
 probably describes a day of her life at this time : 
 
 " I came to Town on Wednesday, and intended to go 
 to the Antient Music, made a Bungle about my Ticket, 
 it was too late to get it. The Drawing Room was the 
 object yesterday, they made a mistake in my Dress, it 
 was not deep enough for my Mourning and the glass of 
 my Sedan Chair was not mended ; looked at my Lodgings, 
 found them Abominable. I walked all over the Town 
 till I was Lord, how tired ! Looked in upon the Dutchess 
 of Gordon while she took off her Hoop to Dine with the 
 Bedfords." 
 
 131
 
 132 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 This was Jane Duchess of Gordon, who rode down the 
 High Street of Edinburgh on a pig's back in the days of 
 her wild girlhood, and raised recruits for the new Highland 
 regiment, when other means had failed, by allowing each 
 man to take the shilling from between her lips. Hoops 
 were de rigueur for Court dress until the days of George the 
 Fourth, although in private life the ladies' skirts had been 
 growing more and more scanty since the days of the 
 French Revolution. The Duchess insisted that Lady 
 Erroll should return in the evening, " and because I was 
 very tired I went I believe it was 4 o'clock this morning 
 when Lady Harrington set me home here. I saw last 
 night every Creature I ever knew. Mr. Grey, my old 
 acquaintance made his way through the Crowd to tell 
 me how Glad he was to see my pretty face again, he sat 
 by me and we had a great Deal of Chat. I felt so odd 
 sitting beside him and Mrs. Whitbread, and then the 
 odious Whitbread Man came and joined, though I had 
 avoided Meeting that Man's Eye for a long time yet I 
 was obliged to be Civil because he addressed me in such 
 a good-humoured Manner. All the New and most of 
 the Old Lot of Monsters were there, as the Drawing Room 
 was particularly full this Ball was so, and all the Diamonds 
 made a very fine House look most brilliant. ... I hope 
 you will be amused with my disappointments when I 
 came to Town, there were so Many that instead of being 
 Angry and Cross I could not Help laughing at them all. 
 Ainslie called twice but I was out and therefore did not 
 see him. Goodnight. I am going to bed to get all the 
 Sleep I had lost last night. That beautiful Creature Lord 
 Temple, and Lord Darnley Winged me Down to Supper 
 and we made a pleasant party for ourselves at a Small 
 Table, Lady Castlereagh made one and Really was the 
 Naked truth as she is aptly called."
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 133 
 
 The Bishop of St. Alban's now possesses a miniature 
 formerly belonging to Sir Robert Ainslie, which is believed 
 to represent Lady Erroll. If she really did sit for it, she 
 need not have animadverted upon Lady Castlereagh's 
 undress, as it depicts a coil of dark hair, an ear, a cheek, 
 the tip of a nose, a neck, and a back undraped to the 
 waist. Sir Robert Ainslie is said to have been a fervent 
 admirer of the beautiful Irishwoman, and to have refrained 
 from proposing to her because he knew that his friend 
 was preferred. Her Ladyship held him cheap, after the 
 manner of a woman. Frere once sent her some partridges 
 from Roydon to tempt her failing appetite. Ainslie came 
 to supper, and seeing her eat nearly the whole of a bird, 
 naturally concluded that partridges were her favourite 
 delicacy and sent her "Constant fresh supplys." "The 
 little fool could not guess that a few lines from a certain 
 old wretch gave my supper a particular good flavour," 
 is all the gratitude that the Countess expresses for his 
 kindness. 
 
 On September 23rd Lady Erroll writes : " Fox's death 
 seems to make no noise. I asked the Dean of Windsor 
 and Harry Legg who I meet on Sunday at Dinner what 
 they thought of the New Great Man, they said, alas the 
 Change will be trifling we fear, they said T. Grenville 
 would not fill Fox's place, positively, they seemed very 
 low about it, particularly Henry Legg, who has an 
 office." 
 
 Towards the end of September Lady Erroll set off 
 for Tunbridge Wells accompanied by two of her sisters 
 and a little niece with " A Head Red enough to set 
 one on fire." They started at eleven o'clock on Friday 
 morning, stopping by the way to see Lord and Lady 
 Glasgow. "The little shy peer astonish'd me with his 
 Extreme Civility to the Miss Blakes, and we were obliged
 
 134 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 to stay dinner to oblige him. . . . Lord Henley * has been 
 to see me, but he is too Stingy to ask me to Dinner as I 
 have two Sisters, tho' he is my only Relation here. . . ." 
 
 "TUNBRIDGE WELLS, Oct. 21. 
 
 " It is such a long time since I wrote to you that I hope 
 you cannot think me very troublesome now. ... I must 
 confess we lead a most Regular life here, I get up at the 
 same Hour, Drink Water at the same time, Read news- 
 papers, letters, and gossip, Walk, Drive at the same 
 Hour every day. I think I laugh also at the same time 
 too, the only Variety I have is in the Drive and William 
 Spencer's Jokes which are levell'd at poor Sick Cross 
 Rogers when Souza is not here." 
 
 Souza, the little Portuguese who had been at Ramsgate 
 in the previous year, seems to have been the recognised 
 butt of the party. The Hon. William Spencer had a 
 great reputation in his own day as an agreeable com- 
 panion and a graceful writer of vers de soctiti. He is now 
 forgotten, unless readers of the " Rejected Addresses " 
 may happen to recall Philander's Ode to Lady Elizabeth 
 Mugg, beginning, " Sobriety, cease to be sober." 
 
 "... I cannot describe the beauty of the surrounding 
 Country here. Every day I am Drove to some Magnificent 
 Building, either in Ruins or kept in repair by some body 
 living in the Dwellings of Heros one has read of ; in short, 
 independent of their Natural beauties they all interest one 
 from almost all having been inhabited by Characters cele- 
 brated in History. I can't Help observing that all those 
 fine Situations have been Chozen by Bishops or Monks. 
 We went a very large party to Somer Hill of Grammont 
 memory. I went with Lady Susan Fincastle in her 
 
 * Morton, Lord Henley, younger brother of the first Lord Auckland.
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 135 
 
 Curricle, the Rest Rode, and we were much amused with 
 SoUza making most tender love to Norah,* his manner of 
 Riding, etc., etc., and his Explanations why he was obliged 
 to order a particular kind of Stuffd Saddle for himself, 
 the English ones being too hard, too Smooth and too 
 inconvenient, which he took particular pains to make us 
 understand. Mr. Spencer took good care to make him say 
 every thing he chose, and I can assure you I was ready to 
 Expire from laughing, as was also the whole party, with 
 the Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough, who made his fun 
 also, and more than anybody enjoyed Norah's Coolness 
 when Souza was pouring out his admiration in french, 
 English, portuguese, and Italian, and the usual gestures. 
 She was obliged to get off her Horse to get her Saddle 
 right, and he made twenty attempts to put her up again, 
 to the great amusement of all the party, who got round 
 him and would not give any Help until Norah, quite tired 
 of laughing, and feeling the Company were sufficiently 
 gratified, told him to get away, which you may believe did 
 not compose our Risible faculties. . . . Rogers left us in a 
 passion because we laugh'd so much ; he hates to see any 
 body laugh or look happy. Spencer wrote the most 
 Satirical lines I ever heard upon this dislike of his. I 
 wish I could remember them for you, as they are very 
 Clever ; but as Rogers is his friend, he gave them to Lady 
 Susan to read to Lord F. and myself, and immediately 
 after put them in the fire, and therefore I can't recollect 
 them Regularly, tho' I remember Enough to amuse me. 
 . . . Let me know when you hear of Bartle. Lord 
 Ellenborough tells me that Lord Morpeth has orders to 
 follow the King of Prussia and he supposes him with the 
 Army, so Bartholomew will see fine doings before he gets 
 back. Adieu." 
 
 * Lady Erroll's youngest sister, Honoria Louisa Blake.
 
 136 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Bartle Frere had been sent as Lord Morpeth's secretary 
 on the mission to the King of Prussia. They arrived at 
 headquarters two days before the battle of Jena, in which 
 the Prussian army suffered a crushing defeat. " The King 
 himself escaped, or rather fled, without one hundred men 
 assembled round him,' and the Duke of Brunswick received 
 a mortal wound. After this Lord Morpeth thought it 
 advisable to return home at once, as Lady Erroll records. 
 
 " Oct. ytfh, 1806. 
 
 " You see I am still here, my Dear Man, and very anxious 
 to hear from you, you Lazy Mortal. Pray take up your 
 pen, let me know if you have heard from Bartle, you might, 
 by the same opportunity [that] Lord Morpeth has been heard 
 of, who seems to me to have been pretty well frighten'd. 
 I confess I am, for your brother, who I wish back again. 
 The last news is so very bad that it discourages every hope 
 of success against that Horrid Villain. I have been cursing 
 all Stars and orders on account of that fine Brave Prussian 
 Prince, who I dare say was mark'd out by the enemy from 
 the folly of Wearing his Stars, and the King of Prussia has 
 lost an able Support by his Death, and I fear His Majesty 
 Stands much in need of somebody to jog his elbow, I hope 
 the pretty Queen will keep him in order, we ladies all here 
 are in hopes that by her attendance in the Campaign [it 
 may] end Gloriously by some Clever management Q{ her's. . . 
 Our Society is much lessen'd, many of the Birds belonging 
 to the House of Lords we have had here, are gone to 
 Shelter themselves in London or to Canvas Counties for 
 their friends, and to Bargain their Boroughs away. We 
 have been lucky I must say, not to have had one single 
 Exceptionable person of our party ; this place is famous for 
 keeping off those kind of Naughty Lords and ladys, they 
 never appear here, as they know the Society only mix in
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 137 
 
 a kind of way to prevent their being noticed by those 
 Chances they find so convenient at Brighton and Ramsgate, 
 etc., etc. 
 
 " The Lord Chief Justice was gayer than any body, 
 attended every morning pantile Walking, before Breakfast, 
 where we all arranged our Rides. [Here a part of the 
 letter has been torn off.] Well then, his parting was quite 
 tender on Monday, he said he was like a Boy going to 
 School from his Holy days to tasks and lashes. There 
 were three ladys who disputed his Heart, therefore no 
 body could tell why he was so particularly distress'd on 
 leaving ' the most pleasant party he ever met in his Holy 
 days.' Lady Susan Fincastle look'd as if she was the 
 favourite. The Dutchess of St. Alban's turn'd the side of 
 her Head which is not deaf to hear if she could gather 
 anything for her Comfort, and Lady Erroll declared that 
 she had been long in possession of his heart, but he has 
 escap'd us all, and is now at the Old Bailey ! Horrible 
 taste ! You will think mine worse when I tell you I 
 like Rogers, he is so ill, poor man, and so low and uncom- 
 fortable that I pity him, and I like to talk, Walk, and 
 prose with him. His Character is singular, and he is a 
 better-natur'd man than people in general suppose. I can't 
 conceive his friendship for Spencer, their Characters are so 
 opposite, they don't think alike upon any subject, their 
 Habits [are] not like, and often I see Rogers have a 
 Contempt for him." 
 
 " Nov. 6th. 
 
 " I am very anxious to hear the fate of your Brother, 
 believe me I am and ever shall be most truly interested 
 about him. I grieve that his Mission has been so unsuc- 
 cessful, I believe Lord Morpeth was too young in the 
 business, and too soon frighten'd. I fell in a great Scrape
 
 138 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 upon this Subject, as we were all here naturally anxious for 
 foreign news, therefore we contrived to get to the Reading 
 Room at four o'clock to have the newspapers of the same 
 day which in the Morning with our letters we can't com- 
 mand. I got the better of Lord Fincastle, and got the 
 papers before he arrived, but when he did come with Lady 
 Susan, my sister, Rogers, and a few more, I scream'd out 
 in my indignation ' Lord Morpeth * is a fine person to- 
 send, like a Child, frighten'd and run away, burnt his papers 
 and yet Can't tell any thing but what he heard from a few 
 Mad Cowardly Runaways like himself, but he had a Man 
 with him, who must have been hurt to the Soul by such 
 Childish Conduct. I dare say the poor little peer will 
 never get alive to England ! ' I had hardly done when I 
 recollected I was speaking to his friends and near relations, 
 and flew away as quick as I could without daring to Raise 
 my Eyes, but I found after that I need not be alarm'd as 
 the Whole Party not only subscribed to my opinion but 
 had the Comfort of hearing similar exclamations from the 
 multitude who crowded to the library to hear the news 
 which was so bad as not to incline anybody to have mercy 
 upon the poor little Man ; for a moment nothing was heard 
 but laughing at him and thinking how his fears affected 
 him. One said, ' This was all to please that puppy Lord 
 Carlisle he was sent upon such an important mission/ 
 When I saw Lord Fincastle after, he laugh'd amazingly 
 at me and ask'd me how I thought Lord M.'s Health 
 suffered from the fright, as he was sure he was in a terrible 
 one, and so we laugh'd at him Cordially, but I thought of 
 Bartle tho' I did not say so, and was very angry for him. 
 Don't be angry because I laugh'd at Lord M., I could not 
 Help it, I hate a coward, and so do you." 
 
 * George, afterwards sixth Earl of Carlisle. As he was born in 1773, 
 he was not so very young at this time.
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 139 
 
 A few days later, Lady Erroll was alone in her rooms at 
 Hampton Court, and as usual under the circumstances, 
 taking the most despondent view of public and private 
 affairs. " I am sorry to find there is such very bad news 
 from Hamburgh. I suppose at last we must content 
 ourselves with keeping that Emperor of the Devils out 
 of England and let him do as he likes with all the rest of 
 the world." 
 
 Lady Erroll was still at Hampton Court in the beginning 
 of 1 807, but she seems to have been in high society, for a 
 letter written on January 7th is full of the sayings and 
 doings of the Royal Family. With the Prince of Wales 
 she was on friendly terms. He once expressed a wish 
 that she should succeed Lady Elgin as governess to the 
 Princess Charlotte, and Lady Erroll looked forward to 
 his becoming "a Real friend" to Frere in the future a 
 prospect which would have been a fatal shock to Frere's 
 old father had it ever occurred to him as a possibility. 
 Lady Erroll did not approve of the Duke of Clarence. 
 " I am sorry to tell you that the Duke of Clarence told 
 me yesterday that they are determined to enforce the 
 Pig Iron tax with all their power immediately 'we lost 
 it last year, but nothing this year shall be left undone 
 to get the better of those Walkers and a whole Set of 
 D d Canting Religious dishonest Rascals who are as 
 Cheating a pack as ever existed ' so much for His Royal 
 Highness's Elegant language, you have his own words as 
 I heard them. His greatest ambition now is to be a 
 Col. of Militia, he sent Col. Braddyll to Brighton to ask 
 the Prince for the Sussex Militia vacant by the D. of 
 Richmond's Death, the P. laugh'd, ask'd if he was Mad, 
 and told Braddyll to say any thing to him but tell [him] 
 that Regiment must go to the Lord Lieutenant of the 
 County, and now he is going to have the Middlesex
 
 i 4 o J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Militia, and turn out old Col. Bailey who has it, give 
 him a Consideration." 
 
 His Royal Highness's elegant language need not have 
 been so shocking to Lady Erroll, who was herself accus- 
 tomed to use strong expressions. It was only patriotic 
 to call Buonaparte the " Emperor of all the Devils," but 
 she pities Mr. Hammond, who " has got a Daughter, poor 
 Devil," and implores Frere to write her an amusing letter 
 because " this house is full of Bores, the Devil take them 
 all." 
 
 About this time a plot was framed against the Princess 
 of Wales, " the end of which was to destroy her fair fame, 
 if not to take away her life." * Lord Malmesbury, who 
 had proved himself so true a friend to the Princess on 
 the journey from Brunswick to London, now came forward, 
 and with the help of his advice she escaped from the 
 toils. The charge brought against her was false, but her 
 own foolish conduct had made it seem plausible to many 
 sober-minded persons, and she was surrounded with spies 
 who were eager to take advantage of every careless word 
 or look. Lady Erroll's Irish heart naturally inclined her 
 to take the weaker side, and she wrote to Frere on 
 March 6th, 1807, " I hear they are hard at that poor 
 Princess of W. now, doing all they can to plague her, 
 it can't, I fear, end well for her, poor thing." A little 
 later, her tone is somewhat changed. Perhaps she had 
 been talking to the Prince of Wales, or perhaps the 
 circumstance that Mr. Eliot was the Princess's friend had 
 roused the spirit of opposition. " I had all the Princess 
 of Wales's History from Eliot as I came along, he is her 
 great friend, Dined with her the day before, and has all 
 her papers, which he would Show me, if he was not, and 
 I also, going out of Town. She sent the King her long 
 * Lord Malmesbury
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 141 
 
 letter of so many pages which obliged him to call his 
 Council and all his great people who after Reading all 
 on both sides sent a Written opinion that they thought 
 her perfectly Clear'd on every Charge, the King sent it 
 to her, and she offer'd to pay her Respects some days 
 after, and the K. wrote to her that the P. had been to 
 Windsor to request of him not to see her till his own 
 Council should look over all and give their opinion, since 
 which time she has heard nothing, and therefore, if she 
 is not received soon at Court, she intends to publish all 
 and the King's letter and his Minister's opinion, in which 
 she is quite Right. The page's Evidence is good for 
 nothing as he has Contradicted himself several times, but 
 he said Shocking things, and Lady D. [Lady Douglas?] 
 said that she told her herself that she fear'd . . . ." 
 
 But the Princess's confession to "Lady D." is of too 
 confidential a nature to be repeated, especially as there 
 was not a word of truth in it. The page's evidence was 
 completely disproved, but the terrible risks she had run 
 did not make Her Royal Highness more prudent in the 
 future. 
 
 Lady Georgiana Eliot was now dead, and although 
 Mr. Eliot seemed anxious to continue the old warm friend- 
 ship, Lady Erroll was lonely and miserable. " My dearest 
 Man, will the coming in of the old Rogues instead of 
 the new ones allow you to come and see me in my 
 Solitary palace, God knows it is solitary enough. It is 
 even more so when one knows one's friends of every kind 
 are so near as London, and can't see them. . . . The 
 Weather is so fine now I think I shall attempt a Walk 
 under my Windows but I am frighten'd at the Number 
 of Creatures who Crawl out of their Cells when the Sun 
 Shines. It is like a Warren when all the Rabbits come 
 out in the Sun, and then reminds me of play at Ladies
 
 142 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 when I was a Child ' How do you do, Madam ? fine day, 
 Madam, the Weather is Charming, Madam,' then a Sliding 
 Courtesy, [so] that I am Ready to die to keep from 
 laughing when all this play is perform'd under my 
 Windows. . . . Mrs. Jordan has been . . . [dangerously 
 ill] since last Saturday, and several Doctors with her . . . 
 they think she can't live, poor Creature I pity her." 
 
 There were serious political changes in March 1807, 
 caused by the old trouble a Catholic Relief Bill. The 
 King, as of old, refused justice to his Catholic subjects ; 
 and there was a serious misunderstanding between him 
 and Lord Howick over a Bill which was to give to the 
 Catholics in every part of His Majesty's dominions " the 
 privilege of entering into the Army or Navy, of holding 
 any rank in either, and of being allowed to attend their 
 own places of worship." The King insisted not only that 
 the Bill should be withdrawn, but that the subject should 
 not again be mooted in his reign. The Ministers declined 
 to pledge themselves to this extent, and the King dis- 
 missed them. The Duke of Portland was commanded 
 to form a new administration, in which Canning was given 
 the Foreign Office. 
 
 On March 24th, Lady Erroll writes to Frere : 
 
 " I am very sorry y r friends have not a better parliament 
 to meet, there are some infamous Men in that House, and 
 some Irish, I know, who ought to have been Hang'd 
 when so many Rebels were condemn'd, and escaped by 
 the Contrivance of their friends, and it was not much 
 to the Credit of the Foxites to bring in Men they knew 
 were Real bad Men but [they] were obliged to keep their 
 promises which does not prove much their former loyalty. 
 There is a Mr. Coughty in parliament, a famous well- 
 known Irish Rebel.
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 143 
 
 " Mrs. Douglas * will call upon you now to fulfil y r 
 promise of Carrying her to India when you are made 
 Governor-General of Bengal, she told me you promised 
 to carry her out [as] Housekeeper but I affronted her 
 by saying I thought you had a better taste than to Chuse 
 such a Housekeeper in the way Governors Carry them 
 to India, and I was in hopes she could not be so entirely 
 devoid of principle as to go out Governess of the Governor's 
 Seraglio." 
 
 One cannot tell how far the correspondence between 
 Lady Erroll and Frere was suspected by the rest of the 
 world ; it was well known to his brother George, the 
 business man of the family, and, of course, to Bartle. She 
 believed it to be a dead secret from all her acquaintance, 
 and smuggled letters to Frere with a solemnity worthy 
 of a boarding-school miss in her teens. As many of her 
 friends belonged to the opposite political camp, she was 
 sometimes hard pressed between her fear of betraying 
 confidence and her anxiety to give her lover a timely 
 warning. It was true that Frere was then taking no 
 active part in politics on his own account, but he was 
 always at Canning's side ; and Lady Erroll, in spite of 
 fears and scruples and her dislike to Canning, was led 
 into a grave breach of trust for Frere's sake. In January 
 she had petulantly declared, " I am so Jealous of that 
 man, there never was anything like it," yet, towards the 
 end of March, we find her writing as follows : 
 
 " Tho' I am not quite sure that I am quite Right in 
 what I am doing in some Respects, I feel that I am so 
 in telling you any thing that I hear and which I must 
 
 * There are frequent allusions to Mrs. Douglas in the letters ; she 
 seems to have been a kind of humble friend, with whom the Countess 
 quarrelled and played backgammon.
 
 144 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 be aware is of consequence to you to know. Circum- 
 stanced as you now are with y r friend Mr. C. to Whom 
 any information you can give him, must be useful to 
 him and gratifying to you to procure for him, therefore I 
 send you a Copy of a letter I read myself this day, from 
 Lord Derby to his friend here, who sent it to me for my 
 private information and amusement. It was only Written 
 yesterday and tho' I cannot pretend to understand its Value, 
 yet I think you may as well see what fears and hopes the 
 opposite party entertain, and I pray you to burn it when 
 you have made use of it, as I believe I should not be 
 allow'd to look at such a letter if my friendship and 
 intimacy with you was known, and on that Score I feel 
 Scruples which I can't prevent, as I can not tell people ' I 
 feel that I must inform Mr. F. of all you tell me.' " 
 
 It is to be hoped that Frere did burn the letter, as it 
 is not to be found among his papers. 
 
 Two days later, her Ladyship presents an amusing 
 picture of the helplessness of a woman and that woman 
 an Irishwoman when confronted with business. " I wish, 
 my Dearest Man, that you were near me this day, or 
 that some Man was, but there is no such thing at this 
 time of the year to be found here. A Man called at 
 my Door this Morning, and pok'd in three papers which 
 were Greek to me, one was a letter to me from the Irish 
 Chancellor Ponsonby, sign'd by himself and in all the 
 forms of Madam, &c., &c., to inform me that Alexr. 
 Jeffery Esq. had Exhibitted a Bill of Complaint in his 
 Court, and that I must appear under the penalty of ioo; 
 on the ist of April in the High Court of Chancery, but 
 as my Rank excused my appearing, he instructed me to 
 appoint a proper person to appear for me, 
 
 Sign'd 'G. PONSONBY. 1
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 145 
 
 "The other paper was a Missive letter Sign'd by the 
 Chancellor to empower me on the Score of a peeress 's 
 privilege to appoint a person to represent me in Court, 
 the 3rd paper was from a Clerk to summon me and 
 Honoria Louisa Blake, Spinster, to appear in the High 
 Court of Chancery on the ist of April next (all these 
 papers Dated March 7th) to answer such things as shall 
 be then and there agitated against you by Alexr. Jeffery 
 Esq. At first I was rather annoy'd and astonished and 
 did not know where to put my Wits, this was the 3ist of 
 March, and I had not time to save it any way. I did not 
 think so much of the penalty as I did of the delay, and 
 as I had already suffer'd from the delay of the new 
 appointment of Ponsonby, and on the late Changes, felt 
 I was likely again in one year to suffer again from his 
 Removal. I did not like it, as I fear all must be gone 
 over again, for God('s) sake keep in this Lord Redesdale 
 until my cause is done, and don't let me have a 3rd 
 Chancellor to tell my Story to, in less than 18 months. 
 In old times our good old Chancellor Lifford grew old in 
 the Service and was only able to be lifted into his Gold 
 Coach upon State Days." 
 
 Frere responded to this appeal with a letter of good 
 advice, but as he omitted to prepay the postage of another 
 letter that he wrote to Lady Erroll at the same time, her 
 ladyship was kept waiting for half a day. "So Your 
 Excellency thinks yrself not Worth a Shilling, which yr 
 letter could have only Cost, and I should have had it 
 yesterday, instead of this Morning, when both yrs arrived 
 together 
 
 " I hear the Chancellor Erskine has done the most 
 impudent indecent thing ever attempted, putting the Seal 
 to a Grant for his own Son, during the three days he was 
 
 10
 
 1 46 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 in fact only lent the Seals to finish the causes he had in 
 Hand. I hear from one of his own party that all the Bar 
 are Scandalized at it, and all his friends Shocked and my 
 friend Mr. Tom Steel as Paymaster falls short in his 
 account 20,000. The Prince of Wales was quite indignant 
 that people should have fix'd for him his political line, 
 not having declar'd any yet, tho' he was too well with the 
 King not to declare that it was not his intention to give 
 opposition to the new Ministers upon Every Subject, this 
 was the Manner he expressed his sentiments in a letter 
 Lord Moira Shew'd Lord Derby yesterday, when the 
 Gentleman who told me this Dined where he also heard 
 that the late Ministers boasted that they should divide 
 on Wednesday 108 in the House of Lords, and should 
 have four English Bishops with them (Prettyman one). 
 Those he dined with did not believe that, as it was said 
 that they Reckon'd the Bishop of Carlisle and the Eliots 
 who had decided against them. The Duke of Cumberland 
 [is] in a rage at not getting the ordinance, and declares 
 openly he will oppose Every measure of the present 
 Administration. Is it true that he Stole the Minutes of 
 the privy Council for the Morning post ? for shame, I can't 
 believe such a thing ! " 
 
 When Lady Erroll next writes, she is in despair because 
 the dissolution of Parliament would carry Frere away into 
 Norfolk, and she was obliged to take up her quarters with 
 Lady Glasgow, at whose house there were no facilities for 
 a tete-a-t$te. "If you cannot give me a Call soon, I fear 
 much I shall not see you God knows when that is 
 quite quite Hard to bear. You will of course have to go 
 to Norfolk for the Election, and at all events if you should 
 be in Town when I am sent for, I shall be in my Sister's 
 House where there is but one Room from Morning till
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 147 
 
 Night quite full of Women so as to Render it quite 
 impossible for me to speak one Single word to my Dear 
 old Man in particular before he leaves Town. Now that 
 I have told you the produce of all my Calculations you 
 can't be Angry with me for being in a fuss, in a Rare one, 
 I can assure you. It began yesterday from a Visit I had 
 from the great Lord Salsbury, he came to see his Sister 
 and he Visited Lady Mornington and myself and he told 
 me pos pos that parliament was to end this day. I am 
 thinking this instant that you may come here this day 
 and surprise me prettily as you did before so nicely. Is 
 Bartle come to Town yet ? I see Mr. Canning has given 
 that Nasty Monster Paget a fine appointment and to a 
 place he knows he will never Reach,* as Ld. Grenville 
 did to Henry Wellesley, appointed him to Madrid when 
 he knew perfectly he never would go but it will put 
 some money in Paget's Pocket and then the End will be 
 Answer'd, I suppose. I am not at all Naughty but I am 
 annoy'd in my Heart." 
 
 In May Lady Erroll's friends and acquaintance insisted 
 on her coming to Town, and after a little affectation of 
 unwillingness she consented. It was clearly her duty to 
 attend one Drawing-Room in the year, and the fact that 
 the Princess of Wales was to be present at the next made 
 every one anxious to be there. Moreover there were 
 rumours of an alliance between England, Russia and 
 Prussia against France ; Frere was appointed Envoy to 
 Berlin, and Lady Erroll wished to procure him a medicine- 
 chest as a parting gift. She saw one " which is made on 
 purpose now for all people going abroad," that she thought 
 superior to his own, and she entreated Frere to go to 
 the shop and inspect it. A passage in one of her letters 
 
 * Sir A. Paget was sent to Turkey, but returned " re infecta." (See 
 Lord Malmesbury's Diary.)
 
 148 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 looks as if the relations between Frere and herself were 
 not as unsuspected as she fondly hoped by the outside 
 world. 
 
 " If I should see you, I shall show you some Newspaper 
 paragraphs some very kind friends of mine have Cut out 
 with care because they were against you, and enclosed to 
 me in a left-Hand- Writing address, Nasty Wretches, none 
 but Cowards would do such a thing. I can have no guess 
 at the Authors of such Meanness and ill-nature, at the 
 top of one I see it is the Star tho' only half and 
 Wednesday'' After this outburst the lady consoles Frere 
 with " I don't mind such things, believe me," but one may 
 be allowed to doubt the assurance. 
 
 Frere's departure for Berlin was imminent, and Lady 
 Erroll set to work to make his " neck-cloaths," in the 
 manner of the most devoted of wives. Mr. Eliot brought 
 his children to see her, and could find no more agreeable 
 topic of conversation than the state of the Continent ; this 
 was so near a delicate subject that Lady Erroll hid her 
 blushes by playing with the children. Ainslie had dis- 
 covered the truth, and the Countess dreaded meeting him. 
 She wept over her work for Frere, which she kept in a 
 locked drawer, and had a mournful presentiment that she 
 was not to see him again before he sailed. 
 
 The Peace of Tilsit put an end to Frere's Berlin mission, 
 and dried Lady Erroll's tears. There are no more letters 
 from her of any general interest for about a year. 
 
 In 1808 the Peninsula was in revolt against the French 
 invaders. Sir Arthur Wellesley left Cork on July I2th, 
 with 10,000 men to support the insurrection, and reached 
 Corunna on the 2Oth. The following undated fragment, 
 evidently scrawled in great haste, must have been written 
 by Lady Erroll when the news of his victory at Rolica 
 had reached her :
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 149 
 
 " Good Gracious, how happy you must be ! I give you 
 Joy with all my heart, what a triumph for us over all other 
 Nations ! I can hardly believe that It is that same 
 Scatter'd (?) Scarecrow Arthur Westly (sic) I used to 
 play at Romps with, that has done all this. I confess I 
 feel very proud of my Country Man and I am particularly 
 obliged to him for even giving me a feel of Cheerfulness 
 at this Moment which is the greatest Compliment I can 
 pay him. I had hardly sent off yr leter (sic) yesterday 
 when the news Reach'd me, and I was so sorry I was not 
 the first to give it you." 
 
 Lady Erroll's writing was still very tremulous on 
 September 3rd, when she wrote to congratulate Frere 
 on the victory of Vimiero. " I cannot begin this letter, 
 my Dearest Man, with so insignificant a Subject as myself, 
 and therefore wish you joy of our having got possession 
 of Junot and his Army. What a miserable Handful of 
 Portugueses appear to serve their country, we were as well 
 without more of them, Half Starved Soldiers and Cowardly 
 Ignorant Fidalgos at best. I have seen but a short account 
 of it in yesterday's Morning post, my poor idea of the 
 Geography of that Country leads me to see Sir Arthur 
 gathering his Laurels about 9 or 10 miles beyond Dear 
 Cintra northwards by the Sea, is it so ? I return'd from 
 the Caldas to Cintra by Massa and from my observations 
 then, I take my idea. There is no Gazette as yet, at least 
 none late last night. ... I confess I feel great pleasure 
 to hear that Hero Kellerman who last Novr. 12 months 
 was dictating strict humiliating terms to Emperors and 
 Kings after Austerlitz, was obliged to go upon his knees 
 
 to Sir Arthur W , quite nice, I like it loads and 
 
 quantities \ "
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 
 
 1801 1809. 
 
 FEW of J. H. Frere's letters to his family are now in 
 existence, and from their occasional remonstrances 
 in the letters addressed to him, it is plain that he was 
 irregular in his correspondence, even when allowances are 
 made for the capture or accidental loss of a mail-bag 
 between Spain and England. At one time, goaded by the 
 reproaches of his mother, he took to dating his letters in 
 the small hours of the morning, which drew from her a 
 reminder that at such a time his head should be on the 
 pillow but not his hand on the paper. She and old Mr. 
 Frere wrote constantly, giving just the little touches that 
 bring the atmosphere of home to the exile, but that have 
 no interest for other readers. 
 
 Like old ladies at all times, Mrs. Frere found much to 
 blame in the conduct of the rising generation, and 
 especially in that of her own sex. While at Bath with her 
 husband in 1803, she was much edified by a sermon from 
 the Bishop of Meath. " He gave us an excellent discourse 
 on the duties and importance of Women, with some 
 serious, yet not too severe strictures on modern manners, 
 particularly the indecorous ones derived from France. The 
 Discourse lasted an hour and ten minutes, and was the 
 
 150
 
 LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 151 
 
 most earnest exhortation to reformation I ever heard, and 
 I hope it may lessen the number of Maskers at a grand 
 Masquerade given to-night by a Mr. Champness 12 miles 
 from Bath, which being given but once in two years, is 
 a great event in the gay world of Bath. Three or four 
 ladies here open their houses to see masks, and many 
 resort to them who are not invited by Mr. Champness." 
 
 The fashionable lady of 1 899 would probably not under- 
 derstand the expression " seeing masks," but Mrs. Frere 
 wrote to her son at the time when Lady Delacour and 
 Belinda Portman changed costumes, and Lady Juliana 
 Douglas went in a domino to the ball from which her 
 sister-in-law eloped. Another letter from Bath speaks of 
 a state of things which we can fully realise : 
 
 "BATH, April 2nd, 1803. 
 
 " The contents of your letter are such as will make us 
 earnestly desire farther intelligence from you, of yourself ; 
 we have so long been wishing for information that to hear 
 that you are in a state of convalescence is a great relief to 
 our fears ; for as this influenza has spread from France 
 over England, we were also apprehensive that it had also 
 visited Spain, and might be more virulent in a warmer 
 climate. It has been more violent in its symptoms in 
 London than at Bath ; though here it has been very 
 general, few families escaping, though many individuals. . . . 
 
 " The London Physicians lost many patients at first ; 
 deceived by the inflammatory symptoms with which it 
 usually commences and Cough with oppression on the 
 Chest, led them to bleed and Blister ; they found they had 
 so ill success that they abandoned that Practice (except 
 where the oppression on the chest was so great as to 
 require immediate relief) and used a saline mixture in a 
 state of efervesence " (sic).
 
 152 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Outside his own family, Frere's best correspondent was 
 Canning, whose letters will be found in another chapter. 
 Frere and Canning were among the rising young men in 
 whom Lord Malmesbury and his wife took a kindly 
 interest, and several letters from Lady Malmesbury (nte 
 Harriet Cornewall) are in the portfolios. She entrusted 
 Frere with various commissions, which he generally omitted 
 to execute. " Alas," she complains, " you have forgot the 
 vinaigrilla and the Spanish Bran to mix with it, and the 
 little Earthen ware Boxes to keep it in." Although she 
 professed to hate wars, she owned that a Spanish war 
 would have a good effect if it brought Frere home. In the 
 meantime she supplied him with gossip. 
 
 "May 27 f A, 1803. 
 
 " The public Conversation is now divided between the 
 War and Lady Georgiana Gordon's * marriage. She has 
 at length secured a Duke of Bedford, and it is generally 
 supposed the late Duke bequeathed her with his Estate to 
 his Brother. The Dss. is returned from Paris raving about 
 Bonaparte, and talked such real high treason that, if it 
 would not give her too much Consequence, she ought to be 
 sent to the Tower. She declares she wishes him success, and 
 that she wishes he may come and give us a good lesson for 
 being so Insolent as to go to War with him. . . . George 
 Ellis is buried at Sunning Hill with his Sposa writing Books 
 and I fancy trying to forget the very foolish Act he did 
 in marrying her. Old Sir Peter t is now entirely on his 
 hands which must make him completely blest. I hope if 
 you do come home you will give us a great deal of your 
 company at Park Place. With all my disposition to 
 
 * Daughter of Jane, Duchess of Gordon. 
 
 t Admiral Sir Peter Parker, Nelson's patron and George Ellis's 
 father-in-law.
 
 LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 153. 
 
 distrust Mankind, and all the Lessons I have had on that 
 score I cannot help feeling that you will remain true to 
 our old friendship which I assure you neither time nor 
 absence can diminish on my side. My [word illegible, but 
 probably Canning is meant] is tame about the house as 
 usual but Entirely wrapped up in his Country ', and pea-green 
 with anxiety. I say he never can be pleased as he looks 
 as ill since we declared War as during Peace." 
 
 Lady Malmesbury's hopes were not disappointed. After 
 Frere's return we find him sharing a box at Drury Lane 
 with Lady Malmesbury and Mrs. Robinson. For the 
 trifling sum of seventeen guineas, he could go to the play 
 three times a week from September 1805 to July 1806. 
 Lady Malmesbury had forced herself, for old acquaintance 
 sake, to read George Ellis's new book.* 
 
 " It is very curious," she writes, " but I think so much 
 colour and Pains might have been better bestowed. . . . 
 As I am not so fond of MSS. and black letter as you are, 
 I do not understand G. Ellis's penance in composing a 
 book which however I agree with you will set him up as an 
 antiquarian to all eternity. I wish you would Employ all 
 your leisure in writing something. It is a sin and a shame 
 to hide your talents in a Napkin as you do and so Every- 
 body says. Why not write a poem and dedicate it to me 
 as Sidney did his Arcadia to the Countess of Pembroke ? 
 one Countess is as good as another, and a friend is as good 
 as a sister for a dedication, and I should have the advantage 
 of going down to Posterity as somebody without any trouble 
 to myself. Pray think of this and put it in Practice." 
 
 Another letter was forwarded by William Drummond, 
 * " Specimens of Early English Poetry."
 
 154 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 to whom it had been addressed. The writer was Jeffrey, 
 of the Edinburgh Review, and he describes the truly 
 enviable state of an editor in the time before every youth 
 at college and every unfledged school-girl had taken to 
 playing with " literature." 
 
 " DEAR DRUMMOND, 
 
 " I have made two unsuccessful attempts to see you 
 since my return to London, and as I set out for Scotland 
 to-morrow afternoon, I am afraid I have no chance of an 
 audience this season. I wanted to take your commands 
 for Scotland and to have some spiritual conversation with 
 you upon our immortal concerns but I was particularly 
 anxious to have ten minutes' talk with you about the 
 Review and by the bitterness of my groans and frowns to 
 have given you a stronger impression of the extremity of 
 my present distress than I can hope to do by writing. 
 The next No. is to be published on the i8th of next 
 month, and I have not a single line of MS. in my possession. 
 Do think what you can do for me and what you can get 
 done. We agreed, I think, that it would be best to get 
 Lord Holland * done by one who understood Spanish. 
 Harris (?) has put it into my head that you might persuade 
 your friend John Frere to undertake it. It would be 
 extremely gratifying to me to have something of his in our 
 journal and I think this is easy and tempting. If you 
 cannot get him to do it, you must do it yourself keeping 
 as clear of Christianity as you can. I should like to have 
 an article upon classical learning in modern poetry from 
 Gifford. You promised, I think, to make overtures to 
 P. Knight on my behalf and if you can think of any 
 other useful auxiliary I give you full powers to treat and 
 
 * Possibly a review of Holland's " Lope de Vega " which was 
 published in 1806.
 
 LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 155 
 
 conclude with them. Have the charity to let me know as 
 soon as anything is done or resolved upon for my relief, 
 and believe me always 
 
 " Very Faithfully yours, etc., 
 
 "F. JEFFREY." 
 
 In June 1807 Frere was again threatened with 
 separation from his family and friends. The Portland 
 Ministry appointed him Envoy and Minister Pleni- 
 potentiary to Berlin. But of course he was in no hurry 
 to depart, and while he dallied away the time, heedless 
 of repeated urgings from Canning, the Treaty of Tilsit 
 put an end to his mission. Less than a year later, 
 Spain rose against the detested Corsican, fulfilling 
 Frere's prediction to Lord Malmesbury, and in the 
 October of 1808 Frere was once more in Corunna, 
 accredited British Minister to Ferdinand VII. and the 
 Central Junta. 
 
 It is impossible to discuss the vexed question of the 
 degree of his responsibility for the mismanagement, 
 blunders, and disasters of the first Peninsular campaign 
 that ended in the surrender of Corunna and Ferrol. 
 Napier's history still remains the authority to which 
 the general reader turns for information on the Peninsular 
 War, as he turns, and will continue to turn, to Macaulay 
 for the events of the reigns of Charles II., James II., 
 and William III. The "indefatigable folly" of Mr. Frere 
 has been held up to reprobation in Napier's pages with 
 all the invective which the General was in the habit of 
 bestowing on those who differed from him. The case 
 for Frere has been argued at length by his nephew, and 
 it would be idle impertinence in the present writer to 
 attempt to say anything on the question after Sir Bartle 
 Frere had dealt with it. Any one who wishes to know
 
 156 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 what can be said for Frere may consult the Memoir 
 in the three-volume edition of his works. 
 
 Very few letters addressed to Frere at this period 
 have been discovered, and none are of general interest. 
 But there are a few little notes, beginning "My Dear," 
 and written in a mixture of French and Spanish, that 
 recall the story of one successful enterprise with which 
 Frere's name was associated during Spain's revolt. The 
 story has been told before, but it seems so forgotten that 
 there is some excuse for repeating it here. 
 
 " DEAREST FRIEND 
 
 "My bosom and heart is enticed for you, and i 
 pray you to expect me. Your in all devoted friend, 
 
 M. DE LA ROMANA." 
 
 Who would not take this for a love-letter from some 
 Spanish senora, dropped from under the folds of her 
 mantle as she passed the Envoy, or sent by the hand 
 of some old duenna ? But it came from one who was 
 a hero worthy of the country of the Cid, although he 
 looked like a Spanish barber * the gallant Marquis 
 de la Romana. Frere and he were devoted friends, and 
 when at Seville the two would ramble about the neigh- 
 bourhood for hours, absorbed in conversation, without 
 hats, and forgetful of the dinner, the other guests, and 
 the flight of time. 
 
 When in 1807 Napoleon crushed Spain, he used her 
 army as he had used the armies of other conquered 
 countries : the best men were sent on distant foreign 
 service, and a whole division, about fourteen thousand 
 strong, was marched to Hamburg and thence to Denmark, 
 where Bernadotte was gathering an army to invade 
 
 * See Crabbe Robinson's Diary.
 
 LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 157 
 
 Sweden. They were detained in Denmark by a British 
 fleet, that made its appearance in the Baltic in March 1808, 
 and cut off the Emperor's forces from Sweden. But the 
 Spanish troops were surrounded by jealous guards, and 
 no word reached them from Spain, save through French 
 channels. While they waited in sullen inaction, Spain 
 burst into revolt. Every Spaniard was called to defend 
 his native land and expel the foe. There were thousands 
 of faithful Spanish hearts and thousands of strong Spanish 
 arms on the storm-swept islands of the northern sea, but 
 how could they be brought back ? 
 
 Romana was then in command of the Spanish division ; 
 could he know of the crisis, nothing would stay him 
 from cutting a way to Spain for himself and his men. 
 But how should the news reach him? Robertson, an 
 adventurous priest, was willing to risk his life by taking 
 a message through the French lines ; but even if he 
 succeeded in rinding Romana, would the Marquis trust 
 him, or would he suspect a trap? 
 
 When reading the poem of " the Cid " together at 
 Madrid, Frere had suggested to Romana that the line 
 
 " Aun vea el hora que vos merezca dos tanto," 
 
 should be read 
 
 "Aun vea el hora que vos merezcades tanto." 
 
 Robertson was instructed to repeat this amended line, 
 known only to Romana and to Frere, as a sign that he 
 had communicated with Frere and was to be trusted. 
 
 After many hairbreadth escapes, the priest, in the 
 character of a German schoolmaster, found his way to 
 Romana, and rehearsed the line that was his passport. 
 The only tongue common to both was Latin, and in 
 that stiff medium Robertson traced the course of events
 
 158 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 in the Peninsula for Romana, whose blood took fire at 
 once. It was true that the oath of allegiance to Jerome 
 Bonaparte had been tendered to the Spanish division, 
 but it was accepted in complete ignorance of what was 
 happening in Spain. Some of the troops had taken it 
 conditionally, and two regiments had absolutely refused 
 it. Such an oath could not bind any free Spaniard, and 
 Romana set to work to arrange their escape. With 
 Robertson's aid communications were opened with the 
 British fleet in the Baltic, which prepared to give all the 
 help in its power. When the French commandant began 
 to suspect a plot, Romana boldly seized Nyborg, and all 
 the Spanish regiments that could be gathered together 
 were embarked in the captured gunboats and other vessels, 
 and landed on the Swedish shore. One regiment marched 
 eighty miles in twenty-one hours, and when English trans- 
 ports reached Sweden in August 1808, more than nine 
 thousand men were waiting to be carried to Spain. 
 
 It is more like some mediaeval legend of chivalry than 
 a historical narrative of the nineteenth century. Louis XL, 
 muttering in the ear of Quentin Durward, 
 
 "The page slew the boar, 
 The peer had the gloire,' 
 
 the disguised Abbot winning admittance to Loch Leven 
 Castle with the burden of " the Howlet " it is of such 
 as these that we think, and not of the mean-looking 
 Spaniard, or of the witty Privy Councillor sitting in 
 Lady Malmesbury's box at Drury Lane theatre. The 
 story might have come down to us from the time of 
 the Cid himself, and it is the only one worth recalling 
 at this period of Frere's life. 
 
 In the summer of 1809 he returned to England with 
 the title of Marquez de la Union, bestowed on him by
 
 LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 159 
 
 the Supreme Central Junta, and took up his old mode 
 of life in the social and literary world. By this time 
 most of the brothers with whom he had played in his 
 youth had married or entered upon some career. Edward, 
 the next to him in age, lived at Clydach, on the borders 
 of Breconshire, where he owned some ironworks. His 
 home was in a wild and beautiful valley, far removed 
 from the civilised world, and haunted by a tribe of goblins 
 known as Pwccas, whom some have taken to be the 
 prototypes of Shakespeare's " knavish sprite." An old 
 farmhouse not far from the works had been tenanted by 
 one of these strange beings, who worked for a guerdon 
 of toast and ale ; and the miners and workmen told 
 strange stories of wayfarers who had been led astray by 
 some mocking goblin, or decoyed into the hidden caves 
 where the Pwccas keep their treasure, to join their never- 
 ceasing dance. Superstition still lingers among the Welsh 
 mountains, in spite of Board Schools and the franchise. 
 
 Edward Frere was a kind master to the four hundred 
 men whom he employed, and although the miners and 
 other workmen in the neighbouring valleys were con- 
 tinually rioting and going out " on strike," those at his 
 furnaces were generally amenable to reason. Wages were 
 always paid on Friday evenings, that the housewives 
 might have the money ready for Saturday's market, and 
 although he had a shop on the premises for the 
 convenience of those who did not care to go all the 
 way to Crickhowel or Abergavenny, no one was obliged 
 to make any purchases there. Other employers of labour 
 were not so scrupulous, and the iniquitous " truck system " 
 had, in the end, to be abolished by Act of Parliament. 
 His talents, like his brother's, were considerable, but 
 unfortunately he possessed the same incapacity for 
 business. He caused a great sensation by constructing an
 
 160 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 iron boat the forerunner of our great ironclads which 
 floated on the canal between Brecon and Clydach. The 
 whole country-side came to stare at it, and the majority 
 opined that it must be the work of art-magic. But the 
 iron-works were not a financial success. 
 
 George, the third brother, has already been introduced 
 as a sufferer from the vagaries of his family. Much of his 
 time was spent in a vain attempt to reduce their affairs 
 and more particularly those of his elder brother to some 
 state of order. From the correspondence it is easy to see 
 that he was sometimes goaded into speaking his mind, and 
 that his brothers resented it. Happily for all parties, he 
 had married one who was in all ways fitted to be a general 
 peacemaker Elizabeth Raper Grant, the beloved " Aunt 
 Lissy " of the Highland Lady with whom we have lately 
 become acquainted. She was a good angel to all her 
 husband's relations and friends, as she had been to the ill- 
 treated, neglected little Grants the confidant of every 
 sorrow and the keeper of every secret, the healer of all 
 bitterness. Old Mrs. Frere, who was not herself of a mild 
 disposition, writes Apropos of some offender, " I can find 
 no excuses for her can Lizzy ? she can find excuses for 
 all her friends' faults and foibles, and is only unforgiving to 
 her own." 
 
 Of William, the next in succession, who ultimately 
 became Master of Downing College, and of Hatley, the 
 sixth brother, there is no occasion to say anything. 
 Bartholomew, or Bartle, has already appeared as his 
 brother's secretary. Temple, the seventh and youngest, 
 became a clergyman, and being, like the rest of his brothers, 
 unusually handsome, was nicknamed "The Beauty of 
 Holiness." At one time (1802) he was studying at 
 Aberdeen, and wrote to his father in dismay at the habits 
 of the Scotch ladies :
 
 LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 161 
 
 " I have often wished I could for one day bring Susan 
 here to see the people eat raw fish, and a sort of seaweed 
 called dulse about the streets, and be pressed by the rest 
 of the ladies to take a dram before her cheese at dinner, 
 and if she wished for one before breakfast she had no need 
 to go further north, for they will tell you it is so cold that 
 they could not do without it." 
 
 The elder of Frere's sisters, Jane, was almost entirely 
 separated from her family by her marriage with Sir John 
 Orde. The few letters from her that have been preserved 
 contain nothing of general interest. 
 
 The other sister, Susanna, is a pathetic figure to modern 
 eyes. She never married, but remained at home with her 
 parents. When old Mrs. Frere died she became the devoted 
 slave of her eldest brother, and though she talked of 
 leaving him after his marriage, her own usefulness and 
 Lady Erroll's invalid state of health made it impossible for 
 her to be spared. Our first glimpse of her is at Bath, 
 where her father was drinking the waters. Lady Erroll, 
 just returned from Lisbon, was spending the winter there, 
 and, anxious to show politeness to her friend's sister, offered 
 to chaperon her to balls and parties. But Susanna refused. 
 Her parents liked her to read aloud in the evenings, and as 
 they depended on her for their amusement, she could not 
 fail them. In later years she suffered from deafness, which 
 was increased by the warm climate of Malta. Patient, 
 conscientious, and quaintly prim, she continued faithful, 
 first to her parents and then to her brother, till her death 
 in 1839. An uneventful life, chiefly spent in ministering 
 to others ; but one is sometimes tempted to wonder how 
 the work of future generations will be done without some 
 of those self-sacrificing, old-fashioned spinsters, who are 
 becoming fewer every day. 
 
 ii
 
 VIII. 
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 
 1815. 
 
 THERE now ensues a long gap in Lady Erroll's cor- 
 respondence. The last extract left her at Hampton 
 Court, in September 1808, rejoicing over the first of Sir 
 Arthur Wellesley's victories. When we next have a 
 glimpse of her it is in St. James's Place, in April 1815, 
 when all Europe was ringing with the news of Napoleon's 
 escape from Elba. It does not appear that she had ceased 
 to write to Frere during the interval, but the letters are 
 not to be found. A packet was destroyed a few years 
 ago ; and it is probable that it contained the letters 
 written between 1808 and 1815. 
 
 Great changes had taken place at home and abroad 
 during these seven years. To Lady Erroll the most im- 
 portant event was that Frere had been sent as Envoy to 
 Madrid in October 1808, and recalled in 1809. Public 
 opinion, whether justly or not, chose to consider him as 
 responsible for the disasters that had occurred in the 
 Peninsula. From that time he renounced public life. 
 
 One would have thought that his first proceeding on 
 retiring from active service would have been to marry the 
 woman who had so unreservedly and repeatedly declared 
 her love for him. She had stitched his " neck-cloaths " 
 
 162
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 163 
 
 and wept over them : what could a wife do more ? But 
 the fact remains that he was in no haste to marry her, and 
 the reasons assigned for his delay seem ludicrously inade- 
 quate. Her friends and relations opposed the marriage 
 with all their might ; but Frere was his own master. 
 Although he may have been unwilling to vex the good old 
 father whom Lady Erroll esteemed so warmly, as the elder 
 John Frere died in 1807 there was no reason why his son 
 should not have married any one whom he pleased on his 
 return from Spain in 1809. It is true that his mother was 
 a determined lady, with a sharp tongue and an impatient 
 temper, who would not have been likely to welcome a 
 middle-aged Irishwoman as a daughter-in-law ; and it has 
 been suggested that he waited for her death before making 
 his proposals. If so, he allowed a very decent interval to 
 elapse between her funeral and his own wedding, as Mrs. 
 Frere died in 1813 and he did not marry Lady Erroll 
 until 1816. 
 
 They may have waited some years in the hopes that the 
 Countess's health would improve. It is possible that she 
 shrank from chaining him to her armchair, and had fore- 
 bodings of what actually came to pass when, for her sake x . 
 Frere abandoned friends, home, and duties, to become a 
 resident in Malta. In that case, one can only suppose that 
 the poor woman in the end found herself unable to bear 
 the prospect of long years of loneliness at " Old Cat Hall,"' 
 and yielded to her lover. It must have been a dreary life- 
 for so sociable a woman ; every year swept off some friend 1 
 or relative. The lively Norah Blake had become the Hon. 
 Mrs. George Cadogan, and does not seem to have been 
 much the happier for it. Bartle Frere, one of her truest 
 friends, was Secretary of Legation at Constantinople. The 
 bloom of youth and beauty was passed, and the future 
 held nothing but sorrow in store for her. It would have
 
 164 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 taken very strong resolution to send away the man who 
 offered her a home. 
 
 But, scattered here and there, are some slight indications 
 that it was Frere who held back. Sir George Jackson's 
 Diary hints at some mysterious private business that kept 
 Frere from making proper exertions at Madrid. Among 
 the piles of documents turned over by the compiler of 
 these records were some little notes in a woman's writing. 
 They were in French, but gave the impression that the 
 writer's native tongue was in some other language, and 
 they hinted at a pathetic story. After Frere's death, when 
 his possessions were sent home from Malta, his heirs found 
 among them the miniature of a beautiful woman whom 
 no one knew perhaps the writer of the letters. Like 
 many another man before and after him, he may have 
 dreamed of perfect happiness, and come back, when the 
 dream had faded, to the woman who had waited for him, 
 uncomplainingly, all the while. 
 
 But this is mere conjecture. All that we know for 
 certain is that at eleven o'clock on April ist, 1815, Lady 
 Erroll was writing to Frere. It was an hour since she had 
 swallowed a cup of Iceland Moss Chocolate, which was 
 then the substitute for tea at the breakfast table of fashion- 
 able invalids. She was in very bad health, and therefore 
 disposed to abuse the Government, and to keep away from 
 her fellow-creatures : 
 
 " I believe you and I have Changed Characters. You are 
 all activity and playing the agreeable to all yr. Neighbours 
 while I hate to do any one thing and dislike seeing people 
 above all things unless they bring me news of the Continued 
 bloody intentions of the allies, for now I .have not a doubt 
 if they persevere and are quick, of Buonaparte's downfall 
 and for ever. . . .
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 165 
 
 " I am allowing my pen to run on as Margaret has a 
 Member in Town who is to give her a Frank for me. I 
 must tell you a good thing that happened to Mon r de la 
 Chartres here, the Ambassador. Early in this blow up 
 in France the Wife of the Minister for Foreign affairs 
 at paris took fright and would Run over here, so her 
 Husband gave her in Charge to the Courier, who being 
 most anxious to deliver his despatch to de la Chartres 
 here, Drove to his House, and begged Madam to go 
 into a Room for a few Minutes and that he would return 
 and set her at a Hotel. But one of the Ambassador's 
 servants came and said there was a lady from Paris in 
 the Ante Room ; he flew of course to the lady like a 
 true french man and followed up the filthy Character 
 of his Nation by being Delighted to meet his divorced 
 Wife. They were mutually delighted with the Rencontre, 
 and she went to Dinner with her first Husband, the odious 
 nasty people ! " 
 
 Some cause whether continual ill-health or hope de- 
 ferred was preying on Lady Erroll's spirits at this time. 
 There are few of the old flashes of wit and mischief, and 
 the whole tone of her letters is desponding and depressed. 
 On the day after the battle of Waterloo she was, as usual, 
 writing to Frere. No news had yet reached England of 
 what had passed among the corn-fields of Belgium on 
 that eventful Sunday ; and although it was generally known 
 that a battle was imminent, Lady Erroll was far more 
 concerned with listening for the postman's knock in case 
 he should bring a letter from Frere. It was a fortnight 
 since the Privy Councillor had thought fit to write to her, 
 and she was divided between grief for his indifference 
 and fear of vexing him by her reproaches. " My Dearest 
 Man, you must not think that I am Angry or Scolding,
 
 1 66 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 only you know, you must believe one did not care at all 
 about you if one did not miss y r letters." 
 
 " I met Lady Malmesbury at Church, she paid me great 
 Compliments on my Restored health, &c., &c., and what 
 I don't believe any longer and hate people to say to me, 
 but she was in High humour because Lord M. was so 
 well, and her daughter was Married, and when people are 
 pleased they say pretty things because they are in good 
 humour with every thing and every body." 
 
 She then goes on to describe the troubles of two of her 
 friends, Lord and Lady Glerawly, who were on the verge 
 of an open rupture. Even her kind offices in making 
 the husband play at backgammon with her in the evenings, 
 whenever he was not on House of Commons duty, " to 
 keep him in humour," were of little avail. The wife was 
 behaving well ; " she does not go out much, nor does she 
 ever appear the least inclined to be foolish and flirt to 
 Worry him, but all will not do, they do not seem to 
 amalgamate at all," writes their kindly friend. 
 
 This letter was written on Monday, June ipth. On 
 Tuesday some news arrived from the seat of war, but, 
 according to Lady Erroll, full details did not reach London 
 till Thursday. Her husband's nephew, Lord Hay, had 
 been killed in the skirmish on the i6th, and she hurried 
 off to console his family. 
 
 " Only this moment my Dearest Man has yr letter been 
 a Comfort to me. It came as if you yrself had appeared 
 to console me. I had been since 1 1 o'clock this morning 
 until now (past 3 o'clock) with the most afflicted family 
 I ever saw, and therefore did not get my letter untill 
 I came home, having left Lady Glasgow, Lady Jemima, 
 and poor Lady Jane Hay (Ld. Hay's sister) tolerably
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 167 
 
 composed. The wretched Father is hourly expected in 
 Town, but he was by yesterday's post in some degree 
 prepared for the sad certainty. The Gazette announces 
 this day, Ld. Hay was killed on the i6th, but as there was 
 a Ld. James Hay engaged also, we were kept in a dreadful 
 State of Suspense since Tuesday morning. One person 
 said it was Ld. James Hay and another Lord Hay, and 
 I really think the Suspense was quite Horrid. I really 
 feel quite overpowered by it all, and dread seeing the poor 
 Father ! I have been obliged to send an Excuse to the 
 Eliots, I was to have gone to them this day if this fatal 
 news had not arrived. Never was known so Brilliant a 
 Victory, and they say what Picton has done was beyond 
 any thing ever heard of before ! for which he paid his life. 
 The dismay of London for the last two days was quite 
 awful. Every mind impressed with the certainty of a 
 great carnage, and no details, but tormenting Reports. 
 Almost all the Families in London will be in Mourning. 
 It is believed by Government that Ld. Uxbridge is dead, 
 we expect yet more dreadful details as [the loss of the 
 last day's business is not yet ascertained. I beg you not 
 to be uneasy about me, for I have Wept so much that I 
 am entirely Relieved, and the very necessity of trying to 
 Comfort the nearer Relations of the poor Dear Boy will 
 support me much." 
 
 On the 28th Lady Erroll writes in better spirits, having 
 been in real anxiety to find out some way of sending her 
 letters to Frere without the knowledge of the rest of 
 the world. " I was puzzling my Brains to find out how 
 I could write to you, because I could [have] enclosed my 
 letters to Lord Glerawly from an M.P.'s house and if 1 
 enclosed them to Margaret to Town, Genl. Robinson who 
 comes back to Town to-day would hear of it, and / }iate
 
 1 68 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Mysterys, and yet I know I can't exist without writing to 
 you, it is the only Comfort I have when you are away. 
 So I shall send a Short Scrawl to Brompton under Mr. 
 Eliot's Frank to Douglas who will put it into the post for 
 you, and she, I believe, is to begin a Correspondence with 
 you as her Niece is going to be Married and she told me 
 she intended to beg you to be one of the Trustees with 
 Ainslie to the Settlement. A Capt. of Dragoons with 
 some fortune besides is the intended." * 
 
 When we recall the fact that both Lady Erroll and 
 her lover were nearing fifty years of age, all this caution 
 seems unnecessary. Mrs. Douglas, although she occa- 
 sionally had her " feelings," and took huff, like most people 
 in her situation, was a most faithful confidant. Lady 
 Erroll sometimes complains that Douglas is out of humour, 
 or that Douglas has been fishing for an invitation, or for 
 a recommendation for a nephew, but she was always ready 
 to make use of the good woman on occasion. 
 
 "... Honoria Cadon [Cadogan] writes me word that 
 she has been kissing the Pope's hand and talking Italian 
 to him, the only language he speaks, and - she says [he] 
 speaks it beautifully. He has a very good Countenance, 
 and seems Doubled more from Misfortune than Age, was 
 delighted, and enjoy'd her telling him [that] Capt. Campbell 
 who Convey'd Madame Murat was quite a Coarse Savage 
 Sailor, and Could only Speak English to that fine lady. 
 ... I have just been told a Shocking thing about poor 
 Whitbread f I can't believe it, that Government had found 
 out a Correspondence between him and Buonaparte, which 
 
 * This marriage was broken off, and Ainslie considered the young 
 lady to have had a lucky escape. 
 
 t Mr. Whitbread had just committed suicide.
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 169 
 
 was the Cause of the Rash Act he Committed. This is 
 so like what might be suspected at this Critical Moment 
 that I am the more inclined to believe it only a Report 
 without any foundation. Lady Saltoun has told me that 
 it is now very generally believed and that the Privy 
 Council had met upon it. Mind, this [is] only an Idle 
 Report from Lady Saltoun." 
 
 Great alarm had been caused by Napoleon's departure 
 for Rochefort on June 29th with an immense train of 
 carriages loaded with valuables. His intention was to 
 escape to America. 
 
 " That Monster never travelled in a Coach and Six to 
 any Seaport and Attended by many other Carriages as 
 Reported, on purpose, I suppose," declares Lady Erroll. 
 "He has been too well accustomed to escape before not to 
 know better. They have him hid somewhere, which keeps 
 up his Spirit in France, perhaps in a Woman's Cloaths. 
 His little fat pudsey figure could easily be disguised, and 
 Madame St. Leu,* I dare say, presided at his Toylett and 
 has his Boots and Spurs Ready open. All is Ready for a 
 Surprise. I have not Common patience with Louis, 
 except one individual, all those he has surround[ed] 
 himself by are, I hear, determined Jacobins. I wish they 
 would let Blucher alone and do as he likes, he is the 
 only person who seems to have any feeling of the Cruelty 
 the French exercised upon foreign powers. I am spiteful 
 enough to wish they had allow'd him to blow up their 
 bridge f to Atoms, Nasty Horrid Creatures ! Why not 
 tumble to bits some of their fine things as well as those at 
 Washington ? The idea is here that there must be more 
 Blows, how Horrible ! after the late Carnage." 
 
 * Hortense, Queen of Holland. f The Pont de Jena.
 
 170 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Two days later, Lady Erroll adds a postscript : " The 
 Hollands are hourly expected, Lord W. Fitzgerald thought 
 to find them arrived a Frigate gone for Canning, so a 
 good many of y r friends will soon be in England. Walls- 
 court has this instant told me official news is arrived that 
 Buonaparte is now on board of one of our 74 Sloops. 
 Captain Maitland of the BelleropJion took him off Roche- 
 ford. My prophecy is accomplish'd." 
 
 To add to her other anxieties, " George Cadogan " 
 (presumably Honoria's husband) had returned home from 
 Florence in very bad health, and frightened her by looking 
 " such an object skin and bone, and feeble to [a] degree 
 a pair of Green spectacles and a green patch over one Eye, 
 surmounted with a Green Shade did not add to the beauty 
 of his appearance." Hopes were entertained of his 
 recovery, and in the meantime he was to be treated by 
 English nurses and doctors. " He is gone to Chelsea 
 where his sister Lady Louisa has now join'd him which 
 takes him off my hands," sighs Lady Erroll, without 
 explaining why Honoria Cadogan could not be at home to 
 look after her sick husband instead of amusing herself with 
 the Pope's society. " He brought me the most beautiful 
 alabaster figure, a Venus which Genl. Robinson broke in 
 less than ten Minutes after it was taken out of the case, I 
 suppose for Spite because I was so positive in my refusal 
 of giving him my company at Denston this year. He 
 came back to Town last week, and worried me about going 
 to him, but I beg'd to be off that visit. He was Miserable 
 tho' for having demolished my beautiful Venus, and, I 
 hear, sent it to a Man who says he will put her together 
 again." 
 
 She then enters into details about the misconduct of a 
 servant which are unfit for publication. It seems strange 
 that she should have thought it advisable to enter upon the
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 171 
 
 subject in her correspondence, but, as has been remarked 
 already, her letters are curiously outspoken. As usual, the 
 most amusing piece of intelligence is in the postscript : 
 
 " I almost forgot to tell you that G. Cadogan was stopd 
 by a Banditti (sic\ commanded by three officers of the 
 Legion of Honor with their uniforms and decorations etc. 
 They took everything out of his Carriage of any Value. 
 He met a lady after and Stopd her to guard her against 
 them. From her Servts. he found it was the Ex-Queen of 
 Holland, Madame St. Leu, who was going to Switzerland. 
 Her people told him that Madame Buonaparte and 
 Cardinal Fesch were following her, so he wished to have 
 a look at them, pretended not to know them, but stopd to 
 guard them against three officers of the Legion of Honor who 
 with Banditti were Robbing on the High way. I am so 
 glad they had the mortification of hearing this from an 
 English officer. What a mean beast Buonaparte is to live 
 to be a prisoner ! I can't understand his being so fond of 
 life, has he not a pistol ? " 
 
 From a letter written on August 7th, it appears that 
 General Robinson, in the kindness of his heart, had 
 invited Frere to be his guest in the country at the same 
 time as Lady Erroll. Frere was quite ready to take the 
 opportunity of meeting the lady whom he had not seen 
 for six months, but she was " surprised and confounded " 
 when the idea was suggested to her. "It would appear 
 indelicate on my part to follow you anywhere but still, 
 if you wish it so, I will try and do it, but indeed I fear 
 my nerves being unequal to meet you in that way at any 
 body's House, and I dread the Coarse Remarks it may 
 Create. Genl. R. said ' If you come I'll get Frere to come 
 over to meet you.' I felt my face all over in a Glow !
 
 172 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 and I was Ready to Expire with confusion and anserd 
 (sic} ' My dear Genl., if I could go to Denston, it would be 
 to see you and Miss Robinson, and not for any body else's 
 sake.' Pray do not be angry with me, my Dear Man, for 
 writing all I feel to you, in whom I place all my only 
 Confidence for Comfort in this life." 
 
 It is hard to say why any " Coarse Remarks " should 
 have been made on the meeting between a gentleman of 
 forty-six and a lady of about the same age, under the sur- 
 veillance of General and Miss Robinson ; but Lady Erroll's 
 scruples on the score of propriety grew stronger with 
 advancing years. By this time Frere seems to have made 
 his proposals, and the parade of secrecy and the delay in 
 celebrating the marriage were alike unnecessary. Yet 
 Lady Erroll, although rejoicing that Temple Frere had 
 lately exhibited quite a " Brotherly Manner " towards her 
 makes the obliging Mrs. Douglas promise to arrange a 
 meeting at Brompton when Frere comes to Town, as 
 Hampton Court is " so public." " I shall hate Genl. 
 
 Robinson while I live for having with his * Visit made 
 
 me Cry ever since I got y r letter, and make a fool of 
 myself by so doing ... I shall deliver y r message about 
 the pigs to Mrs. Douglas when I see her, but if you want to 
 get a good Breed, Genl. Robinson's are the best and I 
 dare say [he] will be glad to give you some, tho' I shall 
 hate his pigs and every thing belonging to him while I 
 live. I wish I was Mr. Whiter, f tho' I am not Jealous of 
 Etymology, as I believe it amuses and interests you, but 
 I certainly can't Patronize it as I do Homer and other 
 things." 
 
 Having settled her mind by abusing the luckless 
 
 * Lady Erroll here uses a very unladylike word. 
 f Mr. Whiter was a learned clergyman, and a friend and corre- 
 spondent of Frere's.
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 173 
 
 General Robinson, Lady Erroll finds fault with Frere 
 himself: 
 
 " It is I think a pity a Man of such talents as you have, 
 Genius and Brilliant imagination, should thro[w] yourself 
 away hammering and puzzling over such Dry Stuff. You 
 should do as Southey does, he always undertakes three or 
 four things together to divide his mind, otherwise, he says, 
 he feels so lost and absorbed and his head so bothered 
 with one thing that he can't do it so well as by taking it 
 up and putting it down awhile for some thing else." 
 
 In the course of this letter there is an illustration of 
 the rapidity with which an unsavoury scandal will attach 
 itself to the hero of the hour, although there may not 
 be the least foundation for it. It was said that the Duke 
 had been surprised by the French troops when at the 
 Duchess of Richmond's ball. Of course there must have 
 been some reason for his dallying at the ball, and of 
 course Society applied the infallible rule " ChercJiez la 
 femme" By the time that the story reached Lady Erroll, 
 the lady had been discovered, and a trial was expected, 
 the damages to be laid at 50,000. The only pity was 
 that there was not a word of truth in all this circum- 
 stantial legend, and neither of the parties chiefly concerned 
 knew anything about it until an English newspaper in 
 Paris announced it as a piece of fashionable intelligence. 
 
 This letter from her ladyship filled three octavo sheets 
 before it was brought to a conclusion, and she then added 
 two more by way of postscript. 
 
 " A Note I have had from a lawyer this instant reminds 
 me of telling you a thing I was guilty of, so like you, 
 and what I should have Scolded you for. About two 
 months ago, Lady Glasgow told me that her Aunt, who
 
 174 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 died, you may recollect, while you were at Hastings, 
 whose money was in Chancery, was to be divided (sic), 
 at least, part of it, amongst all the Hay Brothers and 
 Sisters, and that I was entitled to a Share. Now I 
 certainly am not Rich, yet, do you know, I forgot all 
 about it intirely untill the day before yesterday, Mr Carr 
 called to ask my Commands for paris (he was married 
 to a Lady Hay) and ask'd me what Money I got out 
 of Chancery as he had got his. I told him with Shame 
 that I had quite forgotten, that I had heard something 
 about it but ask'd him what I was to do. He gave 
 me the address of the lawyer, who has to-day written 
 me a Note to say he will come to-morrow, to pay me 
 85, so I am far Richer than I expected, but it is all 
 owing to you that I can't think of anything nor lay my 
 mind to anything. . . . The Duke of York broke his 
 Arm yesterday, his foot Slipped coming out of a Shower 
 Bath, and he fell upon his Arm, but he is doing very 
 well, he is at Oatlands." 
 
 Poor Lady Erroll was nearly worn out by cares and 
 anxieties at this time. Besides her own private distresses, 
 she was troubled about an unruly little niece who was 
 to be sent to school in a French convent. Lady Erroll 
 at first thought of taking her over to Paris, under the 
 escort of Mr. Carr, who proposed to act cicerone to the 
 Countess and her sisters, Honoria and Margaret. Lady 
 Erroll was tempted by the prospect, and recollected that 
 her doctor had prescribed a little amusement. However, 
 she could not bear the idea of leaving Frere in England, 
 were it only for three weeks, and had, besides, a lingering 
 fear that he would think her " Crazy," so she endeavoured 
 to find some other escort for the child. Then she was 
 still trying to reconcile that unhappy couple, Lord and
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 175 
 
 Lady Glerawly ; and her sister Margaret gave her much 
 trouble. She breathes a sigh of relief at the thought 
 that the Glerawlys are going abroad to economise, and 
 " I think it likely that Margaret may go with them, which 
 will be a very convenient circumstance to me I can tell 
 you." Her hopes were dashed to the ground by the 
 perversity of every one else, and the story of her per- 
 plexities is so amusingly told in a letter to Frere of 
 August 1 4th, that it must be given in full : 
 
 " Genl. Robinson's arrival in Town gives me a Frank, 
 and of course an opportunity of tormenting you with a 
 Scrawl of mine, and if that were not the case, I must 
 have written to you to please Lady Glerawly and vex 
 Margaret who played us a trick on Saturday. Had she 
 put confidence in us we would not betray her, but she 
 behaved so Cunning^ so Artfully by us, that we declared 
 war against her. She and the pretty * dined with us 
 early on Saturday to meet George Cadogan who came 
 to me to meet his oculist and Doctor, and was to return 
 to Hampton Court at 7 o'clock. Miss Margaret said she 
 would walk with him to Hertford Street, where his Sister 
 had Dined, and was to carry him back. She never re- 
 turned to us untill 1 1 o'clock at night, and then announced 
 that she went to Berkeley Sq. to meet Genl. Robinson 
 from whom she had had a letter that day to say that 
 he should see her between 7 and 8 that evening in 
 Berkeley Sqr., and this she kept Snug from us, and she 
 was Roasted finely and Bullied. She said she had not 
 Courage to begin the day with us by telling us of the 
 Genl.'s folly in coming for a few days merely to see her 
 tho' it is only a fortnight since he left Town. I said 
 I would write all her doings to you, and she got a 
 
 * Lady Glerawly.
 
 176 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 delightful Red face when I asked on purpose before her, 
 the Genl. to keep a Frank for you, for me. Lady Glerawly 
 and she dined with me to day to meet this old bore 
 fidgetting, whistling about the Rooms and asking questions 
 he does not mean one to answer as he goes on muttering 
 to himself ' Umph, Umph.' He was very good natured 
 to me, and walk'd me home from Lady Glerawly's last 
 night, and quite Scandalized little Rogers who overtook 
 us in St. James's Street and declared he thought he ought 
 to Join us for the sake of my Character, which he did, 
 and they both saw me safe into my House. I am to 
 be bored again with Cadogan to-morrow, who is to come 
 here at 12 o'clock to see his Doctors, and torment the 
 Bell and the Servants the whole day, for he is to have 
 his Dinner. But I bear it now with not only patience but 
 with good Humour, as he is an Invalid, tho' getting better 
 almost Every hour since he landed in England. He says 
 himself that he feels quite Renovated, and the oculist 
 says that he will Recover the Sight of his Eye, even 
 without an operation which he first thought he should 
 be obliged to perform. He is the most Restless odd 
 ill-tempered Creature possible. I would not be his Wife 
 to be Queen of the Universe, and yet his Heart is not 
 in fault, but the Head is quite wrong often. 
 
 " What do you think of a New kind of a club House, 
 lately set up in St James's St., having put up a trans- 
 parency on Saturday, the Birthday, I2th, 'the Regent, 
 with Wisdom in the Cabinet, Valour in the field, 1 with a 
 grand illumination which has caused much quizzing and 
 laughing. He is, to be sure, most unpopular, never so 
 much so as he is now, not even the intoxication of that 
 greatest of all Victorys, Waterloo, could extract from the 
 Mob a single indication of applause for him on the day 
 he closed the parliament. They seem'd to think they
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 177 
 
 did a great deal by maintaining a dead Silence and no 
 Hissing, but they mark'd loud and Repeated applauses 
 when the Duke of York's Carriage appeared. 
 
 " I have also to answer a Serious and Melancholy letter 
 from Lord Glerawly who, poor Man, is in an Ugly low 
 State of Mind, and as I know he was once in Willis's* 
 care, and a little in that Way some few years after, I 
 can't help feeling alarm'd about him, of which I have 
 made good use in my Remonstrances to his Wife, who I 
 have with Difficulty brought to write a very nice letter 
 to Lord Annesley, his Father, who wrote her a most 
 affecting letter about his Son's Complaints of her. She 
 hardly knows him, and this is the first letter he ever 
 wrote to her, and she Storm'd and Raged when she got 
 it on Saturday, but I never lost sight of her since, and 
 Coax'd and Managed her so well, and alarm'd her a little 
 about Ld. G.'s Health of mind and body, that she is now 
 determined to shew Ld. Annesley by the letter she is 
 sending that she is not so bad as she has been Repre- 
 sented to him to be, and I have also got her to avoid 
 in her letter to lord G. any allusion to his Father's letter 
 which was Evidently written as if unknown to Ld. G., 
 as he [Lord Glerawly] did not Frank it, altho' he is in 
 the same house, and I have made her follow Ld. Annesley's 
 Example and address the letter to him at once, and not 
 under her Husband's Cover, as her Father-in-law's appli- 
 cation to her was Evidently without her Husband's 
 knowledge, who, I dare say would be very Sorry if he 
 knew his Father interfered." 
 
 After recapitulating this last argument with which she 
 had worked upon Lady Glerawly's feelings, Lady Erroll 
 coolly adds : 
 
 * The celebrated clergyman who attended George III. 
 
 13
 
 1 78 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 " This I do not believe myself, as I dare say Ld. G., his 
 Father, and Sisters, all had Managed the letter between 
 them, which, all things considered, is a very fair and 
 laudable Cheat if it can bring about the desired object of 
 inducing her to Humour this odd Man a little more than 
 she does, and I have managed her so well about her getting 
 up that I had her in Church with me yesterday some 
 minutes before the Service began, which I shall poke into 
 my letter to her Husband to-day. But I must keep her in 
 a little fright about causing him some serious indisposition 
 of mind. There are few Women one could Venture such 
 a thing with, but she does not feel any thing Strongly so 
 as to make her unhappy, so I must frighten her as I would 
 a Child, and I tell her his family will say she has driven 
 him Mad. . . ." 
 
 On the following day Lady Erroll was intending to dine 
 with Lady Glerawly, "but George Cadogan comes in to 
 me from H. Court to Worry and I must give up my day 
 to him. I think I have Constantly to manage Wrong- 
 headed Men, I have a Collection, quite, to do with. After 
 Lady G. wrote three letters to answer Ld. Annesley's, last 
 night, we arranged a fourth Edition which she is to send 
 to-day, and at last we have brought her to send a very 
 tolerable kind one. After I put up my letter to you 
 yesterday, I set off for Berkely Sqr., Dreading her sending 
 some Cold proud letter to her Father in law, and I was in 
 time to save the post, and I would not allow her to send 
 the one she was going to seal, and with some little altera- 
 tions, and making her sign herself his affecte. Daughter 
 which she thought very hard indeed, the letter will do very 
 well and goes to-day. . . . 
 
 "... I saw a good saying of y r friend Mr. Warde in 
 a letter of Mrs. Cadogan's to her Husband. They call at
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 179 
 
 Florence the Austrians the Whisker Club. One of them, 
 an Ugly Conceited Coxcomb, has allow'd bits of beard to 
 grow here and there in tufts. Warde said he put him in 
 mind of a Man who has had a bad Estate who tries to 
 Plant out the Ugly features. Good Gracious, here is 
 George Cadogan's knock only 1 1 o'clock ! pray do pity 
 me, that's all I want this day Cadogan is off again for an 
 hour, he says, and so I shall put up my Frank in the mean 
 time. . . ." 
 
 On August 1 8th Lady Erroll had the pleasure of telling 
 Frere that " Lady Glerawly sent a very tolerable letter to 
 Lord Annesley, but I fear she will yet give a compleat 
 set to to the Husband for having Complain'd to her Father 
 in law of her. She says she will never forgive him, because 
 he does not tell also what cause he gave her for Changing 
 her Manner to him, which / know because Lord Glerawly 
 told me with Regret what he had done in a Moment of 
 fury. But I told him not to let her know that he told me 
 that, as her pride never allow'd her to tell it to me, and if 
 she thought I knew it, I could not argue her into good 
 behaviour so well, as she could always say, ' What can I 
 expect from a Man who is Capable of locking me up in my 
 Room for nearly a Week in the face of all my Household ? v 
 which he told me with Regret he had done, and that he- 
 saw She never forgave him, and certainly never will. It; 
 has caused all that Coldness and Horror of him, and one 
 can't wonder at it. He is not easily managed, and certainly 
 he could not be worse Matched. . . . 
 
 " G. Cadogan, when first he arrived, ask'd me after you 
 in a kind Manner, but I found by him the last day he was 
 here, that they had been saying something at H. Court, 
 as he said in a kind of examining way, ' Pray have you 
 and Frere Quarel'd, as I hear he has not been in Town this
 
 i8o J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Spring ? ' I must have got a Red Face, but quickly open'd 
 my Writing Book and Shew'd y r frank to him which I had 
 put up, and said ' There is a proof "we have,' in a joke, and 
 went into my Room to leave him to write, and hide my 
 fuss, and so very Nervous am I that I cry'd quantitys, but 
 that I can't Help, everything makes me Cry. I can't at 
 all stand people's Congratulations upon my Recovery 
 ' Oh dear, how well you are, how happy you must be to be 
 so well.' I could Choak them with pleasure, for the tears 
 in spite of me gush forth, and when they add ' You look 
 so handsome' I could then Spit in their faces for Spite, for 
 telling me such horrid lies and thinking I could be such a 
 fool as to believe for an instant such Stupid nonsense while 
 I know I am a wither'd Skeleton. . . . 
 
 " Lady Mornington Really Satisfied the last day I saw 
 her, as Lady Worcester promises to bring an Heir, a subject 
 which has worried her for this last year, and also Lady 
 Burghersh is going to make her lord a Father, these two 
 Events cause more Joy to lady Mornington than all the 
 Wellington Victorys ! . . ." 
 
 Towards the end of August Lady Erroll was seized with 
 a bad nervous attack, but she recovered sufficiently to 
 escort her little niece as far as Dover at the beginning of 
 September. She offered to take Lady Glerawly with her, 
 and " you can't think how delighted and pleased the pretty 
 is with my having offer'd to poke her in with me, quite 
 like a Child, and poor Honoria is now in such Spirits 
 at having a party with her that she forgets all about the 
 Convent." 
 
 " The little redpole Honoria B , being somewhat 
 
 difficult to manage here, is to be entrusted forthwith to the 
 superintendence of some Superieure of a Parisian Convent,"
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 181 
 
 writes Ainslie to Bartle Frere at this time. " The effect 
 of inoculating a Nunnery with this little Rack-rent will, 
 I expect, be curious enough." 
 
 No more letters from Lady Erroll of a later date than 
 September 7th, 1815, are now forthcoming. On Septem- 
 ber 1 2th of the following year she became Frere's wife. 
 Ainslie says that she was by this time only " the wreck 
 of former beauty," and she seems never to have regained 
 her health. Her married life, however, lasted until 
 January 1831. 
 
 It may interest the readers of her correspondence to 
 learn the after fate of those whose names occur most 
 frequently in her letters. George Cadogan was created 
 Baron Oakley in 1831, and a year later became Earl 
 Cadogan. There is no need to say more of his wife in 
 this connection, as her letters to Frere in his old age will 
 be quoted in another chapter. 
 
 Miss Margaret Blake lived to an advanced age. A 
 packet of her letters to Frere has been preserved, but, so 
 far as they can be deciphered, they seem to relate to her 
 money troubles, being either requests for new supplies or 
 thanks for past favours. She was continually in difficulties. 
 There is a story of " an old Miss Blake " who lived at 
 Hampton Court Palace going to pay a morning call on 
 the Duke of Clarence and his wife at Kensington. When 
 she took leave, the Duke attended her to the gate, and 
 discovered that she meant to depart in a hackney coach. 
 This, according to the etiquette of the period, was as 
 unusual a proceeding as it would be for a modern visitor 
 to Buckingham Palace to drive away in a costermonger's 
 cart ; but the Duke concealed his feelings, and opened the 
 coach-door for the lady. She skipped into the coach, and 
 putting her head through the window, called back to His
 
 i82 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Royal Highness, " You tell the man where to go, and pay 
 him, Billy." If this were Margaret Blake, she must have 
 been a sore trial to Lady Erroll. 
 
 All Lady Erroll's efforts to reconcile Lady Glerawly to 
 her eccentric husband were unavailing. After seventeen 
 years of discomfort their marriage was dissolved by Act of 
 Parliament in 1820, by which time Lord Glerawly had 
 succeeded his father as Earl Annesley. " The pretty " 
 died in April 1827, and Lord Annesley married again in 
 July 1828. At his death, ten years later, he left a large 
 family by his second wife. The only child of his first 
 marriage died before him. 
 
 The " little redpole," Honoria Blake, survived the 
 discipline of a French convent, to make her home with her 
 aunt and her aunt's husband at Malta. In 1837 she 
 married Lord Hamilton Chichester, who left her a widow 
 with no children. 
 
 We cannot part without regret from one who has 
 gossipped so pleasantly to us of the days of long ago. 
 There is a charm and a spontaneity about Lady Erroll's 
 letters that we miss in the well-turned periods of the 
 learned and distinguished men who corresponded with 
 Frere in his later years. They wrote carefully, elaborately, 
 with, perhaps, a glance at a larger audience ; she put 
 down, as she says, everything that came into her head, and 
 wrote to Frere as she would have talked to him. 
 
 She had her defects ; but they were the defects of her 
 qualities, of her birth, of her education. We have already 
 noticed the coarseness that disfigures occasional passages 
 in her letters ; this was a feature of the time, and not 
 peculiar to herself. Some of Frere's other correspondents 
 surpass Lady Erroll in her frankest moments ; but it is 
 impossible to quote from them to support this assertion. 
 A hundred years ago, a good governess discoursed to her
 
 LOVE-LETTERS OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 183 
 
 pupils on subjects which married women would scarcely 
 mention to each other at the present time. There lies 
 before me a little book which was given to Mary Anne 
 Greene (afterwards the wife of Edward Frere) by her 
 father " Dialogues between a Discreet Governess and 
 Several Young Ladies of the first Rank under her 
 Education." The subjects of the Dialogues cast a lurid 
 light on the morals of gentlemen of the first rank in the 
 year 1780, the year of publication, and Mary Anne 
 Greene's descendants find it necessary to keep her book 
 under lock and key. 
 
 It must be owned that Lady Erroll was not the best 
 wife for Frere from a practical point of view. An active 
 notable woman who would have kept his accounts, looked 
 after his property, and superintended his household, might 
 have counteracted the effects of his own indolence and 
 aversion to business. But housewifely and businesslike 
 qualities never came out of Castle Rackrent, and although 
 the manage at the Pieta was a standing grief to the 
 staid soul of Frere's sister, the master of it was very 
 happy. 
 
 Occasionally we find a trace of a common defect in 
 generous, impetuous spirits like her own the disposition to 
 leave a good work to be completed by other hands, when 
 the novelty of it had passed away. Lady Erroll could begin 
 with eagerness, but she was impatient or careless of detail. 
 Yet, when all these imperfections have been taken into 
 account, a very lovable woman remains to us, who never 
 turned against a friend in adversity, and whose heart was 
 open to all who appealed to it. Childless herself, she was 
 full of kindness to her friends' children, and to her 
 husband's nephews and nieces ; with no home for many 
 years but her little rooms at Hampton Court, she was 
 always ready to welcome a guest. And no one, after
 
 184 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 reading the story of her struggles with the Glerawlys, with 
 George Cadogan, and with the other wrong-headed persons 
 amongst whom her lot was cast, can doubt that upon her 
 rested the blessing which is one of the hardest to win the 
 blessing of the peace-makers.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 SOCIETY IN 1809-1816 
 
 A LTHOUGH in Spain he held the rank of Marquis, in 
 jL\. England Frere had no greater dignity than that of 
 a Privy Councillor, bestowed on him after his first mission 
 to the Peninsula. An English peerage was twice offered 
 to him and declined, nor was he to be tempted into 
 active life by an opportunity of going as Ambassador to 
 St. Petersburg. The general impression was, that he 
 regarded his recall from Spain as an undeserved censure, 
 and was resolved to have no more to do with the public 
 service. But, as very early in his diplomatic career we 
 have seen him withheld from throwing up his appointment 
 and coming home only by Canning's earnest remonstrances, 
 it is fair to conclude that natural indolence had something 
 to do with these refusals. His father's death in 1807 had 
 left him owner of considerable property, and he had a 
 pension from the Government : why should he exert 
 himself more? To use Sir Henry Holland's admirable 
 description, his life " became an indolent intellectuality 
 with a sort of sarcastic indifference to fame and to the 
 bustling world around him." 
 
 Meanwhile his talents were a passport into the most 
 exclusive circles, and some of the letters addressed to him 
 at this time give us tantalising glimpses of celebrated 
 personages. London Society was then small and ex- 
 
 185
 
 i86 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 elusive. Those who were outside the pale attempted in 
 vain to pass within it ; those inside the magic boundary 
 encountered each other over and over again, and were 
 almost like members of one family. The place of meeting 
 might be Holland House, where the noble owner, always 
 suffering and always amiable, gathered round himself some 
 of the brightest intellects of the time, in spite of the 
 eccentricities and insolences of his wife who, like many 
 disagreeable people, could be charming when she wished 
 to please. On a dressing-room window in the east turret 
 of Holland House, Frere wrote with a diamond these 
 lines : 
 
 41 May neither Fire destroy, nor Waste impair, 
 Nor Time consume thee, till the twentieth heir ; 
 May Taste respect thee, and may Fashion spare." 
 
 All applauded the graceful wish, with the exception of 
 Rogers, who, when the lines were repeated to him, 
 observed in his peculiar tones, " I wonder where he got 
 the diamond." 
 
 Another well-known resort was the house of Lydia 
 White, an enthusiastic spinster who was never so happy as 
 when surrounded by a party of lions, and who entertained 
 almost to the last day of her life, when, changed, feeble, 
 swollen by dropsy but still rouged, she was unable to 
 leave her sofa. It was at her table that Scott avowed his 
 impression that he had written the lines describing the 
 death of Higinbottom in " Rejected Addresses." Frere's 
 diary records that a bad cold once prevented him from 
 dining with her. 
 
 All the talents were represented in those assemblies. 
 There was a cluster of poets : Walter Scott, with his 
 northern burr and kindly smile ; melancholy Byron, 
 always uneasy lest some gaze should rest on his deformed
 
 SOCIETY IN 18091816. 187 
 
 foot ; Moore, prince of good fellows, rattling off song or 
 story, as the fancy seized him, in his irresistible brogue ; 
 Rogers, cadaverous and spiteful. There were the wits 
 Sidney Smith, Joseph Jekyll, and Frere himself; and the 
 physicians, Holland and Warren, whom Canning nick- 
 named the oil and the vinegar. There was Canning, 
 handsome as ever, but worn and thoughtful ; Charles Ellis, 
 his second in that memorable duel with Castlereagh ; and 
 Castlereagh, with his beautiful features, so cold and im- 
 passive that, when Shelley saw Murder in his vision of 
 Anarchy, " he had a mask like Castlereagh." The Misses 
 Berry dispensed hospitality and talked to willing ears of 
 Strawberry Hill and its former owner. The Misses 
 Fanshawe wrote to beg Frere to drink tea with them. 
 Here and there flitted the restless form of " Caro " Lamb, 
 the victim of a passion for one who treated her with the 
 consideration that a man usually reserves for the woman 
 who throws herself at his head. At intervals appeared 
 the half-paralysed figure of William Stewart Rose, attended 
 by his faithful and erratic follower, Hinves, the ex- 
 Methodist preacher, whom all his master's friends treated 
 as a comrade. 
 
 A short drive would bring Frere to Highgate, where 
 Coleridge stood on the hearthrug and descanted on all 
 things in heaven and earth. Charles Lamb's stutter could 
 be heard in loving banter with Crabb Robinson, and Mrs. 
 Gillman helped the pudding which Lamb found so in- 
 digestible. Or if Frere were too lazy to do more than 
 saunter along Albemarle Street, there was Gifford, busy 
 over the new Quarterly Review, and old one-eyed John 
 Murray sat in the little back-parlour to which only a 
 few privileged persons were admitted, Frere being among 
 the number. 
 
 It is unfortunate that our only memorials of these years
 
 1 88 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 occur in detached passages in letters addressed for the 
 most part to Bartle Frere. After his elder brother's recall, 
 he remained for some time at Madrid as Charge* d'Affaires. 
 In 1811 he was appointed Secretary of Legation at Con- 
 stantinople, where he spent several years. His family kept 
 up a constant correspondence with him, although under 
 adverse circumstances. The arrival of letters every three 
 or four weeks was regarded as " a great luxury," and these 
 letters took from two to five months on the road. Some- 
 times the letters from his brothers and sisters are worth 
 quoting, but most of the particulars interesting at the 
 present day were supplied by his old friend and colleague, 
 Sir Robert Ainslie, who still preserved his warm affection 
 for Bartle and his hopeless attachment for Lady Erroll. 
 
 Sometimes a scrap of paper with a few lines in Rose's 
 exquisitely neat writing is enclosed in the sheets which 
 Ainslie sent out to Constantinople. It was probably " the 
 habit of office " that made Ainslie date and number his 
 letters like despatches. One of the first gives a story of 
 Lord Eldon : 
 
 " You may perhaps not have heard of the pun made 
 by the Lord Chancellor of England, Lord Eldon, no 
 punster either. On the night when you and many others 
 were disappointed by Ld. Wellesley's not making a speech 
 in the House of Lords, some person enquired whether 
 Ld. Wellesley's speech was in the stile of Cicero or 
 Demosthenes. ' In neither,' says the noble Lord, ' but in 
 that of Tacitus.' " 
 
 A parallel to this may be found in the story that Lady 
 Morgan, wishing to introduce her sister Olivia to an old 
 gentleman, asked him if he knew her Livy ? " Yes, 
 madam," growled the gentleman, who had already suffered
 
 SOCIETY IN 18091816. 189 
 
 in an encounter of wits with the Irish girl, " and I wish 
 to Heaven your Livy were your Tacitus." 
 
 "(June 1812). Ld. Grey has been informed by the 
 Police that they have received a letter (not yet traced 
 to the author who must be mad) that the writer is deter- 
 mined to put Lord Grey to death, for he cannot bear 
 the manner in which he enters the House of Peers. As 
 no Gentleman in years alters his mode of walking into 
 a room, this seems to be hard measure towards poor Lord 
 Grey. . . . 
 
 "Warm work in the House of Commons, Mr. Frere. 
 Last night, Mr. Sheridan was to justify his public character 
 against Ld. Yarmouth's attack. He spoke for some time 
 and well enough, but little to the purpose, at length he 
 was taken unwell, and now I am coming to my story, 
 some unprincipled man gave him a glass of water. Water 
 to Sheridan ! The consequences were as might have been 
 foreseen. He was done up for the night, and till he 
 washes off this pollution from his gastric regions by right 
 Cogniac or Nants in profusion, who is bold enough to 
 say that he will be ever well enough to repeat his 
 attack ? . . . . 
 
 "(July 1813). The papers will give you a grand account 
 of our National fete at Vauxhall, which was paid for 
 by 1 20 Gentlemen with buckles at their knees and on 
 their shoes. Admission of course could onKy be obtained 
 by tickets which if sold were, I understand, worth ten 
 or fifteen Guineas, each, but every Old Soldier, or every 
 kinsman of a Soldier on the Continent, had full permission 
 to stand anywhere except at Vauxhall and see the rockets 
 explode in the air, which, as the night proved dark, must 
 have been a cheering sight to them. The account of the 
 French Marshall's Baton being exposed upon the table
 
 190 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 during dinner between two of Mr. Gunter's finest pieces 
 of confectionary will I hope gratify you, there was some- 
 thing so dignified and courageous in swallowing Turtle 
 and even drinking three times three unappalled by such 
 a guest I must regret to the last hour of my existence 
 that I was out of Town upon this occasion. My sister 
 Anne however was there, escorted by the Mansfields, 
 whose carriage like most others had a pole run through 
 its pannels going there. After a journey of four hours 
 they got within half a mile of Vauxhall, they then squeezed 
 through the crowd and got in. But the coming back was 
 at such imminent risk of suffocation that Anne seems to 
 think that the Combatants at Victoria underwent less 
 danger. . . . 
 
 " His Excellency * is in very great preservation at 
 Blake's Hotel, as usual ; his present Turn seems to be 
 Virtu and the collecting Medals, but, as usual, he is, I 
 have no doubt, a Hog for Greek and Classic lore. I dined 
 with him just before quitting Town, and met amongst 
 others Lord Byron, who meditates an immediate visit to 
 the Greek Islands, but waits for what he finds difficulty 
 in obtaining, a birth on board some Man of War where 
 he may securely laugh at French Privateers, or, what is 
 more dreaded, American Frigates. You perhaps know 
 his Lordship who appears to me singularly clever and 
 agreeable in conversation, but not the Man for whom 
 Ladies should die, either in sighs, or by Stabbing. Yet 
 if you do not in your Kiosk hear the silly gossip of 
 London, I must impart to you what I have heard, little 
 as I ever hear of such things, but it is the talk of the day. 
 Lady Caroline Lamb married to Wm. Lamb whom you 
 may remember at Cambridge, a very handsome Man and 
 clever, has cast the eye of affection since a long time upon 
 * J. H. Frere.
 
 SOCIETY IN 18091816. 191 
 
 Ld. B., but, as the course of true love never did run smooth, 
 he has always avoided her. She is tall and thin,* and he 
 calls her the Spectre which haunts him. Sitting next to 
 her at supper the conversation turned on Waltzing. She 
 said 'Could you bear to see the Woman you love waltz 
 with another Man ? ' He said he should not particularly 
 wish it, but saw no great mischief in the thing. ' Should 
 you like to see me waltz with any man but yourself?' 
 He said he should have no objection whatever, upon which 
 with no more ado the fair Lady whips a knife into her own 
 side. Venus I believe interposed in the shape of a pair 
 of stays, so that the blow was by no means fatal, and the 
 World jests at her scars." 
 
 "(24th Nov. 1813). We are sending to Holland every 
 soldier this country holds, and the Prince of Orange will 
 land with our Guards in Holland as his ancestor landed 
 with the Dutch guards here in 1688. ... I have been as 
 usual in Lincolnshire since my last, and there have met 
 with a Russian Genl. Sablokow, who married old Anger- 
 stein's daughter. He was employed in the Russian cam- 
 paign. He is a pleasant Man, in many respects not 
 distinguishable from any English Gentleman, and yet 
 thorough Russian. He said that very little quarter was 
 given on either side, though at last prodigious numbers 
 of French were made prisoners ; they are now employed, 
 whether they will or no, in rebuilding Moscow. The 
 inveteracy of the Peasantry is hardly to be described. As 
 to the feelings of some of the Russian superior officers, take 
 one of a man who, he says, is at present at the head of 
 the staff with the Emperor of Russia. One of this man's 
 officers came in to give a report of the Day's work ' I 
 
 * Other authorities describe her as small and slight, with pale 
 golden hair and large hazel eyes. (See " Life of Edward Bulwer, 
 Lord Lytton.")
 
 i 9 2 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 have brought in 300 French Prisoners.' ' Well ? ' says the 
 General very sulkily. ' We have recovered much plunder 
 and Church Plate they had with them.' ' Sir,' says the 
 General, 'if you had met so many Russians laden with 
 Church Plate, how should you have treated them ? ' 'I 
 beg pardon,' says the young officer. He went out with- 
 out another word passing, and had every Frenchman 
 bayonetted. . . . 
 
 "... We Londoners are now become quite valiant and 
 can hear the report of the Tower Guns and Park Guns 
 without flinching, indeed we almost hear them every day, 
 certainly more extraordinary Gazettes are published than 
 ordinary. It is like the last scene in the common run of 
 plays where Poetical Justice is so conscientiously ad- 
 ministered, and the persecuted Hero of the preceeding 
 acts becomes absolutely weighed down and oppressed by 
 fortune's favors. The Guns are now firing for what we are 
 told is the advance of Ld Wellington after another Victory 
 and even the occupation of Bordeaux." 
 
 The year 1814 surpassed the years of Jubilee 1887 and 
 1897, in the number of distinguished guests that it brought 
 to London, and the brilliance of the festivities held in their 
 honour. Mrs. George Frere writes on July 9th : 
 
 " This town has been in a bustle which has turned every- 
 thing topsy turvy, and the quietest of us have felt the 
 effects of it. Our Londoners seem as if they were crazy, 
 and pursue the foreigners with an eagerness which makes 
 one feel ashamed of one's Countrymen, all trades have 
 been stopped, for nobody would work, and happy those 
 who had gowns and shoes ready made, none could be got 
 to order. Poor Lady Laurie [a cousin] fancied she wanted 
 to go out of Town to Susan, but first the great people went
 
 SOCIETY IN 18091816. 193 
 
 to Ascott races and then to Oxford, and for five days the 
 post chaises were all engaged and horses for the first 
 stage out of London were charged at five guineas the 
 pair. Peace was proclaimed on Monday, and the crowds 
 were so great near Temple Bar that those who fainted 
 from the fatigue and heat were laid under the bodies of 
 the carriages to give them air." 
 
 Ainslie writes on the same subject : 
 
 " We are illuminating for Peace, we have Emperors and 
 Kings as our Visitors, and yet we are not in the least more 
 contented or happier than when at War. The farmer 
 thinks the present low price of corn caused by the down- 
 fall of Bonaparte, and is wishing to have him again. The 
 Politicians are angry that we have not driven a harder 
 bargain as to the terms of Peace. We are hissing and 
 hooting our Prince on every Public occasion, and calling 
 to him ' Love your wife ! ' ' Where's your Wife ? ' At 
 Paris things are not better, all the Emigrants are un- 
 happy, discontented, and disappointed, natural enough,, 
 the Parvenus, the same thing. As in former times our 
 women find the French women ugly, and they return the 
 Compliment with interest, but what is rather odd, the 
 Russian Emperor is quite shocked at the indecent naked 
 mode of dressing of our women. Another gossip here is 
 that our young Princess has all manner of Capricious 
 movements against the futur, and that being asked at 
 dessert what her royal stomach would be pleased to take, 
 she answered, ' Anything but an Orange.' * 
 
 " The Cockneys, as the Papers will tell you, have been 
 hauling about Emperors and Kings without Mercy. The 
 
 * The marriage treaty between Princess Charlotte and the Prince of 
 Orange was soon afterwards broken off. 
 
 13
 
 194 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 fashion of persecuting them in this manner was so incon- 
 ceivably violent as, I believe, to have very much indeed 
 taken from the pleasure these foreigners would have had 
 in visiting this great Country. Old Blucher says it is an 
 excellent Country to eat and drink in, but the worst he 
 ever knew for sleep or quiet. No village within 200 miles 
 but sent up its population to see the Emperor. Old Bailey 
 was present at the annual meeting of the Charity Children 
 in St. Paul's, which you know is really a most interesting 
 sight. The foreigners were there, but had contrived very 
 successfully that their intentions should be kept quite secret. 
 It delighted them as much as anything shown to them. 
 Genl. d'Yorlk (?) said he had lived long and seen much, 
 but 'did never see anything that did come so near his 
 heart.' Bailey told us of a Wiltshire farmer who had 
 arrived that morning in Town to ' see the Emperor.' He 
 luckily was near St. Paul's when the Emperor arrived, 
 forced his way without any ticket into the Cathedral, and 
 as Alexander was coming out, shook him violently by the 
 hands. This fashion of pawing, which the Majesty of the 
 People has adopted, is quite odious. The D. of Wellington 
 is just returned and they are treating him in the same 
 manner, but he will not suffer it. Our illuminations very 
 grand, with many allusions, affected enough, to Divine 
 Providence and our brave Allies. Bayley quoted one of 
 an Alehouse keeper whose sign is the Cock, of a less 
 courtly nature, ' John Bull's the Cock of the Walk.' Better 
 sure than such as this, ' To Jehovah, to Brit, and Alexander.' 
 You will observe that Brit, means Britain, but the space 
 was not wide enough to insert the lamps, or the econo- 
 mizing a few lamps became an object. You will see in the 
 M Chronicle an allusion to the motto on Ld. Hertford's 
 house, which oddly enough was 'The Prince's Peace.' 
 The ancient custom of getting near a Monarch's garment
 
 SOCIETY IN 18091816. 195 
 
 to touch it as a remedy against all illness is very credible 
 to one who has seen the late eagerness of the Mob exerted 
 in the same manner. Indeed, happy the Man who could 
 say he had touched a Cossack or a Cossack's horse as dirty 
 as his master. This I frequently witnessed." 
 
 Miss Frere was staying with a cousin at Dover at the 
 time of the arrival of the Russian party. She describes 
 the Emperor as " much like a good English country 
 gentleman," and the Grand Duchess of Oldenburg as 
 "pretty, like her brother, with a sweet expression." 
 
 Ainslie continues his letter : 
 
 " I will not surfeit you much longer with this image of 
 the Times, its form and pressure, but will just give you an 
 instance or two of our present temper, from what is chalked 
 on the walls, the authors being, I presume, the same 
 gentlemen who shake foreign Potentates by the Hands, 
 and Cossack Horses by the Tails. We poor farmers are 
 
 (very miserably off just now from the low sale of our 
 produce. The Populace who have got the Corn Bill 
 thrown out wish to finish our Misery by hanging us all. 
 They chalk up ' No starvation ! No Landlords ! ' But 
 the severe Poetry against our Prince, which I must write 
 to Rose, which some Juvenal of St. Giles's has chalked up, 
 is as follows : 
 
 1 1 wish for this great Nation's sake 
 The Devil would our Prince Regent take ; 
 And when with him to Hell he's been, 
 That he'd come back and take the Queen.' 
 
 . . . His Excellency has, I believe, been to Portsmouth to 
 see the Grand Naval Show exhibited to our illustrious 
 Visitors."
 
 196 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Among the distinguished foreigners who visited London 
 at this time was Madame de Stael, whose ungracious 
 behaviour to her courteous entertainers did not make her 
 popular. Ainslie, who reports that she frightened all the 
 women and above half the men, and wearied the remainder, 
 tells how she was received at Lord Jersey's house with all 
 the attentions that would have been shown to a foreign 
 princess, and how she turned away with the contemptuous 
 remark, ' qu'il riy manquoit que F esprit! Another of her 
 sayings is reported by Mrs. George Frere. " Madame de 
 Stael says she is sure the English ladies are so good she 
 shall meet many of them in Paradise, and she is very sorry 
 for it, for they are very dull." If there were any truth in 
 some of the scandalous stories to which Ainslie alludes, 
 " Corinne " had little reason to disquiet herself about the 
 inhabitants of Paradise. 
 
 Ainslie, although he declared that he was never in the 
 way of hearing gossip, contrived to send a great deal of it to 
 Constantinople. When he wrote in September 1814, every 
 one had rushed to Paris, but he was inclined to think that 
 they would soon return, " the old noblesse being too needy 
 and starved to pay for wax candles and sour lemonade, 
 and the new people feeling quite averse to such delights." 
 The Duke of Wellington gave great offence by the sim- 
 plicity of his dress and manners to the Parisians, who 
 forthwith nicknamed him "Milord Vilain-Ton." * "It is 
 believed he has been shot at, twice," Ainslie wrote in 
 November ; " the Ladies ascribe this to the risks incurred 
 in affairs of Gallantry." 
 
 Lady Erroll was recovering from a desperate illness. 
 Farmers were in evil plight, and Ainslie's letters are 
 
 * " O Wellington ! (or Villainton for Fame 
 Sounds the heroic syllables both ways)." 
 
 BYRON (Don Juan).
 
 SOCIETY IN 18091816. 197 
 
 despondent in tone, even when he had to write of 
 Napoleon's surrender : 
 
 "July 24/4, 1815. 
 
 " We are just now in full gossip as to the disposal of 
 Napoleon Bonaparte whom the Telegraph of yesterday 
 signified to have arrived in the Bellerophon, an event which, 
 some three years since, the maddest calculator on the 
 reverses of fortune would never have dared to contemplate, 
 but such have been the rapid changes, particularly within 
 the last two months, that it is almost matter of indifference, 
 and I am convinced that thirty years ago the introduction 
 of shoe strings instead of Buckles would have made as 
 much impression. The Parisians, and indeed French in 
 general, are just now perfectly mad despising themselves 
 thoroughly, hating foreigners most sincerely, and looking 
 forward to neither glory or happiness, so that that ex- 
 cellent individual Louis i8th will have a most unenviable 
 situation among them. Every principle of honour being 
 utterly extinct, among them, they cry Vive 1'Empereur, 
 Vive le Roy, or Vive le Diable, (as one of them told an 
 Englishman) with equal indifference. Not but that the 
 Soldiery have shewn more consistency. The wounded 
 men all died with Vive 1'Empereur in their mouths, and 
 at Brussels, where Louis i8th had left some of his people 
 with money to take care of the wounded, they refused such 
 assistance, saying they neither wanted such a grosse btte or 
 his money. The Parisians are accused of wearing ribbons 
 with white on one side and tricolor on the other, ready 
 for all emergencies. The Prussians at Paris, having no 
 measures to keep, must be very unpleasant visitors, one 
 report says that their officers do not in the least check 
 themselves, and upon entering a Coffee House for instance, 
 will turn out the French who may happen to be in their
 
 i 9 8 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 way without the least ceremony, making use of some such 
 terms as this, ' Faites place aux Vainqueurs T .' " 
 
 "(Aug. 26th 1815). My Sisters are again upon a 
 visit to Paris. Polignac returned for his Wife last week, 
 and the same party occupy again the same House and 
 are hearing the same enthusiastic cries of ' Vive notre 
 bon Roi, Vivent les Bourbons,' as they did last year. 
 Polignac was with the Due d'Angouleme. He is a very 
 good fellow himself, and I am convinced, sincere in what 
 he says, though of course he must be partial to the Duke. 
 He represents him as having gained real popularity in 
 the South, for, 'altho' he went to Mass regularly,' yet, 
 as he obliged no one to go with him, and was always on 
 horseback looking to the soldiery, shewed himself very 
 brave under fire, and positively refused to escape himself 
 when his little army was surrounded, he is much esteemed. 
 Unfortunately no one that ever I heard speak has one 
 word to say in favor of the Due de Berri except that he 
 is not ill-tempered a negative sort of 'character ill suited 
 to these times and his situation. There is certainly 
 amongst the other misfortunes of the Bourbons a jealousy 
 of the D. of Orleans. The D. was lately assuring the King 
 that all that had been said of his ambition and evil 
 intentions was false. The King answered he had always 
 considered it so. The Duke persisted in not letting the 
 matter drop, and repeating his asseverations, when the 
 King, who, it seems, is fond of a pun, said ' Lorsqu'un 
 Coussin vous a piqu6, il ne faut pas trop frotter, crainte 
 d'envenimer la blessure.' This is as certain as that in 
 the Vicar of Wakefield, the Minister said to his Valet, 
 ' Jerningham, bring me my garters.' " 
 
 Dining with the Mansfields, Ainslie met a certain 
 Russian admiral with an indecipherable name which
 
 SOCIETY IN 18091816. 199 
 
 might be read " Tchitchagow." " He was mentioning that 
 in the Hospital of Minsk, when paying a morning visit, 
 he not only saw French soldiers gambling upon the bodies 
 of some comrades who were just dead, using them as a 
 table, but they had stuck upright in the corners of the 
 room several tall figures also just dead by way of sentinels, 
 having first painted their faces and put them into a sort 
 of Masquerade dress this at a time when the survivors 
 could hardly expect to escape for many days themselves, 
 and in fact very few did. 
 
 "There is an anecdote related of Col. Ponsonby, who was 
 severely wounded in many places at Waterloo, that being 
 left for dead on a part of the field immediately afterwards 
 occupied by French Sharpshooters, he was placed with 
 many other bodies to form a sort of rampart to these 
 gentlemen, one of whom observed him to shew signs of 
 returning life and perception just as his party were in 
 their turn obliged to retreat. This fellow made a sort 
 of bow to him, saying, ' Adieu, mon cher, je vous quitte, 
 nous sommes battus,' and went off. A French officer 
 however saved his life by giving him some brandy, telling 
 him that should the French regain what he feared they 
 had lost, he would make a point of sending for him." 
 
 When Ainslie next wrote, in December, he had just 
 returned from a visit to Paris to attend the wedding of 
 his sister Mary with her cousin, Sandilands, of the Cold- 
 stream Guards. The Duke of Wellington and other 
 general officers had given some very grand balls in the 
 magnificent palaces assigned to them as quarters, but the 
 English were detested in Paris, although the Parisians were 
 obliged to own that the conduct of our troops had been 
 exemplary. The restoration of the masterpieces of paint- 
 ing and sculpture stolen from other countries by Napoleon
 
 200 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 and his Marshals, had half emptied the Louvre, and 
 although what remained was enough to delight foreign 
 visitors, no Frenchman could bear to look upon the empty 
 frames and vacant pedestals. Among Ainslie's new 
 acquaintance was Jerome Bonaparte's repudiated wife, 
 Elizabeth Patterson, of Baltimore. "She is clever and 
 pretty. Her son, the only child she had by him, was 
 left in America. They talk of him as the very image 
 of Bonaparte, and he must resemble him in more ways 
 than one, for Mansfield told me he had taken the liberty 
 to box his ears as a punishment for having beat a lesser 
 child than himself, after which he sent little Boney to 
 kiss and make up. Little Boney did kiss his adversary, 
 but availed of the opportunity to give him a severe bite 
 on the cheek." * 
 
 " A witticism, or I don't know what to call it, perhaps 
 a very old one, delights William Rose just now beyond 
 measure. Here it is. The present Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, on becoming a Bishop, consulted a Divine whether 
 he might continue to hunt. 'You may hunt, my Lord, 
 but you must not hollow,' was the answer of the Oracle. 
 Rose is getting it engraved on a Seal, and swears that 
 if the Times were not so hard he would have ordered a 
 service from Wedgwood with the same motto. He is 
 trying his hand again at officiating Reading Clerk to 
 the House of Lords, where Report says, for I have not 
 yet been to enjoy his misery, he is quite melancholy and 
 gentlemanlike. I don't know whether I mentioned to 
 you his ecstasy in having sent Hinves to Warren upon 
 some Medical point. Hinves returned saying that the 
 Doctor looked as if he wanted Physic more than his 
 
 * This boy was afterwards known as Jerome Bonaparte Patterson. 
 He married and left one son, a soldier.
 
 SOCIETY IN 18091816. 201 
 
 Master, a saying Warren was not long kept ignorant 
 of." 
 
 In 1816 George Frere wrote to Bartle to announce J. H. 
 Frere's marriage with Lady Erroll, in a curious strain. 
 The man of business and the man of genius did not 
 always agree. " I am sick of all brothers but Temple and 
 you," George once wrote in weariness of spirit, when 
 sending Bartle some stockings and tooth-powder. " John 
 and William and Edward are very good sort of people 
 to be unconnected with. You are more of a philosopher 
 than I am, and can bear these things better, and yet I 
 have read Jemima Placid * since you have, but you have 
 made the best use of it." On the present occasion George 
 was very philosophical. " It is an Event which you must 
 long since have expected to hear, and yet the very circum- 
 stance of its not having happened before, makes it a sort 
 of surprise that it should happen now. Aye, dear Bartle, 
 it is very true, and whether it is a pity or no, time must 
 demonstrate." 
 
 Evidently George Frere was at as much of a loss as 
 we are now, to know why the wedding had been so long 
 postponed. There was no longer a mistress at Roydon 
 to resent the presence of an Irish bride. Mrs. Frere had 
 died in 1813, after a life of unobtrusive charity and good 
 works, and her end was worthy of a right-minded, con- 
 scientious gentlewoman of the old school. She summoned 
 her eight children who were then in England round her 
 death-bed, and after calm and cheerful talk, " bade them 
 go to dinner, which she trusted they would enjoy, and 
 never to let their sorrow for her make them neglect their 
 own health." Those were the days when ladies gave 
 
 * "Jemima Placid, or The Advantage of Good-nature," by Miss 
 Dorothy Kiln or, a nursery story of the last century.
 
 202 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 toasts at dinner, and while her children were still at table 
 a message came down from their mother her last toast 
 " Our Union and the Marquis of that name." * 
 
 Frere's wedding was as unconventional as many of his 
 other proceedings. He gave his sister Susanna great 
 offence by not letting her know the day on which it was 
 to take place. Lady Erroll was very anxious for George 
 Frere's presence at the ceremony, but no intimation of 
 the date came from the bridegroom. George, who had 
 gone into Devonshire, concluded from intuition that it 
 would be Thursday, September I2th, and reached town 
 by the mail that morning just in time to join the party. 
 The bridegroom was " in very good humour and good 
 spirits, took his snuff and cast his Joke like Sir Condy.f 
 His head is full of Verses which he thinks to publish, 
 and his plan is to live at Roydon entirely and come to 
 London no more, which he hadn't need, to be sure, for 
 I saw the bottom of Mr. Blake's J bill since January last, 
 near to ;8oo." 
 
 That afternoon, Mr. Murray, sitting in [the little back 
 parlour at Albemarle Street, received a visit from Mr. 
 Frere. Being as " much exposed to authors " as the Duke 
 of Wellington, Murray never allowed them to read or 
 recite in his parlour, but " His Excellency " was a 
 privileged person, and the verses which he repeated were 
 so interesting that the dinner hour approached before 
 either was aware. The publisher begged the author to 
 share his dinner and continue the discussion, but Frere 
 excused himself. " I was married this morning, and Lady 
 Erroll is waiting for me to take her down into the country." 
 
 * J. H. Frere, who was Marques de la Union in Spain. 
 t Sir Condy Rackrent. (Miss Edgeworth, "Castle Rackrent.") 
 J J. H. Frere usually stayed at Blake's Hotel during his visits to 
 London.
 
 SOCIETY IN 18091815. 203 
 
 " They are gone to Hastings, where they have engaged 
 no Lodgings and will find none, so that what has become 
 of them I don't know," wrote George Frere to Bartle. 
 " He is one of the cleverest, best, and oddest of mortals, 
 to be sure."
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A DELICATE SITUATION. 
 
 1820. 
 
 FOR some years after his marriage Frere continued 
 the same busily idle life, amusing himself with 
 occasional literary jeux d'esprit^ and translations from 
 Aristophanes and the " Poema del Cid." " The Monks 
 and the Giants," a mock heroic poem which purported 
 to be written by William and Robert Whistlecraft, 
 harness-makers, of Stowmarket, in Suffolk, was published 
 by John Murray in 1817 and 1818. It is difficult to 
 understand the enthusiasm it excited in such men as 
 Scott, Byron, and W. S. Rose, but its chief merit was 
 the gracefulness and ease with which Frere had adapted 
 the octave stanza of Berni to English verse. " Beppo " 
 was written in imitation of this model. 
 
 Lady Erroll's health, never strong, was a constant 
 source of anxiety to her husband, and a severe cold, 
 caught when visiting " the new rooms built at the British 
 Museum for the Elgin marbles," wrought permanent 
 damage to her constitution. Tunbridge Wells and other 
 health resorts had no good effects, and a serious attack 
 of illness in the summer of 1820 obliged Frere to take her 
 abroad. A sea voyage was recommended, but although 
 she recovered some strength in the Mediterranean, it 
 
 204
 
 A DELICATE SITUATION. 205 
 
 was evident that she would never be able to endure the 
 rigours of the English climate. Frere inclined to Palermo 
 as a residence, but finally decided upon Malta, because 
 he felt that, his pension being drawn from England, it 
 should, if possible, be spent among English subjects. 
 
 Before leaving England, which he was only to see once 
 again for a few months, Frere had to take part in a 
 delicate and important negotiation. Some of the details 
 were noted down by him at the time in a locked MS. 
 book, which has only just been discovered at Roydon. 
 So far as is known, it was his only attempt at keeping 
 a journal, and it did not continue for very long. On 
 the top of the first page is written : " This Book was 
 given me on my Birthday May 2ist 1820 (Whitsunday) 
 by my dear Lady whom God preserve to witness many 
 returns of it." 
 
 On January 2Oth, 1820, the poor old man styled by 
 courtesy King of Great Britain and Ireland closed a life 
 that had been clouded by many sorrows, and a reign 
 that had been glorious in spite of himself, and was 
 succeeded by a son of whom few have been able to say 
 any good. His failing health and enormous debts obliged 
 him to lead a less disreputable life than when he was 
 the boon companion of Fox and Sheridan, but nothing 
 could make him either liked or respected. By his. 
 elevation to the throne the once gay and laughing hoyden 
 whom Lord Malmesbury had lectured, who had romped 
 at Blackheath, and slept in the new chintz bed at South 
 Hill, succeeded to the position lately held by virtuous, 
 economical, hard-hearted Charlotte of Mecklenburg- 
 Strelitz. She was now a middle-aged, childless woman, 
 wandering from place to place on the Continent, and 
 causing scandal wherever she strayed, her fresh comeliness 
 gone with youth, her headstrong imprudence changed into.
 
 206 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 reckless effrontery ; but she was Queen Consort, and she 
 intended to take her rightful position. 
 
 George IV., who had always hated the luckless wife 
 thrust upon him by his father and mother, was determined 
 that she should not come to England. Great pains were 
 taken to collect evidence against her, but although her 
 own folly had given ample cause for the worst suspicions, 
 the evidence was pronounced inadequate by the Cabinet 
 on February loth. A compromise was then suggested, 
 by which Caroline should bind herself not to assume 
 the title of Queen, or to set foot on English shores. But 
 she would have nothing less than her rights, and at 
 one o'clock on June 5th the guns at Dover fired a royal 
 salute to the wife of their new King as she stepped on 
 to the pier. On reaching London she took up her abode 
 at the house of her friend Alderman Wood, in South 
 Audley Street. On June 6th the King sent a message 
 to the House of Lords requesting them to take the 
 necessary steps for considering a Divorce Bill. 
 
 Canning had always been the friend of Caroline of 
 Brunswick, and his name was among those implicated 
 in the unsavoury fictions of Sir John and Lady Douglas 
 in 1806. Thanks in great measure to Lord Malmesbury's 
 advice, the Princess was cleared, and the charge against 
 Canning was so patently absurd, even to his enemies, 
 that no notice was taken of it. But now, when those 
 who wished well to the unhappy Princess could scarcely 
 believe in her innocence, Carining felt that he could not 
 join in the proceedings against her. The first-born son, 
 whom the once-radiant " Fairy Godmother " held in her 
 arms at the christening, when Pitt sparred with Leigh, 
 had been released, not three months since, from a life that 
 had known little but suffering and helplessness borne with 
 steadfast patience ; and the memory of those bygone
 
 A DELICATE SITUATION. 207 
 
 days of hope and rejoicing must have been fresh in 
 Canning's heart when he demanded an audience with 
 George IV. It is at this point that Frere's diary begins. 
 
 "June 25th. Canning had an audience of the King, 
 who received him, he said, with some formality at first, 
 but it wore off, and he became in very good humour. 
 He told him that he was come as He (the King) had 
 said that he wished he had done before, instead of 
 stating his difficulties to Ld. Liverpool about 8 months 
 ago that things had got to that stage in which it was 
 not possible for him to take a part that he did not 
 come to offer his resignation, which would look, he said, 
 like giving himself an air as if he had something to 
 complain of or disapprove of, that this was not the case ; 
 he disapproved of nothing that had been done, and had 
 nothing whatever to complain of, but that his task as 
 a minister was one which from personal feelings and 
 old recollections he could not perform that there were 
 inconveniences every way in his remaining in office 
 without taking a part, or in leaving the Govt. at this 
 moment, that he therefore merely came to place the 
 decision in the King's hands. The K. said he would 
 take some time to consider it, and dismissed him with 
 great kindness and cordiality. Canning came away very 
 much pleased with the manners of the whole thing. 
 The King told him that in the year * he had scratched 
 his [Canning's] name out of the informations, and rallied 
 him a little. . . .f ' To be sure it does seem odd that 
 we should be sitting together on this sofa and talking 
 upon this subject.' 
 
 * The date is illegible, but it is probably 1806. 
 
 t Two sentences are here omitted. Their meaning is not clear, 
 but they seem to allude to the matrimonial troubles of a friend of 
 Canning's and Frere's, with whom we have no concern.
 
 208 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 " The only way seems to be for the whole thing to be 
 gone through in the House of Lords (who are the only 
 real tribunal) by a Bill grounded on facts to be proved 
 in evidence. His [Canning's] going out would be full 
 of difficulty and liable to infinite misconstructions of the 
 most opposite kinds. 
 
 " Wednesday, June 28. Dined at home Ld. Lans- 
 downe, Granville, Morpeth, Fox, and others. Went in the 
 evening to Lady Lansdowne's, who has opened Sumner's 
 great Room met my old friend, Sir Robert Wilson. 
 We began talking of the subject of the Queen, and I 
 lamenting the opportunity which she had lost of coming 
 out of all her difficulties with the appearance of deference 
 to the resolution and Address of the House of Commons, 
 which would have been in reality a triumph, in as much 
 as she would have forced the Govt. (contrary to their 
 own declaration) to negociate with her here in England, 
 and would have obtain'd a point in being treated as 
 Queen in the Papal States which she had made her 
 residence. I said that this opportunity having been 
 thrown away, I for my part saw no hope but that things 
 must go on from bad to worse such a mediation and 
 such a compromise were not likely to occur again, and 
 the rejection of them had created great irritation in 
 Parliament. He said he did not think a compromise 
 absolutely hopeless. I said I was glad to hear him say 
 so, that I knew other wiser heads than mine did not 
 think the thing so absolutely impracticable, and to find 
 that he was of the same opinion gave me some hope. 
 He said he should see Brougham the next morning, and 
 would then call upon me ; he understood, of course, that 
 by ' the wiser head than my own ' I meant Canning's. 
 
 " On Thursday morning he called and said that 
 B[rougham] and himself had thought that an immediate
 
 A DELICATE SITUATION. 209 
 
 personal opening might be made if it were first understood 
 that the same terms should be granted and accepted on 
 both sides. I said I would ascertain this as far as I could, 
 and he then said that the communication might be begun 
 thus : 
 
 " That the King might give orders to Sir B. Blomfield, 
 or some other person immediately attached to his person, 
 to write to her Banker or to Br[ougham] placing a sum of 
 money to her credit in order to obviate any difficulty or 
 delay in bringing witnesses. That upon this the Queen 
 might write a Letter to the King in the character of a person 
 overcome by such an act of generosity, and placing herself 
 at his discretion, upon which the same terms might be 
 offered to her and would be accepted by her. That a con- 
 clusion of this kind, and between King and Queen, might 
 still take place after the rejection of all interference of 
 Ministers and Parliament (mere subjects after all) who it 
 might be said had no right (according to her feelings at 
 least) to interpose in the family quarrels of Royal persons. 
 
 " I then went and saw Canning, who was of opinion that 
 the same terms might be obtain'd. 
 
 " Friday (June 3Oth). I saw Canning, who said that the 
 proposed mode of beginning the thing would not do, as it 
 was already known in the House of Commons that money 
 was placed at the Queen's disposal for that very purpose 
 by Ld. Liverpool and seemed moreover suspicious of 
 some design to lay a trap to meet the report with a 
 clamour about an offer of money and bribery. There was 
 moreover a paragraph in the Times (Brougham's, or 
 rather her, paper) mentioning a prospect of compromise 
 but imputing it unfairly to hesitation on the part of the 
 Govt. 
 
 " I went to Wilson's in Ryder Street at two o'clock, but 
 he was not return'd. I called at Davenport's in the next 
 
 14
 
 2io J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 street, and went to the exhibition of Old Portraits, and 
 called again, but not finding him at home, was going away 
 to wait at the Travellers' Club, when I met him at the 
 Corner just return'd from his meeting * very much worried, 
 and saying that he had had great difficulty in stopping a 
 resolution to intreat the Queen not to leave the country. 
 
 " I then told him the first inoffensive objection to the 
 scheme, viz., that it was already known that the Queen 
 could not be in want of money for such a purpose. He 
 took it so quietly and readily that it disarmed me of any 
 suspicion I might have had (of him at least) from Canning's 
 remarks and the Article in the Times. I then suggested 
 what had occurred to me since I had left Canning, viz. 
 that she might send to desire to see Ld. Liverpool, that she 
 had known him, and he was a person upon whose honour 
 and secrecy she might depend, and whose mildness of 
 manner would prevent the interview from being at all 
 painful ; that the secret would remain between themselves, 
 and nothing more would be known than that an interview 
 had been had with the first Minister, and that the thing 
 was settled and at an end that she might send for Ld. 
 Glenbervie, her old steady acquaintance, and send him with 
 a message desiring to see Ld. Liverpool. As I was going, 
 he asked me whether it would not be better for her to 
 send for Canning. I said certainly not, that Liverpool was 
 the Minister, that Canning had wholly expended himself in 
 her service, and as far as her affair was concerned could 
 hardly be considered as a part of the Govt. 
 
 " I dined at Hallam's ; there was Crabbe, Heber, Rose, 
 Mansfield, R. Heber and his wife. Wilson called me out 
 in the evening into Hallam's study, and told me if I would 
 call upon him two hours after, at Brougham's in Hill 
 
 * A meeting in Southwark which Sir Robert Wilson had been 
 obliged to attend.
 
 A DELICATE SITUATION. 211 
 
 Street, I should know the result of Brougham's con- 
 ference with the Queen. I went accordingly, and saw Sir 
 Robert alone in a Room below stairs. The impression 
 upon my mind was that nothing was advanced or likely to 
 advance as the urgency of the case required. He said 
 that she had spoken with great irritation of Castlereagh's 
 being appointed to negotiate in the first instance ' He 
 whose brother * had behaved with such disrespect to her.' 
 Why was not Canning employed? to which Brougham 
 said that it would have been as if he himself had been 
 employ'd, at which she laugh'd and said, ' Ah, poor Dear 
 Canning, he would do the best he could for me.' Finally 
 what was proposed to me was that Ward should call and 
 leave a card, that upon this she should be persuaded to 
 send for him. I said that this would not do, that the time 
 was too short ; if they could not advance faster that they 
 would have to make their arrangements the moment before 
 the report came down (which was fixed for Monday or 
 Tuesday) as if under the impression of immediate fear. 
 Finally that there was only time to do the one thing which 
 I recommended, viz. to send for old Glenbervie, and send 
 him to Liverpool. But I was so satisfied that I could be 
 of no further use after giving that advice that I should go 
 out of town for five or six hours the next day. . . . 
 
 " On reporting this to Canning, he told me that the time 
 was much shorter, that the final Cabinet was fixed for 
 Saturday night or Sunday morning, after which no new 
 resolution would be likely to be adopted. 
 
 " When I came home it was late, for when I called upon 
 Canning he was already half undrest and going to bed, and 
 at home I found that not a bit of sealing-wax was to be 
 
 * Charles, Baron Stewart, afterwards third Marquis of Londonderry. 
 He was Ambassador at Vienna from 1814 to 1822, and one of his duties 
 was to collect information regarding the Queen's conduct
 
 212 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 found for my note. So I waked Beaumont,* and told him 
 to go early to Sir R. and to tell him that I would call 
 upon him before ten, leaving the carriage in Arlington 
 Street. 
 
 " (Saturday) Which I did, and merely said that the 
 time was barely left for doing what was recommended, for 
 that the decision would be taken that night or the next 
 morning. ... 
 
 " I returned to Canning, and we talked a good deal but 
 without reference to the possibility of anything being done. 
 1 only regretted that I had not mentioned Sir W. Grant as 
 a person to be sent for, being an old frequenter of her 
 parties, and a man of such steadiness of character. I 
 returned home, and Sir Robt. W. called again, and said that 
 different people had been talked over, that she objected to 
 Glenbervie as too old to Sir W. Scott and Ward for some 
 other reason but that upon my name being mentioned to 
 her, she said everything of her high opinion. I said it was 
 (as it was) very painful to me to wish to decline such an 
 office, but the same reasons which should prevent her from 
 sending for Canning should induce her to send for any- 
 body else rather than me as being in a manner belonging 
 to him that I could not take a step without bringing him 
 under the imputation of having departed from the nullity 
 and neutrality with respect to the whole question in which 
 the King's indulgence had placed him. I then suggested 
 that Sir W. Grant should be sent for. This struck him as 
 much the best course, and I urged that not a moment 
 should be lost. He left me, promising that I should hear 
 the result in the morning." 
 
 Having, as he hoped, put the Queen's business into a 
 satisfactory train, Frere went out to dinner, and learned, 
 
 * Frere 's valet, who had been with him for some years.
 
 A DELICATE SITUATION. 213 
 
 on his return, that the final meeting of the Council was 
 was postponed until two o'clock on Sunday a fact of 
 which he at once informed Sir Robert Wilson. 
 
 " Sunday. The messenger before I was up brought me 
 Sir R.'s letter clearly showing how little influence he 
 possessed over her. On the evening before she had 
 allowed herself to be dragged by a mob huzzaing in front 
 of Carlton House. . . . The evening before (Friday) there 
 had been a similar excursion, not so offensive to the King, 
 but equally undignified, in going to Guildhall with the 
 carriage dragged by the Mob in her way home." 
 
 On that fateful Sunday, after hearing prayers, which 
 were always read to him when he was unable to attend the 
 morning service, Canning called on Frere, and they waited 
 together until two o'clock, the last hour at which the 
 period of possible compromise expired. No message 
 came, and Frere, exhausted by a violent cold, went early 
 to bed, and sent an excuse to Lydia White with whom he 
 was engaged to dine. On Monday he lay in bed and 
 wrote his diary. On Tuesday (July 4th) came a note 
 from Brougham, which has been kept between the leaves 
 of the diary. Brougham complained that " like every- 
 thing else, the Q.'s seeing Grant has got into the news- 
 papers," and Wilson who enclosed Brougham's letter 
 assured Frere that neither Brougham nor himself was to 
 blame. The fact was, that the Queen was beyond the 
 control of her advisers, and could not be stayed from 
 ruining herself. 
 
 On Wednesday Canning came to see Frere, with an 
 account of Sir W. Grant's interview with the Queen. She 
 began by protesting " her innocence and resolution and so 
 forth," to which Grant rejoined by asking why she had
 
 2i 4 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 wished to see him. She then referred him to Canning, 
 who said that the compromise which had at one time been 
 possible, was rendered out of the question by the measures 
 which had been taken by the Government and by " her 
 cavalcades with the mob." He could only advise the 
 Queen to throw herself upon the King's generosity, which 
 might even now be extended to her. 
 
 The publicity of a trial was not desirable for either party, 
 and Frere was distressed to hear that a majority of the 
 House of Lords' Committee had overruled a moderate 
 report drawn up by Lord Harrowby, and substituted "a 
 most bitter one " which appeared in the papers, on that 
 Wednesday morning. 
 
 " What a change since Saturday sennnight ! she might 
 have left the Country in triumph, having baffled the King 
 and braved the Govt, and received the address and thanks 
 afterwards from Parliament but the very spirit of in- 
 fatuation seems to have possessed her receiving the 
 deputation of the House of Commons with the utmost 
 haughtiness and scorn and shaking hands with the mob 
 out of the windows of her carriage, at Dover, at Guildhall, 
 etc. What is most strange is that no adviser is discover- 
 able except the absurdest of all mankind, Alderman Wood 
 and Dr. Parr whom, this day week, Sir R. W. mentioned 
 seriously as the adviser of her rejection of the address of 
 the House of Commons. I of course suspected Burdett, 
 who must have been the Dr.'s introducer but W. said that 
 he (Burdett) was most anxious to get her out of the scrape. 
 The result seems to be that we are placed between con- 
 viction and revolution." 
 
 On this day (Thursday, July 5th) Lord Liverpool intro- 
 duced the Divorce Bill into the House of Lords. From
 
 A DELICATE SITUATION. 215 
 
 that time Canning ceased to advise the Government in 
 any way. 
 
 "Friday. Saw Canning. I found that he agreed with 
 me in thinking the divorce a very strong measure, and full 
 of difficulty. He told me that he had written his opinion 
 of it to Ld. Liverpool (before the Bill was brought down), 
 that the debate of last night confirmed him in his view of 
 the danger attending it, that he was quite surprized at 
 Liverpool's allowing himself to be drawn into such a 
 resolution. He attributed it chiefly to Castlereagh and 
 Wellington. I told him what I said to my Lady last 
 night. ' My Dear,' I said, ' you know that as soon as 
 Canning ceased to advise them, they would fall into 
 blunders, and I believe they have begun already.' He told 
 me that during the debate Sir R. Wilson passed close by 
 him, and said to him in a whisper 'This is only the 
 beginning.' The whole question in fact now bears a 
 different character. It is no longer a simple question of 
 the Queen's demerits, but of the King's merits, and the 
 whole advantage of the former forbearance is thrown 
 away. . . . When the ultimate conclusion (viz. divorce) 
 appears, it becomes almost impossible to resist the infer- 
 ence (a perfectly true one as far as the King is concerned) 
 that the object of divorce had been in view from the 
 beginning, and was the real motive of the Milan Com- 
 mission. 
 
 " Thus in ten days after her great blunder, another is 
 committed by Govt. which may possibly give her the 
 advantage again, but with infinite danger to the peace of 
 the Country. The story of her receiving poor little Sir 
 Tommy Tyrwhit is true : ' Tell the King that I can not 
 meet wid him here, but I shall meet him oop there.' I 
 wish so for both their sakes !
 
 216 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 "Saturday July 8th. The Coronation is put off, it was 
 strongly debated in Council, and came (a very unusual 
 thing) to a vote in Cabinet Castlereagh and Wellington 
 for persevering. Canning said truly 'we must look to 
 things now as they furnish topics. If I was Brougham I 
 would not wish for a finer topic than the Queen in her 
 present situation and a Coronation going on at the 
 same time. Wellington would have no objection to a 
 Coronation purely military, he thinks that things must 
 come to force at last. It may be so, perhaps, but the 
 occasion would be a most odious and inauspicious one.' 
 
 "It is pretty well ascertained that one of the boxes 
 which was hired to view the procession was intended to be 
 occupied by the Queen. This would have been a fine 
 coup de tJitdtre, and ominous too, for the last Queen that 
 saw her husband crowned was the wife of Charles I,* and 
 on such occasions the people look out for omens." 
 
 At this date the diary breaks off. Whether the 
 preparations for leaving England gave Frere no time for 
 writing, or whether his dislike of taking up a pen overcame 
 his wish to make use of his Lady's present does not 
 appear ; but the rest of the leaves are clean as when they 
 were first opened, although yellowed by time. It has 
 been no easy task to decipher this fragment, most of which 
 was written in bed, with a bad pen, in the minutest 
 characters. Here and there a few sentences have been 
 left out for the sake of compression, and all irrelevant 
 matter has been omitted. Otherwise the diary is as Frere 
 wrote it, with the exception of the last sentence a charac- 
 teristic and untrue remark of the King's, which it was 
 inadvisable to publish. 
 
 * Henrietta Maria refused to be crowned with her husband on the 
 score of religious scruples.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 COLERIDGE AND SOUTHEY. 
 
 " In such goodness as both my Mr. Frere (the Rt. Hon. J. H. Frere) 
 and his brother George (the lawyer in Brunswick Square) live, 
 move, and have their being in, there is Genius." 
 
 (S. T. COLERIDGE to H. CRABB ROBINSON, June 1817.) 
 
 WHEN the "Highland Lady" whose diary has recently 
 been given to the world used to visit her aunt 
 Mrs. George Frere in Brunswick Square, she often found 
 there a restless figure, with wild eyes and snowy hair, 
 who would stand on the hearthrug and pour forth 
 incoherent rhapsodies, reminding the bystanders of the 
 inspired singer in " Kubla Khan." This was Coleridge, 
 who had then been placed under the care of Mr. Gillman 
 at Highgate, in the hope of curing him of the opium habit. 
 
 There is nothing to show how Coleridge and J. H. Frere 
 first became acquainted. It was perhaps through the 
 medium of George Frere, as Coleridge at one time sends 
 a request through him to be allowed to prefix four lines 
 from the translation of Aristophanes' " Frogs " to one of 
 his own essays. But before that date he had corresponded 
 with Frere. The earliest of the letters was sent with a 
 copy of " Sibylline Leaves" on July 2nd, 1816. 
 
 Frere did his best to help Coleridge in various ways 
 by bringing his writings under the notice of Canning 
 and other literary men, and by solid assistance in money. 
 
 217
 
 ai8 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Coleridge was one of the ten Associates of the Royal 
 Society of Literature instituted under the patronage of 
 George IV. in 1824, and received from the King's bounty 
 an annuity of a hundred guineas. William IV., on his 
 accession, refused to continue these payments ; and, in 
 consequence of representations made to the Government, 
 Earl Grey offered Coleridge a private grant of 200 from 
 the Treasury. This the poet declined, but, according to 
 Sir W. Scott,* he made no objection to receiving the 
 former annuity of a hundred guineas from Frere's own 
 purse. 
 
 His letters to Frere are written in a minute hand, and 
 are not easy to read. He is fond of indulging in Greek 
 quotations, but his Greek is as destitute of accents as a 
 lady's Greek was said to be in the early days of the higher 
 education of women. Some words are quite illegible, and 
 the sentences are unmercifully long. The anxiety which 
 he displays in the first letter to be cleared of the charge of 
 idleness is amusing : 
 
 "Dear Sir, 
 
 "Should I have the good fortune to find you at 
 home and disengaged this morning, I shall have superseded 
 this Scrawl the object of which is to excuse myself for 
 the liberty, I take, in obtruding on you the accompanying 
 Sheets which consist of a ist Volume, and part of a 
 Second of my literary Life more accurately perhaps, 
 Sketches of my intellectual Life and Principles in which 
 my chief purposes were, i. to defend myself (not indeed to 
 my own Conscience, but ) as far as others are concerned, 
 from the often and public denunciation of having wasted 
 my time in idleness in short, of having done nothing ; 
 
 * Journal. Mr. E. H. Coleridge says that S. T. Coleridge ultimately 
 accepted ^300 from the Treasury.
 
 COLERIDGE AND SOUTHEY. 219 
 
 2. not merely to state my own principles of Taste, but 
 to settle, if possible, and to put to rest with all men of 
 sense the controversy concerning the nature and claims 
 of poetic Diction. There is with these a third Volume 
 entitled Sibylline Leaves, a collection of such poems as 
 I dare consent to be known as of my own Will as well 
 as Authorship. 
 
 " I had hoped to have sent them during your confine- 
 ment and then I might have ventured to hope that you 
 would have returned them enriched with a few marks of 
 your pencil if they were only mere symbolic signs of 
 your disapprobation of particular passages, lines or words. 
 With grey hairs and a subdued spirit it would be too late 
 for me to begin the attempt to flatter and be assured it 
 will be but an act of justice to the simplicity of my cha- 
 racter if you give full belief to my assurance, that my sole 
 motive for entreating your friendly perusal of these pages 
 originates in my thorough conviction that of all the men 
 I have yet met with in public or literary life, you possess 
 beyond comparison, the purest and manliest Taste : and 
 I say less than I mean and feel, when I add that I have 
 on my shelves long original poems, epic, and romantic, full 
 of images and incidents, and mother-and-child sentiments 
 and sensibilities, and these of great celebrity (reputation 
 at least), the whole excellencies of which concentrated do 
 not impress on my reason that sense of inventive and 
 constructive power which I appeared to myself to see 
 in the one Imitation of the Parabasis from the Knights of 
 Aristophanes." 
 
 The next letter was written on a Thursday in December, 
 and accompanied the first of his Lay Sermons, "The 
 Statesman's Manual." It seems to have been intended 
 for George Frere :
 
 220 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 "J. GILLMAN'S, ESQ., 
 
 11 HIGHGATE. 
 
 "Dear Sir 
 
 " The inclosed ought to have reached you last week : 
 and it was by accident that I discovered the piece of 
 forgetfulness that occasioned the delay. The second 
 Sermon will (Deo volente) appear next week, and is (com- 
 paratively, at least) popular both in matter and style. 
 The title to the present ought to have been, and I had so 
 directed it addressed to the Learned and Reflecting of 
 all Ranks and Professions, especially among the Higher 
 Class. 
 
 " It had passed thro' many an anxious revisal, and yet 
 you will observe on a mere Turning-over of the Pages 
 what a Gleaning the last produced me. And I doubt 
 not that you and your Brother would enable me to 
 return from the same Stubble with another Sheaf under 
 my arm. 
 
 " I should in truth be exceedingly obliged to you for any 
 remarks of this kind that might occur to you during the 
 Perusal. I fear that your general censure will be that I 
 have lost my cause between Justice Nimis and Justice 
 Parum that I have said too much of my peculiar code of 
 philosophic Belief, having said so little." 
 
 The next letter is also addressed to G. Frere, Esq., and 
 is docketed by him "reed Dec: 19 1816." 
 
 The four lines from the translation of " The Frogs " 
 of which Coleridge wishes to make use are taken from 
 Euripides' speech to ^Eschylus : 
 
 41 When I received the Muse from you I found her pufFd and 
 
 pamper'd 
 
 With pompous sentences and terms, a cumb'rous huge virago ; 
 My first attention was applied to make her look genteelly, 
 And bring her to a lighter shape by dint of lighter diet."
 
 COLERIDGE AND SOUTHEY. 221 
 
 "Dear Sir, 
 
 " I hear from Mr. W. Rose that your brother is in 
 town. Will you be so good as to present my unfeigned 
 Respects to him, and say that I should take courage to 
 request a favor of him if I could but let him know even as 
 I myself know it, that he may refuse it without giving me 
 the least pain. It is to permit to place four lines of his 
 as a free translation of the corresponding Lines in Aris- 
 tophanes' Frogs (' When I received the Muse from you,' 
 etc.), which I have prefixed to one of the essays in the 
 rifacciamento of the Friend now printing with or without 
 his name as he may prescribe. I have likewise to say that 
 I have spoken and in part quoted a passage in the 
 kind letter with which you honored me when I was at 
 Mudeford (sic) as an observation of another, which had 
 impressed me with its importance. I hope you will not 
 be offended by this liberty as no name is mentioned or 
 referred to. 
 
 " I hope you received my first Sermon. But I shall 
 have far greater pleasure in presenting the second to 
 you, to your approbation of which I look forward with a 
 sort of consolatory Confidence. Mr. W. Rose has written 
 in higher terms of the Statesman's Manual than I had 
 dared anticipate. He has paid me the same Compliment 
 that Socrates did to Heraclitus, 'what he understood he 
 liked very much indeed, and what he did not, he gave 
 me credit for.' 
 
 " Pray could you inform me whether and how I could 
 direct a copy of each of the Sermons to Mr. Canning ? 
 I thought of sending the same to Mr. Vansittart and Lord 
 Sidmouth, but I scarce know why, I feel a witJidrawingak the 
 thought and could more comfortably brave the dyspathy 
 
 of a man of Genius and strong sense, than in short the 
 
 Meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society at the
 
 222 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Egyptian Hall, and a few other things of the same kind 
 have not digested well with me." 
 
 The next letter introduces the celebrated German critic 
 Ludwig Tieck. 
 
 "Friday 27 June 1817, HIGHGATE. 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " We have had for some weeks in England one of 
 the most celebrated Literati who as a poet and Philosophic 
 critic is by a large and zealous party deemed second only 
 to Goethe. I became acquainted with him at Rome his 
 name Ludwig Tieck. His literary Career bears a striking 
 resemblance to Wordsworth's. Assuredly I have both 
 seen enough of the Man and read enough of his Works to 
 feel no hesitation in expressing myself in the highest terms 
 concerning his Genius and multiform Acquirements. He is 
 intimately acquainted with the Literature of Spain, Portugal, 
 Italy and England, in addition to that of his own country 
 and to his classical Erudition in truth he is well acquainted 
 with the Writers of every European country, and reads the 
 originals but his intimacy with all our Writers, even the 
 most obscure, from Chaucer to Dryden inclusive, above all 
 with the contemporaries of Shakespear, is ASTONISHING. 
 I felt myself a mere school-boy in these respects, whether 
 I considered the width or the minute accuracy of his know- 
 ledge. Refer to a line in any of the obscurest works ever 
 attributed to Shakespear, and he will immediately tell you 
 the place and page in one or more Editions, and repeat the 
 passage. I fretted myself sore with the continued Wishing 
 that I could have had the pleasure of Lady Erroll's and 
 your company on Tuesday and Wednesday, which days 
 he spent with me at Highgate. He speaks English very 
 pleasingly ; though when together we found it by far the
 
 COLERIDGE AND SOUTHEY. 223 
 
 best each to speak his own mother tongue, and in a 
 few minutes we became wholly unconscious that we were 
 not both speaking the same language : as the words 
 conveyed the thoughts to each without any intermedium 
 of mental translation. ... I put a question to him 
 concerning the present convictions of Scientific men in 
 Germany respecting Animal Magnetism, and at length 
 asked him Have you yourself ever seen any of these 
 wonder-works ? The detail of facts in which he sub- 
 stantiated the affirmative of this, the known estimable- 
 ness and purity of his moral character, the uninventable 
 circumstantiality of the cases, and the fineness and yet 
 the winning simplicity with which he sympathized with 
 the painful struggle which, he foresaw, he must excite 
 in Oilman's mind (for my philosophy had converted me 
 a priori] between the incapability of either believing the 
 facts or disbelieving him, could not have but deeply 
 interested Lady Erroll. . . . 
 
 " But these Tieckiana have seduced me from Tieck 
 himself and the purpose of this letter. For the last 15 
 years or more he has devoted his Time and Thoughts to a 
 great Work on Shakespear, in 3 large Volumes Octavo. . . . 
 Mr. Tieck has been a daily Reader at the British Museum 
 with persons transcribing for him ; and on Monday he goes 
 to Oxford, and from thence to Cambridge for the same 
 purpose. I write to solicit you, my dear Sir ! to procure 
 for him letters of Introduction to both Universities. It 
 is much at my heart, that a Scholar and a Poet of such 
 high and deservedly high reputation on the Continent 
 (for it is not confined to his own Country) and so good 
 a man to boot (to which I may safely add, a polished 
 Gentleman) should receive the marks of respect due to 
 him from the country and countrymen of Shakespear. 
 If Mr. Heber be in Town, I doubt not, that a word
 
 224 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 from you would be sufficient. Nay, for in such a 
 cause I dare be bold, I would say that it would not 
 be beneath Mr. Canning's attention, would his Leisure 
 permit it and should you see no impropriety in making 
 the Request. . . . 
 
 " My eldest son, Hartley Coleridge, from Oxford, is now 
 with me ; his manners are rather eccentric otherwise he is 
 in head and heart all I ought to wish." 
 
 The following letter is a highly characteristic production. 
 Coleridge evidently thought himself an injured being, but, 
 ven after reading his elaborate explanations, one cannot 
 wonder that Mr. Rogers was anxious about the fate of Mr. 
 Rose's book. In spite of these warnings, Frere allowed 
 Coleridge to make use of his library, as appears from an 
 undated note in which the poet returns thanks for the loan 
 of the books which he has not yet opened. 
 
 " HIGHGATE, Tuesday Noon, 
 
 " id July 1816. 
 
 " My dear Sir 
 
 " Friday is the same to me as Thursday ; and were 
 it otherwise, the inconvenience must, I flatter myself, have 
 stood under the rubric of Duty to have kept its ground 
 against the pleasure of meeting Mr. Canning. Tho' I 
 .should take shame to myself, if I were torpid to the 
 interest, which an eminent public character naturally 
 excites, as such; yet the recollections of his being your 
 friend and schoolfellow, were uppermost at the instant, that 
 I received your kind invitation. . . . 
 
 "Your remarks on the pth Book of the Iliad were 
 perfectly convincing to my mind ; and have strengthened 
 an old persuasion of mine that we shall never feel 
 as Englishmen what the Iliad really is till we have 
 it translated as a metrical Romance, with such en-
 
 COLERIDGE AND SOUTHEY. 225 
 
 richment of metre and rhythm, as he who had a right 
 to attempt such a work, would have supplied to him 
 by the Genius that constituted the Right. That such a 
 thing is practicable, your Aristophanies (sic) have now 
 satisfied me. . . . 
 
 " Now, my dear Sir ! will you pardon me if I take 
 the liberty of unbosoming myself to you on a circum- 
 stance, which tho' a seeming trifle has both wounded 
 and injured me. Many years ago Mr. Sotheby lent me 
 the old Folio Edition of Petrarch's Works. I read it 
 thro* and communicated my remarks. Just on the eve 
 of my leaving England for Malta, I had the book put 
 up to be returned ; but in the depression of Disease, 
 and amid the bustle and heart-sickness of leaving all 
 I loved, with little confidence of ever seeing them again, 
 this was forgotten, and the Book remained at Keswick. 
 It was not till long after my return that I discovered 
 this. I then had the Book sent up to London, and 
 supposed it to have been returned but by another piece 
 of Ill-luck, it was sent (tho' directed to Mr. Sotheby) 
 among Morgan's books to Bishopsgate Street, from 
 which place it did at length arrive at its true owner. 
 Likewise, some ten years ago, poor Charles Lamb took 
 it into his head that he had lent me a volume of 
 Dodsley's old plays. ... At length, however, I was lucky 
 enough to procure the odd volume from Southey, and 
 gave it to Lamb. . . . 
 
 " Except these two cases, and I dare challenge all my 
 acquaintances to mention a single instance in which I 
 have ever furnished occasion for this Charge, I have been 
 most grievously sinned against in this respect ; and for 
 that very reason have been cautious not to offend myself. 
 Yet on the strength of this slander Mr. Rogers (I write 
 without the least resentment) prevented Mr. Rose from 
 
 '5
 
 226 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 lending me Carl Gozzi's Works, which he was previously 
 most ready to do, and which I had in vain endeavoured 
 to procure from Leghorn. From the same cause, I doubt 
 not, Mr. Hare refused to let me have the Reading of 
 such works of Giordano Bruno, as I had not had an 
 opportunity of seeing (a unique collection of which he 
 purchased for a trifle at the Roxburgh Sale) tho' I had 
 in the Friend announced my intention of writing the 
 Life of G. Bruno with a critique on his system and 
 that of the Pantheists of the same age (Behmen, etc.). 
 I could mention other instances ; and as I never borrow 
 a Book but for some specific purpose, and that too of 
 importance to me, this has been a very serious injury 
 to me even in a pecuniary View. For instance Murray 
 has offered me 200 for an octavo Volume of Specimens 
 of Rabbinical Wisdom (in the manner of those in the 
 Friend and including them). The descriptive Title of 
 the Work would be the modes with the advantages 
 and disadvantages of oral instruction compared with the 
 age of Books and if it be well executed, it will be 
 worth more than twice 200. Yet I am much deceived 
 if but for the aforesaid cruel Slander I should not have 
 had the [? word illegible] procured for me, without which 
 or some other translation of the Mischna and [? word 
 illegible] I cannot go on with the work. Now Sir, should 
 you have a favourable opportunity of mentioning these 
 circumstances to Mr. Rose, or any other proper person, 
 you would greatly serve me. But at all events forgive 
 the freedom I take in making the request" for it is with 
 most sincere respect and sense of acknowledgement that 
 I remain 
 
 " my dear Sir 
 
 " your obliged 
 
 " S. T. COLERIDGE."
 
 COLERIDGE AND SOUTHEY. 227 
 
 There is a gap of ten years before we come to the 
 next letter, which is a unique specimen of an invitation 
 to dinner, worthy of the man who turned a lecture 
 on Shakespeare's heroines into a dissertation upon the 
 ethics of flogging schoolboys. The friend to whom 
 Coleridge looked with confidence for the excitement of 
 a philosophical spirit was his disciple Joseph Henry 
 Green, Professor of Anatomy to the College of Surgeons 
 and the Royal Academy, and Fellow of the Royal 
 Society. 
 
 "GROVE, HlGHGATE. 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " Shall I be presuming on your kindness if I tell 
 you that on Friday my excellent friend Mr. Green, and 
 Mr. Tulk, the late Member for Sudbury (a thoroughly good 
 and amiable man, and in many ways worth knowing) dine 
 with us ; these two with Mr. and Mrs. Gillman and myself, 
 constituting the whole party : and if I venture to request 
 the honor to express the wish at least of your joining us 
 should you chance not to be pre-engaged? Of Mr. 
 Green I need only say that to him I look with confidence 
 for the excitement of a philosophical spirit, and the intro- 
 duction of Philosophy in its objective Type, among our 
 Physiologists and Naturalists the one side of the Isosceles 
 Triangle, the Basis of which is the Dynamic Logic, and 
 the Apex Religion. The Historic Idea is the same in 
 Natural History (physiogony) as in the History commonly 
 50 called, but polarized, or presented in opposite and cor- 
 respondent forms. The purpose of the latter is to exhibit 
 the moral necessity of the whole in the freedom of the 
 component parts : the resulting chain necessary, each 
 particular link remaining free. (Our old chroniclers and 
 Annalists satisfy the latter half of the requisition ; Hume,
 
 28 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Robertson, Gibbon, the former half; in Herodotus and 
 the Hebrew Records alone both are found united.) In 
 the History of Nature the same elements exist in the 
 reverse order. The Absolute Freedom, WILL both in 
 the form of REASON (^0705 ; Tto? /*o 1/076 1/179; OfiN ev rp 
 Ko\7TG> TOV Trarpo?) and in its own right as the Ground 
 of Reason (ftv<raos, aySuo-o-o?) is the principle of the 
 Whole in the Necessity of the Component Parts. And 
 in this spirit my Friend contemplates and is labouring 
 to make others contemplate, the Law of Life both as a 
 Surgeon and as a Professor of Comparative Anatomy 
 and Physiology. 
 
 " Mr. Tulk would interest you, were it only that it 
 is something to meet with a Scholar and a man of 
 Taste and Talent, who is a Partizan and Admirer of the 
 Honorable Emanuel Swedenborg ; but of the genuine 
 school." 
 
 Frere endeavoured to interest Lord Liverpool in his 
 protigt, and received a vague but kindly answer, which did 
 not commit the writer. 
 
 There are also two undated letters from Coleridge. One 
 of them bears no date beyond 
 
 "GROVE, HlGHGATE, 
 
 " Wednesday night. 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " It is a great delight to me to be anywhere with 
 you. And more than so for to you I can say this, secure 
 of the right interpretation it is a source of Strength, and 
 a renewal of hope, and of the hope I most need viz. : that 
 I am still in the region where the sympathy of sane minds 
 can follow me, and have not been toiling after shadows. 
 I shall have much pleasure in availing myself of Lord 
 Hastings' condescension, and still more in the preludium.
 
 COLERIDGE AND SOUTHEY. 229 
 
 "Dared I shape my expectations to my wishes, I 
 would say, I expect you on Friday at an early hour. 
 And if I might wish aloud, you would hear me craving 
 and hoping that you might have a portion of your 
 MSS. with you. 
 
 " With sincere respect, I am, 
 
 " My dear Sir ! your obliged 
 
 "S. T. COLERIDGE." 
 
 In the same packet as the letters from Coleridge lie 
 a number of letters from a very different character 
 Robert Southey, whose Dactylics and Sapphics Frere and 
 Canning had formerly parodied in the Anti-Jacobin. 
 The small, neat writing is clear to read, although he 
 apologises for it ; and the placid, contented tone of the 
 busy man, happy in his friendships and his proof-sheet, is 
 as different as possible from the incoherent metaphysics 
 of the other poet. After reading through the list of 
 Southey's works in prose and verse, it is difficult to 
 imagine how one hand could manage to cover so many 
 reams of paper before the invention of typewriters. 
 Frere helped him with the History of the Peninsular 
 War, and several letters express gratitude for informa- 
 tion and corrections. 
 
 "KESWICK, 30 Dec. 1820. 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " I am now in the press with the history of the 
 Peninsular War. The first chapter is merely introductory, 
 concerning the state of the three countries which were 
 directly involved in the contest. With this therefore, I 
 had no occasion to trouble you, but upon coming to 
 matters of fact, I have desired Murray to send you the 
 proof-sheets.
 
 230 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 "... At present what would be most serviceable to me 
 would be that sort of information which you could com- 
 municate in a leisure hour concerning the leading members 
 of the Central Junta who they were, what were their views 
 and characters. In the few opportunities which I have 
 had of conversing with you on Spanish affairs, a single 
 expression of yours has given me light where I most 
 wanted it. ... 
 
 " During the contest my anticipations for Spain were 
 always hopeful. I wish they were so now. But at 
 present my best hope is that other countries, and 
 especially Portugal, may be warned in time, by the 
 tremendous example which is likely to be afforded them 
 there. Brazil I hope may escape, for if a revolution 
 should take place there, the country will soon be divided 
 among hordes of banditti, as is now the case with the 
 provinces of the Plata, where the Revolutionists have 
 been left to themselves. If Spain were under a settled 
 government I believe it would not be long before deputies 
 from Buenos Ayres would be sent to solicit that it would 
 send out a Viceroy and put an end to their miserable 
 state of anarchy." 
 
 In March 1826 Southey had nearly finished the second 
 volume, and was anxious for more corrections from 
 Frere. 
 
 " Are you aware that Godoy * has written some 
 Memoirs?" asks Southey in April 1826. "An Italian 
 whose name I forget (an Abbate I think he was) wrote to 
 me some five or six years ago from Milan, informing me 
 that he possessed a copy of them, which, as he presumed it 
 must be of the greatest importance to me, was at my service 
 
 * The " Prince of the Peace."
 
 COLERIDGE AND SOUTHEY. 231 
 
 for 2 or 300 guineas (I forget which). As I did not answer 
 the proposal, a son of Mr. Scarlett's wrote to ask if I had 
 received it, and I then replied to him that the Italian 
 appeared to me to have calculated very largely upon the 
 credulity and wealth of an Englishman. Mr. Scarlett, how- 
 ever, in a second letter assured me the Abbate was a 
 respectable man, and in reference to the price which had 
 been asked, observed that he (himself to wit) had taken 
 it for granted that the Government was at the expenses 
 of any materials for my intended work. If the memoirs 
 in question have found their way to the press, I have not 
 heard of them. But it would be interesting to see what sort 
 of story such a person could set forth in his own behalf. 
 I once met a gentleman who by some accident had fallen 
 in with him in Italy just after the conclusion of the war. 
 Godoy spoke of Ferdinand, said that Spain would never 
 be tranquil under him and concluded by saying ' I have 
 known him from his childhood he is a bigot, a tyrant, and 
 a liar.' . . . 
 
 " That neither the nobility nor the people or this country 
 would under a like trial display half the virtue which the 
 Spaniards displayed, I am but too well convinced. And 
 in spite of all ill aspects I cannot believe that a nation 
 which has given such proofs of national worth, can be lost 
 without hopes of redemption. The dogma that human 
 will constitutes law never would have been taken for the 
 foundation of such opposite systems with implicit con- 
 fidence on both sides, if the lawyers had not accustomed 
 men to such a scheme and practice of law as plainly 
 enough have proceeded from human will and for the 
 most part under the Devil's direction. The Romish clergy 
 have hardly been more active and successful in corrupting 
 Christianity, than the lawyers of every country in sup- 
 planting by their own craft the real principles of law, and
 
 232 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 in confounding the distinctions of right and wrong in their 
 practice. And it is chiefly from this class of men that our 
 constitution-makers and menders proceed." 
 
 Frere had been endeavouring to obtain leave for Southey 
 to consult documents at the Foreign Office. It is evident 
 from the following letter that permission was not readily 
 granted : 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " I am very greatly obliged to you for what you 
 have done, and tho' not without a suspicion that the same 
 difficulty would not have been felt, if the same thing had 
 been asked by Lord Holland for an Edinburgh Reviewer, 
 or by Lord Lansdowne for Tom Moore, I am nevertheless 
 very well satisfied with the result. 
 
 " It is not of the slightest importance to me whether my 
 work is supposed to have been assisted or not by the com- 
 munication of official papers. But in point of fact, it is 
 and will be believed, by all that great portion of the public 
 who know nothing about statesmen and reasons of state, 
 that I have all that assistance from Government, which 
 they naturally suppose Government ought in such a case 
 willingly to afford. Of such an opinion Murray has the 
 advantage. . . ." 
 
 There are no more letters from Southey until August 
 23rd, 1837, when he writes to thank Frere for sending him 
 some verses supposed to be by Cowper. He had been on 
 a round of visits which carried him down to the Land's 
 End. Among his hosts were Sir Thomas Acland, who 
 entertained him in three counties, and Derwent Colerid ge 
 The literary world was then inundated with " chatter about 
 S. T. Coleridge, no more trustworthy than the majority 
 of such publications." One of these, by Mr. Allsop, had
 
 COLERIDGE AND SOUTHEY. 233 
 
 irritated Southey to such a degree that he wrote in his 
 copy of it, " The proper title of this book would be Coleridge 
 Collops with Jackanapes Sauce." " When I think," he 
 exclaims to Frere, " that these books, and such as these, 
 will be resorted to hereafter as materials for biography, 
 I am almost tempted to say as Sir Robert Walpole did of 
 history that I know it must be false." 
 
 The last letter from Southey was written on January 23rd, 
 1839, only four years before his death. He begins by 
 asking Frere to take some notice of a young midshipman 
 whose ship was then stationed at Malta, and then turns to 
 his own employments : 
 
 " The world is greatly changed since we last met, and no 
 part of it more woefully than those countries in which, next 
 to our own, we once felt the liveliest interest. I have learnt 
 to regard the course of public events with something very 
 like indifference. But time has dealt gently with me, and 
 I pursue my habitual course of life with as much content- 
 ment, tho' not with as much ardour as in the days of my 
 youth. It will not be long before I shall have the History 
 of Portugal in the press, and I continue to collect materials 
 for a History of the Monastic Orders, for which I have 
 long been preparing, and which I believe to be the most 
 useful work on which I can employ the remainder of 
 my life." 
 
 It is now the fashion to decry Southey's writings ; but 
 the old man himself, diligently and placidly continuing his 
 task, although the shadows were falling around him, is no 
 despicable figure. He had long been suffering from in- 
 cipient softening of the brain, the real cause of the apathy 
 which gave rise to many painful comments at the time of
 
 134 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 his first wife's death. Wordsworth pronounced him " com- 
 pletely dead to all but books." After his second marriage, 
 in 1839, his faculties rapidly deserted him ; and when death 
 released him, in March 1843, nothing was left but the shell 
 that had contained the once active mind. Conscientious, 
 independent, disinterested, the world was the poorer for his 
 loss ; and though Byron parodied " The Vision of Judge- 
 ment " and Macaulay derided the " Colloquies on Society," 
 posterity will remember the writer as one of the few men 
 of letters who had the generosity to welcome Carlyle's 
 41 French Revolution."
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 LETTERS TO AN EXILE, 
 
 1820 1845. 
 
 NEAR the head of the Quarantine harbour of Malta, 
 separated only by a white streak of roadway from 
 the blue tideless waters of the Mediterranean, stood (and 
 stands to this day) a large flat-roofed house. From the 
 entrance hall, where a bright-coloured macaw perched 
 amongst semi-tropical plants, or on the edge of a tank 
 of cool water, a double staircase led to the picture-gallery 
 and principal rooms. At great labour and expense, a 
 steep hill behind the house had been cut into terraces 
 and crowned with a temple. Earth, brought from a 
 distance, was carried up the flights of steps, and laid out 
 in flower-beds. 
 
 Here it was that John Hookham Frere spent the last 
 years of his life, surrounded with every luxury that a 
 refined taste could create and that money could supply. 
 
 To busy men who were in the midst of the fray, his 
 life seemed stagnation. To those who saw the crisis 
 through which England was passing, it seemed something 
 worse. One who had learned lessons of statesmanship 
 under Pitt, and worked side by side with Canning, had 
 no right to bury himself with his books among roses and 
 vines, when there was so great a need for clear heads 
 
 235
 
 236 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 and cool brains. But Lady Erroll could only live in a 
 warm climate, and Frere's chief object in life was the 
 care of her health. When her death set him free to 
 return to his duties at Roydon, the climate of Norfolk 
 was unlikely to suit one who had spent ten years under 
 a southern sky, and it was too much trouble to move. 
 He wrote and talked of coming home, and would have no 
 alterations made on his English property, wishing, at his 
 return, to find everything as it used to be. The situation 
 was appreciated by George Cornewall Lewis when he 
 wrote, in 1836, " Hookham Frere found himself in Malta 
 sixteen years ago, at his wife's death, and has forgotten 
 to return to England." * 
 
 In spite of his isolation, he did not lose touch with the 
 world which he had left After toiling through the mass 
 of papers sealed in packets by his executors, one is struck 
 by the wideness of his sympathies. Any literary question, 
 any new book, would of course excite a lively interest 
 to the day of his death ; but his friends appealed to him 
 on every imaginable point, in the confidence that was 
 never deceived, that he would understand their difficulties 
 and share their enjoyments. A young man whom he 
 had known from a boy, and for whom he had written 
 some of the " Fables for Five Years Old," quarrelled with 
 his father ; Frere was called upon to make peace. A 
 friend had been ransacking Venetian archives, to find 
 proof of an obscure mediaeval scandal, but without success; 
 Frere will realise his disappointment. Lady Cadogan 
 retails social gossip, with a conviction that Frere will like 
 to hear of her girls' beauty, and their prospects ; Lady 
 Davy is equally certain that he must be interested in the 
 progress of her last cold. Savants send long sheets filled 
 with antiquarian lore ; a fond mother describes the 
 
 * This of course is an error, as Lady Erroll did not die until 1830.
 
 LETTERS TO AN EXILE. 237 
 
 wedding of her only daughter. Religious enthusiasts 
 favour him with their interpretation of the unfulfilled 
 prophecies, and young ladies write pretty little notes to 
 thank him for some kindness or courtesy.* Nephews and 
 nieces write of their hopes, of their doings at home and 
 abroad, with perfect freedom ; and one of an even younger 
 generation appears on the scene, and dictates to an aunt 
 affectionate inquiries after the welfare of "dear Uncle 
 Frere's " peacocks. 
 
 It was partly this marvellous gift of sympathy that kept 
 him from dropping out of the cognizance of younger men, 
 and partly the tradition of former times. Those of his 
 contemporaries who still survived remembered what he 
 had been in the fulness of his power ; the rising generation 
 looked with reverence on one who had talked with Walter 
 Scott and Byron and all the great men of his day. Malta, 
 besides being a health-resort, was a convenient halting- 
 place for travellers to or from the East, and few visited 
 it without bringing a letter of introduction to Mr. Frere. 
 Once inside his door, the spell of his gracious kindliness 
 fascinated even those who, like Sir G. C. Lewis, were 
 inclined to think his opinions old-fashioned and behind 
 the times. His gentleness, his dignity and courtliness, 
 delighted all who knew him, even as, in our own day, 
 these same qualities in one of his nephews charmed an 
 age that, with many old-fashioned vices, has laid aside 
 many old-fashioned virtues, including good manners. 
 
 In spite of his gentleness, he could sharply rebuke want 
 of tact and good breeding in others. There is a story 
 told in the Memoir, which will bear repetition here, of 
 his sitting at a dinner party next to a lady who persisted 
 
 * It is worth noticing that one of these young ladies can appreciate 
 a Greek author with far less parade than a girl of to-day exhibits when 
 she has dipped into Browning.
 
 238 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 in asking him his opinion on the doctrine of purgatory, 
 regardless of all hints of his dislike to discuss such a 
 question in such a place. At last his patience gave way, 
 and he confessed that his only ideas on the subject were 
 derived from some carvings in a Maltese church which 
 represented the souls rising out of flames. " I told her 
 that if the reality were at all like that, I was clearly of 
 opinion that the flames were necessary for the decent 
 clothing of the figures. After that, she managed to talk 
 about something else." 
 
 If his style of living were luxurious, his generosity was 
 extreme. Not only did many nephews and nieces thank 
 " Uncle Frere " for a start in life, but there is continual 
 mention in his correspondence of acts of kindness to 
 those who had no claim upon him save that of common 
 humanity. He was not always judicious, and if there is 
 some excuse to be found for the alterations in his garden, 
 which gave work to many hungry Maltese, there is none 
 for his habit of daily filling his pockets with a quantity of 
 small coins to fling to the beggars by the wayside when 
 he drove out. But it is easy for a rich man to give 
 money ; the little kindnesses which cost thought are a 
 more troublesome business, and in these Frere excelled. 
 The lace bought for a niece, the key of the gardens lent 
 to a friend that he might enjoy the shade and cool breezes 
 whenever he chose, the schemes for the benefit of emigrants 
 from Roydon to the New World, all show that Frere did 
 not think his obligations to his fellow-men were satisfied 
 by opening his purse. 
 
 Among the correspondence of his later years are some 
 letters which are worth preserving, although, as with the 
 Sibylline books, one can but feel that the value of that 
 which remains is enhanced by the value of that which 
 has disappeared. In some points these letters are not so
 
 LETTERS TO AN EXILE. 239 
 
 interesting as those addressed to him in his youth. There 
 is a modern air about the thought and phrasing, and we 
 feel that the times and manners were not far removed from 
 our own. Some of the more voluminous correspondents,. 
 Canning and Gabriele Rossetti, speak for themselves in 
 separate chapters ; the following extracts are taken almost 
 at random from the portfolio which holds the letters sent 
 to Malta, from 1820 to 1845. 
 
 The Reform Bill was the chief measure which occupied 
 public attention in the thirties. Most of Frere's friends, 
 as became good Tories, viewed it with abhorrence, and 
 had some excuse for hating its supporters in the riots and 
 disorders which it occasioned. 
 
 The social aspect of the struggle is shown in a long 
 letter from Lady Cadogan formerly Honoria Blake 
 written in November 1831. She was evidently attached 
 to Frere, who acted the part of an affectionate uncle to 
 her children, and frequently wrote to him after her sister's 
 death. 
 
 " The fever of Reform being abated, we hear no more 
 of it, and no one reads the Petitions. No flirtations or 
 marriages are going on, because the Families of People 
 disposed to flirt thought differently on the Bill, and there- 
 fore it was impossible they could be friends. So I have 
 none of these to write about. There is never anything 
 clever, anything funny, said to repeat, because People 
 vex themselves with Politics and never think of Wit or 
 anything else. . . . Whilst I was writing that no body 
 thinks any more of the bill, the frightful accounts have 
 come of the Riot at Bristol. . . . Lady Clanricarde * says 
 if her Father was Minister, that bill would not have been 
 brought in, but were he alive and not Minister he would 
 * Nee Harriet Canning.
 
 240 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 vote for it all circumstances continued (sic) and I believe 
 she is right. . . ." 
 
 "For the ist time I believe we are in a bad way, for I 
 always felt that we were secure amidst the crash of other 
 Governments, but now the breach between us and the 
 People is so widen'd, the gauntlet thrown by the Peers is 
 taken up, the People become more bold in their demands, 
 and all agree they must get what they ask. This is awful 
 and awfully like 1792 in France but I am transgressing 
 my rule not to write on the subject. The truth is, the 
 Bristol Riot has frighten'd me. The looks and manners of 
 the lower class here are menaqants, they hustle one in the 
 streets, and actually are so rude in the Farm Houses and 
 Gardens, they dislike selling to us. All the Servants shew 
 by their * that they think their day near at hand and ours 
 nearly done. In short it is truly alarming, and you and 
 all absentees ought to come and look after their own, and 
 coax the People that is the only chance. Old Lady 
 Keith says, the People all think Reform means bread and 
 meat, when they find out it does not, they will be furious." 
 
 Frere preferred to remain on his island, and watch the 
 gathering storm from afar. His wife was now dead, and 
 there was no real reason why he should not return to 
 England. But most of the friends of his youth in the 
 political world had passed away. A statue in West- 
 minster Abbey was all that remained of Canning, and 
 Frere may well have shrunk from stirring the Medea's 
 caldron in which the constitution of England was now 
 seething, without the presence of the one man who could 
 have saved the country, if he had not fallen beneath an 
 overwhelming load of toil and disappointment. Frere's 
 own view of the political future was gloomy enough. " It 
 
 * A word omitted.
 
 LETTERS TO AN EXILE. 241 
 
 is the privilege as well as the duty of your age to hope," 
 he said to younger men, but he foresaw little save evil 
 from the changed conditions of government. Even the 
 recently coined name of his party was offensive to him. 
 " Why do you talk of Conservatives ? a Conservative is 
 only a Tory who is ashamed of himself." 
 
 He found a sympathiser in the Chevalier Bunsen, who 
 wrote from Rome on June I2th, 1832 : 
 
 " I have sad forebodings of a general war becoming 
 unavoidable by the restless spirit of revolution in France. 
 May God protect England in this awful crisis ! I wish I 
 may be wrong, but I feel upon the subject of reform, and 
 have done so from the beginning, as an admirer of your 
 immortal friend Mr. Canning, I believe, ought to do ; in 
 short, as Lord Haddington and Lord Harrowby do. 
 There is a great spirit of innovation abroad ; it might be 
 for good, for real improvement of human institutions, but 
 I am afraid it will be for utter destruction, for preparing 
 an aera of byzantine dullness, and despotism. It will begin 
 (or rather has begun) with the reign of mediocritt and 
 shallowness, and will end with that of rogues and tyrants." 
 
 Frere's correspondence at this time is not cheerful read- 
 ing. Some of his friends were expecting the end of the 
 world from a political, others from a religious point of 
 view, and there was scarcely one of them who was not 
 aggrieved by some change in the old order of things. 
 
 The world of literature afforded brighter prospects than 
 the world of politics. Happy was the new author who 
 could win from Frere a favourable verdict on his book. 
 Henry Taylor was much gratified to hear that Frere could 
 appreciate " Philip van Artevelde," and owned that, next 
 to Canning's approval, he valued that of Frere. Leigh 
 
 16
 
 242 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Hunt, through Lady Holland, expressed very similar 
 sentiments. Cobbold, the author of the once celebrated 
 tale " Margaret Catchpole," owed to Frere an introduction 
 to Lockhart, who interested himself strongly in the book 
 (although the author complained that some of his best 
 paragraphs had been sacrificed). Frere kept up his 
 interest in literary questions to the last, reading almost 
 incessantly. In the first violence of his grief for Lady 
 Erroll's death, he found distraction in the stu'dy of Hebrew, 
 and after a paralytic seizure which threatened his life, he 
 succeeded, in spite of his doctor, in getting out of bed and 
 possessing himself of a book. 
 
 Among those who presented letters of introduction to 
 Frere in 1833 were three Englishmen, who, according to 
 Miss Frere, had " a becoming simplicity and placidity of 
 deportment." These were Archdeacon Froude, his son, 
 and the son's friend, Mr. Newman of Oriel. After the 
 Archdeacon's return to England, he wrote a long letter 
 to Frere, giving an account of their travels : 
 
 " An introduction to Mr. Bunsen, the Prussian Minister 
 at Rome, procured for us access to every object of difficult 
 access. ... As Mr. B. is one of the best antiquaries of the 
 day, he was of the greatest service to us in directing our 
 attention to matters most deserving notice. My son's 
 search in the Vatican for the originals of Becket's corre- 
 spondence was not successful. . . . You are aware, I dare 
 say, that a considerable body of documents connected 
 with the early periods of English history have been 
 selected from the papal stores and transmitted to this 
 country. During Mr. Canning's administration, a liberal 
 allowance, under the direction of Mr. Bunsen, was given to 
 persons employed in the research ; but I think he 
 considers much less has been done than he might have
 
 LETTERS TO AN EXILE. 243 
 
 reasonably expected. Whatever they are, I am afraid it 
 will not enter into the views of those now in power at 
 home, to follow Mr. Canning's intention to give them to 
 the public. . . . When my son and I left Rome, Mr. 
 Newman went to Sicily, but in consequence of a very 
 severe epidemic fever by which he was attacked in the 
 centre of the island, he was obliged to give up his intended 
 tour. His recovery, as he lay in a wretched hut between 
 Leonforte and Castro Giovanni, is attributed to the acci- 
 dental passage of a medical person with sufficient skill to 
 relieve him." 
 
 Newman's name occurs a few years later in a letter from 
 Sir C. Lewis, dated November 2ist, 1838 : 
 
 "You have probably heard of a new sect which has 
 lately grown up at Oxford, called Newmanites, from their 
 leader Newman. Their opinions closely resemble those of 
 Archbishop Laud. Sydney Smith says, that if he was 
 sending a young man to Oxford, he should give him the 
 following advice : Numen abest, si sit prudentia" 
 
 In former days Frere had chiefly relied on Lady Erroll 
 to supply him with news of Society. This was now 
 furnished by Lady Cadogan and Lady Davy. Lady 
 Cadogan has already been introduced, and Lady Davy is 
 familiar to all readers of memoirs and diaries of that time. 
 By birth a Kerr of Bloodielaws, a distant cousin of Sir 
 Walter Scott, she was married to a Mr. Apreece, and found 
 little happiness in the union. When set free by her 
 husband's death, gay, clever, with a comfortable fortune, 
 her ambition was to become distinguished in the literary 
 world, and " tenir salon" like the French ladies of the 
 Ancien Regime. In the course of a visit to Edinburgh 
 she turned the heads of several distinguished professors,
 
 244 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 including Playfair, who knelt down in the street to fasten 
 her bootlace. But the lady's choice fell upon Dr. Davy, 
 who was made Sir Humphrey to do away with any 
 objections on her side to a mesalliance. Davy wrote to 
 his mother that " this charming woman " was " eminently 
 qualified to promote " his best efforts and objects in life ; 
 but, as frequently happens when persons of distinction 
 come together, the marriage was not a success. " She has 
 a temper, and Davy has a temper," wrote Scott, who was 
 sincerely attached to her, in spite of her want of good 
 taste in science and letters, "and these tempers are not 
 one temper but two tempers, and they quarrel like cat and 
 dog, which may be good for stirring up the stagnation 
 of domestic life, but they let the world see it, and that is 
 not so well." 
 
 At the time of her correspondence with Frere, Lady 
 Davy was again a widow, still lively and interested in all 
 around her, and writing long letters in the angular pointed 
 hand which was then thought to be ladylike. 
 
 An undated letter of Lady Cadogan's, evidently written 
 about 1838, says : 
 
 " Lord Holland is a terrible wreck, and poor Dudley 
 gives great uneasiness to his well-wishers, for friends one 
 can hardly say a man who has no intimates no one who 
 can take charge of him or govern him in any way. He 
 commits all sorts of inconsistencies, breaches of decorum, 
 but nothing to authorize their placing him under restriction. 
 He gives constant dinners, invites 36 People, and provides 
 places for 14 ; when the company arrive he never takes any 
 notice of them, but sits in an armchair, either looking at the 
 Fire or reading or sleeping he does not wait for the royal 
 Dukes or get up from Table when they come, but eats and 
 drinks voraciously and speaks little. He is grown fat and
 
 LETTERS TO AN EXILE. 245 
 
 full, and they think his disease is pressure on the Brain, 
 and they cup him and bleed him, after which he seems 
 more awake, but with a vacant smile on, so that I some- 
 times have a suspicion that he is playing tricks, but d quoi 
 bon, one asks. Poor man, if he is really growing foolish, it 
 will be sad. If he had married and surrounded himself 
 with relatives and friends, and had legitimate uses for his 
 72,000 a year, he would have been a happier man and a 
 more useful member of society. . . . For young Ladies 
 London is in a terrible state. The opera too bad to go 
 to, and People not giving Parties because the Reform Bill 
 takes up all the men's time and spoils the Ladies' tempers. 
 Many stay out of Town for fear of the Cholera, and all 
 together we pass sometimes a week without going out at 
 all and see very few People at Home. Luckily my girls 
 are very well content with this for tho' they like Balls 
 and are danced with and admired, they have not the 
 strength, Phisical or moral, of regular London-bred girls to 
 bear incessant raking and crowded Rooms. They are 
 either more rational or fonder of their health than we used 
 to be, for I never remember staying away from anything 
 because I was tired, and they stay at home frequently out 
 of pure laziness. They are both very nice-looking girls, 
 but less likely to marry than any girls I know, for they are 
 very difficult, and not yet of an age when the necessity of 
 pleasing themselves strikes them. I wish they were each 
 2 or 3 years younger that they might better suit the 
 rising generation. You never saw anything so Handsome 
 and comendable (sic) in every way as the coming of age are, 
 and so much better brought up, so much more gentleman- 
 like, than used to be the Fashion in my day, when young 
 men were either Statesmen or blackguards for instance, 
 young Abercorn you would hardly make him otherwise 
 than as he is but there are 5 or 6 others equally valuable in
 
 246 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 their way but too young to think of marrying yet. . . . 
 Lady Mary Paget is going to be married to Mr. Vivian, Sir 
 Hussey Vivian's son a tall Mustached long-necked, long 
 Spur'd A.D.C. very young and they say very good. 
 They are to be some day very well off, so there is nothing 
 to be said against it but I don't like the kind of animal." 
 
 Lady Cadogan suffered from a cough, every winter. In 
 May 1842 three physicians " were in vain," but by July 
 she had recovered sufficiently to write an account of every 
 symptom to Frere. In the course of this letter she tells 
 him, " Do you know, I think Lady Holland is dying of a 
 broken heart in her own odd way : she eats and talks 
 and visits, but she is a perfect Niobe for ever in tears 
 and weakened evidently. Did you hear of her being so 
 angry with Sidney Smith for saying ' How can a sensible 
 woman like you expect the man should give up his house 
 to you ? ' ' But I am not a sensible woman I never was 
 a sensible woman and you know that very well ' quite 
 angry at the false accusation. And she is right nothing 
 pays so ill as being reasonable or sensible when caprice 
 and exigeance are at a premium." 
 
 In the autumn of the same year Frere received a visit 
 from Lady Davy, who was on her way to Rome. 
 
 Lady Davy found the Cadogans wintering in Rome, 
 and the description of the jealousy between the two ladies 
 is very amusing. " Dear Mr. Frere," writes Lady Cadogan, 
 " I am made very unhappy by the crowing of Lady Davy, 
 who comes to me at least once a week with messages 
 from you thereby letting me know that you write to 
 her, and not to me." There was a little consolation in 
 the knowledge " that some mutual friends of your's and 
 the Lady's insinuate that she does not hear from you 
 quite as often as she says she does."
 
 LETTERS TO AN EXILE. 247 
 
 Lady Davy had established a warm friendship with 
 Lady Grenville, to the mingled amusement and indignation 
 of Lady Cadogan, who told Frere, " I have not seen our 
 Jane to wreak my woman's vengeance by saying you 
 had written to me, but I shall not miss the opportunity 
 whenever it may occur but Jane does not cultivate us. 
 She is always talking (and I suppose) thinking of ' The 
 Carlisles/ ' The Grosvenors/ ' The Sutherlands,' ' Lady 
 Grenville and Lady Granville' and so on. She gives 
 Tea and Dinners but not to ' The Cadogans,' altho' she 
 comes here whenever I ask her. She told us the other 
 night that she had once won 21 odd tricks running at 
 whist. Some one near me said ' I'll be bound she play'd 
 a great many more.' " 
 
 Another letter informs Frere that " Lady Davy is in 
 great force not much improved in her Italian, nor yet 
 in health by her own account. 'This morning I could 
 do nothing : I read a Chapter in Livy wouldn't do ; I 
 tried to translate Euripides wouldn't do ; I tried an 
 Adagio on the Piano in vain ; tried to write my Journal 
 in vain ; at last finding my Stomach out of order I 
 took a Pill.'" 
 
 Lady Davy's blunders in foreign languages were a 
 continual joy to her acquaintance. Hayward* tells the 
 story of her shouting to her postilion, " Allez avec votre 
 venire sur la terre" and of her nearly destroying an 
 Italian lady's character by a mistaken application of the 
 word meretrice. 
 
 After her winter in Rome, Lady Davy was able to 
 enjoy the return to old friends and old habits in London. 
 In September 1843 she wrote to Frere : 
 
 " I have found my friends generally prosperous, and 
 * " Essays Biographical and Critical."
 
 248 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 the four years of separation have scarcely told on many. 
 The Berrys, especially Miss Berry, tale quale, and with 
 undiminished hospitality and spirits at the receipt of 
 company and friends. Lady Charlotte Lindsay, always 
 their Summer Inmate, is I conclude the Wit of Richmond. 
 She is grown smaller, but talks and works with equal 
 assiduity. Lady Holland I din'd with at Richmond. 
 She is certainly looking ill ; but her Dinner Circles are 
 extended, and her own activity of paying visits and going 
 out wonderfully augmented. I am rather provoked at 
 the pity she demands plaintively for her ' miserable ' 
 little nutshell, when I recollect it held Lord Holland in 
 suffering and privations. She is trying to house herself, 
 as she now requires, comfortably . . . ." 
 
 In the course of the winter of 1843-4, Lady Davy 
 was between life and death with influenza, " the pestilent 
 Epidemic which is usual to our Winters, but in this 
 extraordinary mild one has raged with extraordinary 
 fury." Her cough was cured by "a morning draft of 
 a small quantity of old Rum in new milk." " It is said 
 to be the remedy which has wonderfully restored Lord 
 Melbourne ; but I am apt to believe his lordship may 
 indulge in extra doses ; it is to me very Nectarian, though 
 I am told its right of swallowing belongs to Stage 
 Coachmen (will there be any left to defend their right?) 
 and Bishops." 
 
 By March Lady Davy was once more able to visit 
 her friends. " Miss Edgeworth is like a Bird, hopping, 
 chirping, and singing outright ; it gladdens one to see 
 Authorship and age so lively, and enjoying life so 
 thoroughly." 
 
 In May Lady Davy was again very ill, but comforted 
 by her doctor, who pronounced medicine useless, and
 
 LETTERS TO AN EXILE. 249 
 
 prescribed "Cura^o in Hock." Lord Melbourne was 
 declining, in spite of the rum and milk. " On literary 
 subjects I think him very clear, and his memory grace- 
 fully various ; yet I fear many days are listless, and his 
 past life has made the Table and the talk indispensably 
 necessary, though each are said to do him harm." Lady 
 Holland was still weeping all the morning, and receiving 
 company all the evening. 
 
 On New Year's Day, 1845, Lady Davy wrote from 
 Bowood to wish Frere the compliments of the season. 
 She had made acquaintance with Archdeacon Wilberforce, 
 and found him "a most taking person, his voice that of 
 his father, eminently, sweet, clear and touching. His con- 
 versation too, has the playfulness and entertaining gentle 
 Wit he had a right to inherit. I conclude Royal favour 
 will be-mitre his brows ; and probably he may in time 
 be written to with A rck ; his Countenance and air will 
 be no disparagement." 
 
 " Did you know Mr. Kin(g)lake in his passage to the 
 East some years ago? He has recently given us a very 
 amusing Book, lively, spirited, perhaps free, written then, 
 but read eagerly now, ' Eothen.' A work has appeared 
 lately full certainly of ability, but of peculiar views, not 
 I think likely to do as much evil as it is the fashion to 
 believe ; because the common Reader will not, 1 should 
 conceive, understand or be entertained. Its tendency is 
 however unsafe to established Belief. You may choose 
 between Lord Francis Egerton, who would burn it in 
 open Day, and Miss Berry who is in the seventh Heavens 
 by its grand view of the Creator and his Creation. The 
 Vestiges of Creation and Surplices and Charges are alone 
 discussed, so I have nothing to tell you of, save that Little 
 Moore still, who is here, warbles with touching Pathos."
 
 350 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Frere was not likely to sympathise with controversies 
 about surplices. Sound Churchman as he was, his religion 
 was tempered by common sense. On one occasion, when 
 an appeal was made in his presence to the oft-quoted 
 " Ornaments Rubric " to justify some innovations in ritual, 
 he rejoined, " But if I were to appear at church in the 
 costume of Queen Elizabeth's time, would the clergyman 
 consider it a sufficient justification for my disturbing 
 the gravity of the congregation that I could prove the 
 dress to be in strict accordance with the usages and 
 sumptuary laws of three hundred years back ? " 
 
 Several of the sealed packets are entirely filled with 
 letters from men whom Frere had known in former days, 
 and who on that account considered that they had a 
 right to ask his help. These letters are not amusing as 
 a rule ; they bear too strong a resemblance to the com- 
 munications that many of us receive continually from 
 poor relations and undesirable acquaintances. 
 
 There is more variety and far more originality in some 
 of the " petitions " with which the lower class of Maltese 
 were always attacking the generous Englishman. What, 
 for instance, can surpass the businesslike terseness of 
 the following? 
 
 "To His Honourable, etc., etc., etc. 
 
 " The humble Petition of Vittoria Tabain of la Vittoriosa 
 
 " Sheweth, 
 
 " That your Petitioner being a poor Woman (as per 
 annexed Certificate) and having no means to maintain 
 her large family, 
 
 " Therefore humbly begs your Honour to be pleased 
 to grant her any Charity, and as in duty bound will 
 pray." 
 
 But for perfect naivti/, it would be hard to match the
 
 LETTERS TO AN EXILE. 251 
 
 request of one who signs himself " Publio Dorgmaina, 
 hand Coachman" 
 
 " To the Honourable Lady Frere,* etc., etc., etc. 
 
 "Lady most Hono ble 
 
 " I take the liberty to submit in your ladyship's gracious 
 Consideration that Costanzo Fenioli (very good man) a 
 particular Friend of mine, has been condemned at the 
 Public Works, with Chain in Foot, and he prayed me 
 with tiers to beseech to Your Ladyship so that may be 
 graciously pleased to pray your Ladyship's Friend, 
 Colonel Balmains on behalf of the said Costanzo Fenioli, 
 to be exent from the Public Works in the Streets and 
 admitted in all kind of Works in the same Prison. And 
 with the greatest Respect as my duty requires, and most 
 partial Esteem, I am, most honourable Lady," etc., etc. 
 
 * Lady Erroll.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 THE LAST OF CANNING. 
 
 " Noch vor zwei Jahren bekleideten wir mit diesem Amte 
 (Gonfaloniere der Freiheit) einen englischen Minister, das Geheul des 
 hochtoryschen Hasses gegen George Canning leitete damals unsere 
 Wahl ; in den adlig unedlen Krankungen, die er erlitt, sahen wir die 
 Garantieen seiner Treue, und als er des Martyrertodes starb, da legten 
 wir Trauer an, und der achte August wurde ein heiliger Tag im 
 Kalender der Freiheit." 
 
 H. HEINE. 
 
 THIS is not a biography of Canning. The events of 
 his life are only given in detail when they are 
 described in his letters to Frere. This source of infor- 
 mation fails us almost entirely between the years 1806 
 and 1823. 
 
 It is true that more than seventy of the letters at 
 Roydon were written by Canning during the seventeen 
 years that followed Pitt's death. But for the most part 
 they are the merest scraps, of no interest to any one. 
 
 During the greater part of the time Frere was in 
 England, and seeing Canning so often as to do away with 
 any necessity for correspondence. During his second 
 mission to Spain, in 1808-9, Canning had occasion to send 
 him a long letter with a full account of the duel with Lord 
 Castlereagh, and the causes that led up to it. But the 
 letter was as unfortunate as everything else connected 
 with Frere's second mission ; it never reached the hands 
 
 252
 
 THE LAST OF CANNING. 253 
 
 for which it was destined, and is therefore not to be 
 found among the Frere MSS. 
 
 Those seventeen years, if they brought honours and dis- 
 tinction to Canning, brought also disappointments and 
 sorrows. His faithfulness to Pitt's memory kept him from 
 accepting the brilliant offers made by Lord Grenville in 
 November 1 806 ; the memory of an old friendship occa- 
 sioned his retirement from office in 1820. His steady 
 devotion to the Roman Catholic cause Pitt's legacy lost 
 him the honour that he had coveted most of all, save the 
 Premiership that of representing Oxford University in 
 Parliament. With talents surpassing those of any English 
 statesman of his day, he was "just as far as ever from the 
 end " that seat on the Treasury bench with Lord Lans- 
 downe had prophesied for him as long ago as 1790, and 
 which he had ever set before him as the goal of his 
 ambition. 
 
 The fiscal and financial reforms which Pitt had never 
 been able to effect, and which he had bequeathed to 
 Canning, were still visions, not realities. Frere once asked 
 Canning what had become of those schemes which they 
 had discussed so eagerly in their youth. Canning ran over 
 the names of the men with whom he was obliged to act. 
 "What can I churn out of such skimmed milk as thatf" 
 he asked bitterly. 
 
 He had his private griefs also. Joan was still at his 
 side, and the little " Toddles," who once interrupted an 
 important letter to Frere by insisting that her father should 
 come and play with her, had now grown into a woman, 
 capable of sharing his thoughts and his troubles. But 
 " little George," very early in his short life, developed an 
 incurable lameness. There are frequent references, in the 
 letters to Frere, to the treatment which the boy was under- 
 going at the hands of various doctors, who, one after
 
 254 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 another, flattered the parents with hopes of a recovery. 
 But all, whether eminent physicians, or mere quacks con- 
 sulted when other means had failed, could do nothing for 
 the son who had been such "a fine healthy boy" at the 
 time of his birth. He became a helpless invalid, unable 
 to move from his chair. For his sake, Canning accepted 
 the Extraordinary Mission to Lisbon in 1814, which drew 
 down upon himself such disinterested indignation from 
 Mr. Whitbread. Frere spent the whole summer and autumn 
 of 1814 between Lady Erroll, who was seriously ill, and 
 Canning, who was preparing for his departure from Eng- 
 land. His sympathy and companionship must have been 
 an unspeakable comfort to the poor father. Among the 
 letters is a half-sheet of paper on which Canning has 
 written : 
 
 " My Dear Frere, 
 
 " The wind is fair, and we are setting off. 
 " God bless you. 
 
 " Ever yours, 
 
 "G. C." 
 
 It was sent from Portsmouth on Sunday, November 6th, 
 1814. 
 
 The mild climate of Portugal could not arrest the pro- 
 gress of the disease, and the gentle, amiable boy died in 
 the spring of 1820, to his father's bitter sorrow. How 
 sharp a trial Canning had to face on his return to England 
 has been shown in another chapter. 
 
 Queen Caroline's friends were her husband's enemies, 
 and when Canning would have returned to office after her 
 death, in 1821, George declined to receive him. In 1822 
 he was appointed Governor-General of India, and was on 
 the point of leaving England with wife and daughter, when
 
 THE LAST OF CANNING. 255 
 
 Lord Londonderry's suicide left the Foreign Office with- 
 out a chief. The post was offered to Canning, and, sorely 
 against his will, he came back into harness. 
 
 Everything was against him. It was a time of trouble,, 
 both at home and abroad. In March 1820 the revolution- 
 ists in Spain won a new constitution for themselves. Their 
 success encouraged the Neapolitans to rise in arms against 
 their King, Ferdinand of the Two Sicilies. The spirit of 
 revolt spread to Portugal, where John VI. was ready to 
 grant a new constitution. Both he and his chief adviser, 
 the Marquis Palmella, felt that the old despotism was dead. 
 But the King was almost torn in pieces by rival factions. 
 On the one side were the Absolutists, headed by his own 
 wife and son, who would tolerate no change in the existing 
 order ; on the other, the violent Revolutionaries, who would 
 be satisfied with nothing less than " the Constitution of 
 1812." 
 
 Ferdinand's tottering throne was supported by Austrian 
 bayonets, and in 1823 Louis XVIII. sent the Due 
 d'Angouleme with a French army to crush the rebels in 
 the Peninsula. Fain would Canning have played the game 
 of Pitt's day, and sent an English army once more to sweep 
 the eagles back across the Pyrenees. But he saw that it 
 could not be. 
 
 At that time England was of small account in inter- 
 national politics. The days were forgotten when alone 
 she had faced the great Emperor, and hurled back the tide 
 of war from her very gates. One man swayed the councils 
 of Europe, and that man was Metternich. We talk with 
 just shame of the years in which English statesmen suffered 
 the dictation of Louis XIV., and some say that such a 
 thing could only be possible in the reign of the worst of 
 the Stuarts. Few of us realise that at the beginning of 
 this century our Foreign Office was under the control
 
 256 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 of Austria. Dispatches from one of our representatives 
 abroad were carried to Metternich and opened before they 
 were forwarded to England.* Lord Londonderry, while 
 affecting publicly to disapprove of the Continental system 
 of the Holy Alliance, in secret gave Metternich every 
 assurance of his good-will and favour. It was not until 
 long after Canning's appointment to the Foreign Office 
 that Metternich could or would realise that the new 
 Secretary was not playing a part to delude the House of 
 Commons, like his predecessor. 
 
 It was under these circumstances that the following 
 letter was written to Frere. Canning was recovering from 
 a sharp attack of gout in his hand, which had obliged him 
 to dictate all his correspondence no great difficulty to 
 the man who could dictate two dispatches on two totally 
 different subjects at the same time. The characters are 
 straggling and hard to read, but the opening sentences 
 show that the old mischievous spirit was not yet 
 quenched : 
 
 "GLOUCESTER LODGE, 
 
 "Aug. jth, 1823. 
 
 " My Dear Frere, 
 
 "In good truth I have used you scandalously ; and 
 I know not how to atone for such usage, unless the stop- 
 ping the Malta Mail of this week, till I have finished a 
 Letter, may, from the inconvenience which it will occasion 
 to the general correspondence of the Island, be accepted 
 by you as an atonement. 
 
 " Positively this Mail shall not go without a letter from 
 me to you ; but while I am writing, here comes the French 
 Mail, which I must open and then I will resume the 
 thread of my discourse. 
 
 * " Greville Memoirs."
 
 THE LAST OF CANNING. 257 
 
 " Aug. ZtA. 
 
 " I found not a moment to resume this letter yesterday. 
 So I have stopped the Mail another day and now I will 
 write on without interruption. 
 
 "First. Let me thank you for your communications, 
 verse as well as prose. I do not laugh at your solution 
 of prophecies. I do verily feel sometimes as if the 
 'ends of the world were come upon us.' It is clear 
 that the present state of things cannot last. It is one 
 of heaving and struggling between conflicting principles. 
 Which will get the better, Heaven knows ; but that 
 the struggle cannot be eternal, is plain. Apropos to 
 this topick singularly apropos here comes Mr. Owen of 
 Lanark, for a second audience (one of two hours I have 
 already given him to my infinite cost and suffering) ; his 
 purpose being to show that nothing but the Establish- 
 ment of his parallelograms can cure the Evils of the world, 
 and specially of Ireland. I won't see him. I won't. I 
 am writing to Mr. Frere by the Malta Mail, and Mr. Owen 
 may set off for Lanark if he will ; but see him now I will 
 not. So to proceed. 
 
 " Coming down to mere earthly things, I was delighted 
 to find your notions of what was the best line in politicks 
 tally with my own. I do not deny that 1 had an itch for 
 war with France, and that a little provocation might have 
 scratched it into an eruption ; but fortunately the better 
 reason prevailed, and I look back upon the decision with 
 entire and perfect self-congratulation. Never was the 
 Country so completely satisfied with the course taken by 
 the Government or I might say so grateful for it. For 
 they saw, and felt in their own hearts, and judged by their 
 own feelings, that there was a great temptation the other 
 way. The considerations which really dictated the deci- 
 sion, are they not written in my Speech of the 3Oth of
 
 258 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 April, of which I inclose you a Copy, and to which I refer 
 you for all that I could say ? 
 
 (Here read the Speech.) "So far then, so good. But 
 what is the conclusion ? I protest I know not. This 
 only I know, that, if the Spaniards have little to boast 
 of in the War, France has little to show, for all the 
 exertions which she has made and is making. The 
 difficulties increase every hour, and if six weeks do not 
 put her in possession of Cadiz and of the King, she is 
 no forwarder than when she crossed the Bidassoa. 
 
 "The truth is that the French Government never 
 seriously resolved upon the war, and upon the plan and 
 object of it, but suffered themselves to be driven on from 
 position to position (political position I here intend) by 
 the Ultrageous party of their followers their pokers and 
 goaders and have been lured on from one military posi- 
 tion to another in Spain, by the unexpected facilities of 
 their advance ; till they are now at the extremity of the 
 peninsula with all the fortresses unreduced behind them. 
 A failure before Cadiz would rouse the population against 
 them, and make their retreat as murderous as their ad- 
 vance has been bloodless. The capture of Cadiz would 
 involve them in difficulties of another sort the Allies with 
 Russia at their head being all for the Re Absolute, and 
 the French being pledged to something liberal and repre- ' 
 sentative, and the Spaniards agreeing upon nothing but to 
 hate and persecute each other. We are not of all this 
 and have no disposition to get into it. Neither Spain nor 
 France cares much for our interference, unless we would 
 interfere as partizans, but the Allies lament themselves 
 heavily at our separation from them ; and cannot, for their 
 lives, imagine how it has happened that in disclaiming 
 their principles, we should have said what we really mean, 
 and should thereafter continue pertinaciously to act as we
 
 THE LAST OF CANNING. 259 
 
 have said. A little prudery a little dust for the eyes 
 of the H[ouse] of C[ommons] they could understand, and 
 some prepared for it but this real bond-fide disapprobation 
 astounds them ; and the sturdy adherence to it, when 
 nobody is by when we might just lift the mask and 
 show our real countenance to them, without the world's 
 seeing it this is really carrying the jest too far and 
 they can tell us plainly that they wish we would have 
 done and 'cease our funning.' The history of all this 
 I could' tell them in two words or rather in the substi- 
 tution of one word for another for ' Alliance ' read 
 ' England ' ; and you have the clue of my policy. 
 
 "The most perplexing part of the affairs of Spain is 
 the influence that the good or ill turn of them (be good 
 or ill which it may) is likely to have upon Portugal. 
 Palmella is there in a most critical situation. If the 
 French are baffled in Spain, a new Jacobin Revolution 
 may break out in Portugal. If they succeed, that evil 
 may be avoided ; but another of an opposite sort may 
 spring up, in an Ultrageous fashion, hostile to all modifica- 
 tion, and trundling Palmella and his moderate Reforms 
 out of doors. The best thing for all the world would be 
 a compromise in Spain ; but that is the one thing not 
 to be had. Long years of havoc must precede it. 
 
 " Connected with the questions of Spain and Portugal 
 are those of their respective Americas ; which are severed 
 beyond all doubt from their respective mother-countries 
 for ever. What a world does this consideration open ! 
 
 " Yet, with Europe and America thus pressing upon my 
 attention and Africa too for we have Slave Trade 
 matters in abundance (and Malta too was in Africa till 
 Van * moved it by act of Parlt.) shall I own to you 
 I often turn with longing eyes to the Quarter of the 
 * Vansittart ?
 
 a6o J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 World which I have abandoned, and wish myself govern- 
 ing some eighty or a hundred millions, in the shades 
 of Barrackpore. Nothing but the Event of this time 
 twelvemonth * could have changed my destination ; and 
 whatever might be the dictate of publick duty (and I 
 believe I estimate that aright) I am far from sure that 
 publick duty alone would have induced me to acquiesce 
 in the change. 
 
 "But poor Joan could never abide the thought of India 
 nor Harriet either. They had made up their minds to 
 go with me ; but when the opportunity so unexpectedly 
 arose of my staying here with them, and in a situation and 
 under circumstances to all outward appearance so full of 
 all that just ambition required why, it was impossible to 
 resist ; and most reluctantly I gave up the solid for the 
 shining, Ease, wealth, and a second publick life in the 
 House of Peers, for toil, inconvenience, and total retreat 
 after a few a very few years of splendid trouble. 
 
 " The sacrifice was enormous but it is made. You can 
 have no conception of the labour which I undergo. The 
 two functions of For. Sec. and Leader of the H. of 
 C. are too much for any man and ought not to be 
 united ; though I of course would rather die under them 
 than separate them, or consent to have separation in my 
 person. 
 
 " I have no reason to be personally dissatisfied with the 
 Session. Opportunities of personal display there were but 
 few. That of which I inclose the fruit, was the Waterloo 
 of the campaign. For the rest my business has been 
 rather to defeat prophecies and to disappoint calculations 
 of evil, than to seek occasions for what I do not want 
 additional KV&OS in debate. I have been very forbearing 
 in combat using the scalping-knife never above once or 
 * Lord Londonderry's suicide.
 
 THE LAST OF CANNING. 261 
 
 twice, and almost disusing keener and brighter weapons, 
 till I am in danger of being thought exceedingly dull. 
 This because it was prophesied I should ' lay about ' me. 
 And as to the conduct of business, I have studiously and 
 anxiously put Peel and Robinson as forward as possible, 
 never taking their concerns out of their hands (as Carlisle 
 used to do Van's) and only supporting them en second ligne 
 where necessary. This, because it was foretold that I 
 should engross and forestal everything. In short, I doubt 
 whether Mr. Pelham himself, in the days of Whig stagna- 
 tion, would have been a quieter Minister. 
 
 " But oh that we had such days and nights of Gods- 
 such super-Am labor as Mr. Pelham's was ! The exhaus- 
 tion of strength is really terrible. What do you think of 
 10 hours pr. day as the average of our sitting for four 
 days in the week, and for seven weeks from Whitsuntide 
 to the end of the Session ! The average from Easter to 
 Whitsuntide was only nine. That of the Session before 
 Easter only six. But the latter two-thirds were over- 
 whelming ; and not the less so from the utter uninterest- 
 ingness of greater part of the discussions. Ten hours of 
 the four-and-twenty in the H. of C. (for 7 am always there) 
 leave you exactly fourteen for the necessary occupations 
 of food and rest, and for the whole business of my Office 
 not to mention the details of all other business that is to 
 come before Parlt. . . Society, you may suppose, is out of 
 the question. Exercise and air wholly so. Nevertheless, 
 during these periods of the Session, that is since Easter, 
 I have been well. A rigid abstinence, including total 
 abjuration of wine, during the five working days of the 
 week, has, I have no doubt, greatly contributed to this 
 effect. Before Easter, however, I had a swingeing fit of 
 the Gout the fruits (I have as little doubt) of the labours 
 and confinement and anxiety of the autumn and winter ;
 
 262 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 by which fit, and in part by the bad treatment of it, I feel 
 myself (between ourselves) sensibly impaired. 
 
 " I do not think that I have many years' work in me ; 
 and when I retire, my retirement will be like Bertram's 
 1 tropick night,' sudden and total.* A new reign, a new 
 Parlt. and some other Epoch, I could anticipate as likely 
 to produce this result. I sometimes feel as if might say to 
 ' afford this opportunity ' ; for although the world sup- 
 poses that I have arrived exactly where I wished to be, I 
 am arrived ten years too late for enjoyment, and perhaps 
 for advantage to the Country. However, end when it 
 may, my political life shall end with my present station. 
 I will not engage again in contentious politicks nor will 
 I live in the world, after I have taken leave of politicks 
 altogether. How little does the world believe how little I 
 personally care about the time when all this may happen ! 
 
 " But it is time to close this prospect, which has opened 
 further into futurity than I intended. My present views 
 are bounded by the hopes of getting out of Town for a 
 fortnight or three weeks, ten days hence my first Excur- 
 sion since I came into Office. And I shall go the lighter 
 for having discharged a debt of so long standing to you. 
 
 " I ought not, however, to conclude without saying 
 (as part of what is most essential to my comfort) that 
 Liverpool is as cordial, and our opinions in all important 
 points as much the same, as I could desire the latter 
 more than I could have promised myself. 
 
 * " Mine be the eve of tropic sun. 
 
 No pale gradations quench his ray, 
 No twilight dews his wrath allay ; 
 With disk like battle-target red, 
 He rushes to his burning bed, 
 Dyes the wide wave with bloody light, 
 Then sinks at once, and all is night." 
 
 Rokeby, canto vi. 21.
 
 THE LAST OF CANNING. 263 
 
 " And so with Joan's and Harriet's kind remembrances 
 and mine to Lady E. farewell. 
 
 " Ever yours, 
 
 " G. C. 
 
 " Poor Charles, you perhaps know, has hurt himself 
 grievously (now a twelvemonth ago) by a fall from his 
 horse but I hope he is getting better, though slowly. 
 I believe indeed he writes to you by this Mail." 
 
 To restore the balance of power, Canning now decided 
 to acknowledge the independence of the South American 
 Republics. It was a step on which he had been 
 determined ever since his coming into office, but all 
 his colleagues were against him, with the exception of 
 Lord Liverpool. The King would not hear of the 
 measure, and was strengthened in his opposition by the 
 Duke of Wellington. Canning had been Wellington's 
 greatest support in and out of Parliament during the 
 Peninsular War ; but this consideration had no weight 
 with the Duke. Canning held to his point, and having 
 succeeded in winning Peel to his side, determined to 
 conquer or resign. For three hours the battle raged in 
 the Cabinet, until Canning emerged, flushed, wrathful, 
 worn-out, to write a formal resignation of his office to 
 the King. Lord Liverpool followed his example, and 
 their colleagues, realising the seriousness of the position, 
 yielded to the overmastering will of Pitt's heir. The 
 measure was carried in the teeth of all opposition, and 
 Canning, to use his own words, " called into existence the 
 New World to redress the balance of the Old." 
 
 After the triumphant conclusion of this struggle, 
 Canning went down to Bath, where Lord Liverpool 
 was taking the waters. In their youth these two had 
 been nicknamed " the Inseparables," and Liverpool was
 
 2b 4 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 ever Canning's staunch ally, although the King did his 
 best to sow dissension between them. 
 
 Mrs. and Miss Canning were in Paris, paying that visit 
 to the British Embassy which Lady Granville's charming 
 letters to Lady Morpeth have described for us. After more 
 than a year's silence, Canning again took up his pen to 
 write to Frere : 
 
 " BATH, January %th, 1825. 
 
 " My Dear Frere, 
 
 " Is it possible that the year 1824 should have 
 passed away, without my having once written to you? 
 I fear so, and yet I can assure you that it is not from 
 want of having had you frequently in my thoughts 
 for I can call to mind abundance of occasions on which 
 I have caught myself saying to myself, ' Would that 
 Frere were here that I might know what he would think 
 of this matter.' Still less has it been for want of a due 
 sense of acknowledgement of your kind letters, (one 
 included which Charles Ellis showed me) or for your 
 verses, which both Psalms and Cid pleased me pro- 
 digiously. But it has been truly and literally for want 
 of time. 
 
 " My occupations are overwhelming. The same office 
 in 1808-9 was nothing in point of work, compared with 
 what it is now and the House of Commons was nothing, 
 when taken (as I then took it) arbitrarily and occasionally, 
 compared with the eternal Sitting to which I am now 
 doomed, whether there be anything worth sitting for 
 or no. 
 
 " The Session, to be sure, was anything but arduous, 
 and anything but long. But while it lasted, my day 
 closed at five and if the House lasted till past twelve, 
 my next morning was shut up within a space of six
 
 THE LAST OF CANNING. 265 
 
 hours, for all the business of the Office Cabinets, 
 audiences, interviews, and reading of H. of C. papers. 
 I say nothing of eating and drinking, and nothing of 
 exercise, for during the Session except on Saturdays 
 and Sundays such joys are not for me. 
 
 " And yet I have the Gout. I am just now recovering 
 from a severish fit, which has left me weak but I hope, 
 well, and safe for the Session. I came hither, rather 
 to be out of the way, and to lead a quiet life for a week 
 or ten days, with Liverpool, than because my Gout needs 
 Bath ; for my Gout has all come favourably out, and 
 therefore I do not drink the waters. Liverpool does- 
 (not for Gout), and they agree with him surprisingly. 
 He and his new Mylady (an excellent helpmeet for him) 
 are settled in a house in Gay Street there that house 
 with the red door just opposite the end of this street 
 in which I lodge ; my lodgings are here (within sight as 
 you perceive and) within a sixpenny chair's fare. I have 
 two younkers of Secretaries with me (one of them a 
 FitzMorley a very superior and excellent young man ; 
 the other a Son of Ld. Bristol's whom I have taken 
 to make his father happy) whom I work very hard all 
 the morning till about \ p. one, when Liverpool presents 
 himself at the door on a grey mare, and with a pair of 
 huge jackboots, of the size and consistency of firebuckets 
 (only not lettered). I mount a grey horse to join him 
 on his ride, (with one or other of my aide-de-camps) 
 and with boots not quite so large and stiff as his ; but 
 in revenge with a pair of large gouty woollen shoes over 
 them. In this fashion, we parade through the Town, to 
 one of the outlets towards the Downs ; gallop for an 
 hour and a half, and then return to finish our respective 
 posts and dress for dinner. We dine regularly at 
 Liverpool's. In the Evening I send my younkers to
 
 266 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 the play or Ball and I go and drink tea with my 
 Mother, and then about p. ten home to bed. 
 
 "Ten days of this regular life ought to set me up 
 for the year and I trust will do so. To be sure, a 
 dinner with the Mayor and Corporation of Bristol impends 
 over us, for next week ; but it is not Turtle Season, and 
 I trust therefore that the Bristolian feast will not undo 
 the effects of Bath temperance. 
 
 " But where are Joan and Harriet all this time ? you 
 will say. Why am I at Bath without them to nurse 
 me ? Why, they are at Paris, on a visit to the Granvilles ; 
 and most fortunately they had set off for Paris before 
 my attack of Gout came on. Otherwise I should not 
 have got them away ; for which I should have been 
 very sorry. Their excursion to Paris is precisely the 
 point, in which they benefit by my station. Their 
 reception has been attentive and flattering beyond 
 measure by King, Court, Ministers, Ultras, and Liberaux 
 for there is certainly this peculiarity about me, that 
 while Kings and Courts, etc., are civil as to a Minister, 
 the Libeials are still more forward on account of what 
 Prince Metternich considers as my Revolutionary 
 principles. 
 
 " This is not, however, true of all Kings and Courts. 
 I am afraid that there is one who, if he knew how, would 
 send me to any Court or Country so that he could get 
 me out of his own. And yet, I take my oath, I serve 
 him honestly and have saved him, in spite of himself, 
 from a world of embarrassments In which a much longer 
 entanglement with Prince Metternich and his Congresses 
 would have involved him. It is not generally known, 
 but the truth I really take to be that my fall was 
 determined upon not many weeks ago. The S. American 
 question was the step that was to trip me up ; and there
 
 THE LAST OF CANNING. 267 
 
 were those deep in the secret Cabals of *, who warned 
 their friends that the Ides of December would see a 
 change. The Ides of December, however, came, and 
 they are gone ; and here am I still with the S. American 
 Question carried, non sine pulvere, but carried. As you, 
 no doubt, receive the English Newspapers, I need only 
 say that what you read in them upon this subject is 
 nearly correct. I did, while I lay in bed at the Foreign 
 Office, with the Gout gnawing my great toe, draw the 
 Instructions for our Agents in Mexico and Columbia 
 which are to raise those States into the rank of Nations. 
 I did, the day after I rose from my bed, communicate 
 to the Foreign Ministers here (and first in order, as 
 beseemeth, to those of the Holy Alliance) the purport 
 of those Instructions. The thing is done. They may 
 turn me out if they will and if they can : 
 
 'Non tamen irritum 
 Diffinget infectumque reddet,' 
 
 an act which will make a change in the face of the World 
 almost as great as that of the discovery of the Continent 
 now set free. The Allies will fret ; but they will venture 
 no serious remonstrance. France will fidget ; but it will 
 be with a view of hastening after our example. The 
 Yankees will shout in triumph ; but it is they who lose 
 most by our decision. 
 
 " The great danger of the time a danger which the 
 policy of the European System would have fostered, was 
 a division of the World into European and American, 
 Republican and Monarchical ; a league of worn-out Govts. 
 on the one hand, and of youthful and strring Nations, with 
 
 * An illegible character has been written here, which looks like W ; 
 perhaps Wellington is intended.
 
 268 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 the U. States at their head, on the other. We slip in 
 between ; and plant ourselves in Mexico. The Un. States 
 have gotten the start of us in vain ; and we link once more 
 America to Europe. Six months more and the mischief 
 would have been done. 
 
 " Had they turned me out upon this question (and I 
 would have gone out if I had not carried it) it would have 
 been only to bring me in again with all the Commerce and 
 Manufactures of England at my heels. They therefore 
 (whoever may be comprised in that they] thought better 
 of it ; but no doubt they will be on the watch to revenge 
 themselves, when they may ; and I must walk with caution 
 and good heed, knowing that there are mines and trapfalls 
 all around me. Liverpool and I have agreed throughout ; 
 and he has acted with me most firmly and strenuously. 
 Could they have separated him from me I think they 
 would have ventured the trial. 
 
 " I think I have pretty nearly exhausted all that I had 
 to tell you of myself. Of publick concerns, Ireland only 
 gives us any uneasiness. And that not so much from 
 apprehending any immediate danger of an explosion there 
 (for there is none, I verily believe) as from the apparent 
 and utter hopelessness of ever bringing that unhappy 
 Country to a settlement. 
 
 "It never was in such a state of prosperity never. 
 Land pays its rent ; Commerce increases rapidly ; Manu- 
 factures are planted in parts of the kingdom where never 
 before capital ventured to trust itself; Justice is adminis- 
 tered with a more even hand than ever before, and is 
 acknowledged by the people to be so ; and even the sore 
 Evil of tythes has, by an Act of last year (one of the wisest 
 ever passed by a legislature) been in all instances lessened, 
 and in many entirely removed. 
 
 " But in the midst of all these blessings (for such they
 
 THE LAST OF CANNING. 269 
 
 are) the demon of religious discord rages with fury hitherto 
 unknown. The Catholick Demagogues fear that the 
 equitableness of Ld. Wellesley's administration should put 
 Catholick emancipation out of sight ; and the old Pro- 
 testant faction take advantage of the indiscretions and 
 violences of the demagogues, to spread an alarm of re- 
 bellion ; to decry Ld. Wellesley's system of leniency and 
 impartiality, and to call for the return of the ' iron times.' 
 Such is the real history of the factions which now agitate 
 Ireland, but I hope I believe the storm will pass away 
 without bursting. As to any practical good to be done in 
 respect to the Catholicks, they have made that hopeless for 
 years to come. This Country is once more united, as one 
 man, against them ! 
 
 " The new feature in the case of Ireland at present is 
 the interest which Foreign Powers take in it. France, 
 and more especially the Jesuit and propagandist party 
 in France, certainly have their eyes fixed on the struggle 
 and, if the Foreign Ministers thought (as they most 
 undoubtedly did) and wrote to their Courts in 1818 and 
 1821 that England was about to be swallowed up by 
 a Revolution it is not wonderful that they should be 
 inspiring fears (or in some instances, perhaps, hopes) of 
 the like Catastrophe in Ireland. 
 
 "But they will be disappointed. A few unpleasant 
 nights in Parlt. we shall have ; but six months hence 
 Mr. O'Connell and the Catholick Association will be with 
 Spa-fields and Manchester ; and the Protestant fanaticks 
 and polemicks will, I hope, have shrunk back into their 
 shell. 
 
 " And now, my dear Frere, here is a long Letter ; not 
 long enough to atone for so long a silence but enough to 
 show that that silence has not been the silence of neglect 
 or of oblivion.
 
 270 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 " Make my homage to your Lady. Continue to let me 
 hear from you ; and be assured that I am, as ever, My 
 Dear Frere, 
 
 " Sincerely, affectionately, and unalterably yours, 
 
 "G. C." 
 
 In September 1825 Frere returned to England for a 
 year, and once more visited his old haunts and his old 
 friends. Canning and he must have had much to say to 
 each other, and much to lament. If the one was breaking 
 down under the feverish stress of political life, with old 
 hopes unrealised, old visions faded, the other had been 
 stranded on the little island in the Mediterranean Sea, to 
 waste his life in a sort of busy idleness. Frere's health 
 had caused some uneasiness to his friends, and occasioned 
 the following letter written by Canning shortly before the 
 friend of his boyhood left England for ever. It was pro- 
 bably the last that he sent to Frere : 
 
 "FOREIGN OFFICE, Aug. 31 1826. 
 
 " My dear Frere, 
 
 " What is become of you ? and when shall I see 
 you? and how do you do? 
 
 " I am here, with the exception of to-morrow, Friday, 
 (when I go to Windsor to a Council) till Monday sennight 
 on which day, the Gods consenting, we shall set off 
 for Paris. 
 
 " I had forgotten, I go to Coombe on Sunday to dine 
 and sleep which is another exception. 
 
 " Do you know I have been thinking, and so has Joan, 
 that you were not well when last we saw you and I 
 earnestly wish you would take some good sound advice 
 before you set out on a long journey. 
 
 " Send for Holland, or for Warren, the one oil, the
 
 THE LAST OF CANNING. 271 
 
 other vinegar perhaps both together would be better 
 and do not mind cupping and blistering and calomelling if 
 they tell you that you want it as my mind misgives me 
 that they will. 
 
 " I have been unwell at Brighton with bile, and viscera 
 but Sir H. Tierney set me right, and assures me that the 
 attack (and it was a sharp one) has saved me a fit of the 
 Gout. 
 
 " The truth is I am overworked. But I am wonderfully 
 well, considering. 
 
 " Let us take care of ourselves. 
 
 " Ever affectionately Yours, 
 
 "G. C." 
 
 We are all familiar with the scenes that passed in rapid 
 succession during the last year of Canning's life : the death 
 of Lord Liverpool ; the Premiership accepted under very 
 altered conditions, to the sorrow of such men as Walter 
 Scott, who thought that a sacrifice of principle was involved; 
 the four short months of supreme power ; the sudden 
 collapse ; the terrible sufferings of the last few days ; and 
 the end coming in the room at Chiswick in which Fox had 
 closed his eyes upon the world. 
 
 At the time of the burial of a celebrated Englishman 
 in Westminster Abbey, Le Temps observed, " Happy 
 England ! she can give her children truly national 
 funerals ! " It is an honour which it costs her compara- 
 tively little to bestow, but few attain to it. A cenotaph 
 with an appropriate text is deemed fitting guerdon for 
 some of the noblest of her sons. Canning's funeral was 
 private, at his own request ; but the corpse was followed 
 to its grave in the Abbey by thousands who had loved 
 and honoured him in life a better tribute than the 
 presence of the crowds who flock to gape at an idle
 
 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 pageant. His son and his kinsman, the Great Eltchi, 
 were afterwards to be laid with him. 
 
 Frere wrote three epitaphs for Canning, of varying lengths. 
 The shortest is the best : 
 
 " I was destroyed by Wellington and Grey. 
 They both succeeded. Each has had his day. 
 Both tried to govern, each in his own way, 
 And both repent of it as well they may." 
 
 Some of the letters given in a previous chapter show 
 how, when it was too late, the thoughts of many turned 
 to Canning as the man who might have guided England 
 through the storm. With him died the last of the 
 statesmen who led and governed, instead of following the 
 popular outcry. The Reform Bill has changed everything, 
 and the modern politician takes his tone from the mob 
 instead of giving the tone to them. It is as though 
 Prospero should have given his wand and book into the 
 hands of Caliban. 
 
 With his aspirations to redress grievances and to right 
 the wrong, Canning was regarded with disfavour by the 
 old Tories, and the opposite party disliked and feared him. 
 He whom Heine saw as the Gonfalonier* der Freiheit was 
 fated to win little but mistrust even from those whom he 
 tried to serve. After tracing the story of his life from the 
 bright promise of youth to the stormy close, it seems at 
 first as if it were a mournful record of unfulfilled ambitions 
 and disappointed hopes his whole labour only the writing 
 on the sand which the tide washes away. Yet it was not 
 so. Although another took the honour which should have 
 been his, it was his unceasing efforts that cleared the way 
 for deliverance. The negro slave the English Roman 
 Catholic the Greek patriot all had reason to bless 
 his name.
 
 THE LAST OF CANNING. 273 
 
 For the rest, was it, after all, so hard that his own wish 
 should be fulfilled that he should be cut down with his 
 marvellous gifts unimpaired, his unconquerable will firm 
 within him ? Defeated, he may seem to be, but " out of 
 the day and the dust and the ecstasy, there goes another 
 Faithful Failure." 
 
 18
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AN APOSTLE OF THE JEWS. 
 
 18301845. 
 
 TT^RERE'S brother Hatley had early developed peculiar 
 A religious views, to the distress of his parents, who 
 were most orthodox. A theory that war was contrary to 
 Scripture induced him to resign his commission in the 
 Guards. In later life he employed himself in inventing 
 a new system for teaching the blind to read, and a new 
 interpretation of the unfulfilled prophecies. " Frere's 
 method " is now superseded in blind schools by the more 
 modern systems of Moon and Braille ; and the millennium 
 of which he twice fixed the date seems no nearer than 
 it was. 
 
 His other brothers deplored the kindness of heart which 
 led him to extend hospitality to religious enthusiasts who 
 were not always as clean as might be desirable ; but 
 J. H. Frere, out in Malta, and not brought into personal 
 contact with Hatley's friends, was disposed to listen to 
 his direful prophecies, and look for the end of the world. 
 
 One of those most firmly persuaded that the Day of 
 the Lord was at hand was Joseph Wolff, traveller and 
 missionary ; but this belief, instead of taking away the 
 motive for exertion, spurred him through incredible toils 
 and dangers that he might win a few more souls before 
 
 274
 
 AN APOSTLE OF THE JEWS. 275 
 
 it was too late. There is some uncertainty about the date 
 of his first meeting with Frere. In a letter to Wolffs 
 wife, Frere declares that he never met Wolff until 1830; 
 but Wolff, in a letter to Sir Thomas Baring, speaks of 
 making Frere's acquaintance on his way to Jerusalem in 
 1827. It is probable that Frere's memory deceived him, 
 as the tone of Wolff's letters from Quarantine in 1830 
 shows them to have been written to a valued friend, not 
 to an illustrious stranger known only by report. 
 
 Joseph Wolff, the son of a rabbi of the synagogue, was 
 born in Bavaria in 1796. He was sent to the gymnasium 
 at Bamberg, where he showed signs of great promise. 
 He was received into the Church of Rome in 1812, and 
 continued his studies at Vienna, Tubingen, and finally 
 in Rome itself, at the Collegio Romano and the College 
 of the Propaganda. An awkward habit of speaking his 
 mind without respect of persons, which he retained through- 
 out his life, soon occasioned his banishment to a religious 
 house in Switzerland. Even the heads of the College can 
 hardly have expected him to stay there, and Wolff soon 
 escaped to England, where the London Society for the 
 Conversion of the Jews sent him to study Oriental 
 languages at Cambridge. In 1819 he became a member 
 of the Church of England, and shortly afterwards made 
 the acquaintance of Hatley Frere, of whom he speaks 
 with much affection in one of his letters. In 1821 he 
 started on the first of his missionary journeys to the Jews 
 of the dispersion. In 1826 he was back in London, and 
 there won the heart of the Lady Georgiana Walpole, 
 daughter to the Earl of Orford. It was a pure love- 
 match on both sides. She gave up home, kindred, and 
 civilisation to wander over the world with him, while he 
 refused to touch a penny of her fortune, and made a formal 
 renunciation of all claims upon it at the time of his
 
 276 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 marriage. Their honeymoon was spent at Jerusalem 
 then unvisited by Western potentates under the guidance 
 of Cook and on the way they stopped at Malta. Wolff 
 and Frere were soon on friendly terms. Frere, having 
 studied Hebrew in his old age, could appreciate Wolffs 
 profound knowledge of rabbinic lore, and no one could 
 be with the missionary without being struck by his fervent 
 zeal and unusual simplicity joined to unusual shrewdness. 
 
 In 1830 the Wolffs were again at Malta, and Wolff 
 wrote to Frere on September I7th from the Lazaretto* 
 where they were undergoing quarantine. 
 
 "DEAR SIR, 
 
 " I send to you the Copy of the Resolution of the 
 Committee of the London Society for promoting Chris- 
 tianity among the Jews, with my reply to it of which 
 I wish to send several Copies to England. ... If you 
 therefore could be so kind to correct the English and 
 give it a more Gentlemanly style I should be exceedingly 
 obliged to you and then procure to me a confidential 
 person to copy it. In confidence be it told you that my 
 views on Prophecies have brought me in collision with 
 the Missionaries here. . . . We shall have much to con- 
 verse together on my leaving the quarantine. . . . 
 
 " I am with great regard, dear Sir, yours truly, 
 
 "JOSEPH WoLFF, Missionary." 
 
 Their quarantine lasted for some time, and before it 
 was over Wolff developed an idea which struck Frere 
 with dismay. He intended to leave Lady Georgiana 
 and her little boy in Malta, and journey to Timbuctoo 
 in search of the Lost Tribes, with no other equipment 
 than the second-hand robe of a dervish. 
 
 " As I intend to leave Malta next January," he wrote
 
 AN APOSTLE OF THE JEWS. 277 
 
 to Frere on December pth, " I don't know at Malta or 
 anywhere else a gentleman to whose kind protection I 
 would have such confidence to recommend Lady Georgiana 
 than to yours. I am sure that you will act as a father 
 to her. Now having done my duty as a tender husband 
 to my wife by recommending her to your fatherly pro- 
 tection during my absence in Africa, I take the liberty 
 to suggest to you the following request " : 
 
 The request was that Frere should recommend some 
 furnished lodgings in Valetta for Lady Georgiana to 
 occupy during her husband's absence. 
 
 The projected journey was too wild a scheme for any 
 sane man's approval, and Frere wrote an earnest letter of 
 remonstrance, pointing out the dangers of the way, and 
 the certainty that Wolff would never return to his family 
 Wolff's reply is very characteristic : 
 
 " Dear Sir. 
 
 " Does it not seem to you that at Teman, Jeremiah 
 xlix. 7, a celebrated School existed where wisdom was 
 taught, and that Jeremiah alluded to that school ? " 
 
 He discusses this point for some time, and then suddenly 
 remembers the business in hand : 
 
 " Now about my departure. Your counsel is certainly 
 most valuable to me but do you not think that as I am 
 determined now to make my Missionary errands accord- 
 ing to Mark vi. 7, 8, 9, I cannot be in great danger in 
 Africa and am better able to make it according to that 
 method than to Bokhara, where I would be obliged to 
 make the expense of 2 Sea voyages to Alexandria first 
 and then either to Caramania or to Mocca, Our journey 
 to Jerusalem did cost Lady Georgiana a great deal and
 
 278 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 lately she was obliged to pay for me ioost. so that 
 if I go first to Africa and then to Bokhara, I give her 
 time to recover from the heavy expence and if I go 
 from Timboktoo to the Cape of Good Hope, I shall be 
 assisted at the Cape from the Governor for whom I have 
 letters with which assistance then I can go to Bokhara 
 and thus Lady Georgiana can during that time educate 
 honourably my child. Lord Orford can make me no 
 reproaches of having obliged Lady Georgiana to live in 
 a low manner and then returning from Timboktoo and 
 Bokhara I hope to embrace you whom I have learnt to 
 love and esteem as a father^ and in whose counsel Lady 
 Georgiana has such great confidence." 
 
 To this period must be assigned an undated note, 
 which Wolff concludes with " I think Saturday next I 
 will leave this Island either to Timboktoo or Bokhara ; 
 wherever I go your kindness will always be to me 
 unforgetful." 
 
 Frere exerted himself to the utmost to prevent the 
 expedition to Timbuctoo. To attempt to prevail on 
 Wolff to remain in Europe was, as Frere himself said, 
 " merely a waste of words " ; but it might be possible to 
 turn his energies in a less hazardous direction. Among 
 Wolff's most cherished dreams was that of discovering 
 in the heart of Africa some remnants of the Jewish nation. 
 In the course of a long conversation with him, Frere 
 repeated some particulars learned from Lord Hastings 
 respecting the traditions of the Afghans, and the names 
 of some of the tribes of Cabul indicative of a Jewish 
 origin. Wolff caught at the bait, and consulted a large 
 map of Afghanistan, and again to quote Frere " seemed 
 to have convinced himself that the object which he had 
 in view was, at least, as likely to be obtained, in the
 
 AN APOSTLE OF THE JEWS. 279 
 
 East." So far, so good ; but Wolff now proclaimed his 
 intention of travelling in the garb of a religious mendi- 
 cant, and taking with him neither money nor any equipment. 
 Most people will agree with Frere that " this was not, 
 certainly, a mode of travelling which any sober adviser 
 would have recommended." 
 
 Shortly afterwards, Frere learned from General Ponsonby 
 the particulars of Wolff's conduct at the time of his 
 marriage, and could not help respecting the independent 
 spirit that refused to touch a penny of Lady Georgiana's 
 fortune. The result, in brief, was that Frere prevailed 
 upon Wolff to accept a sum which, although trifling in 
 itself, was sufficient to defray the expenses of the sea 
 voyage that had been the chief obstacle to the journey 
 to Asia. Wolff sat up at one o'clock in the morning 
 to write the following letter of thanks: 
 
 " Dear Patron, 
 
 " Tho' it is late in the night I can not but express 
 to you my most cordial and affectionate thanks to you 
 for your kind and Christian offer by which I shall now 
 be enabled by God's grace to carry the tidings of 
 Salvation to my benighted brethren in Persia, Afghan 
 (sic), Samarcand, and Bokhara that I shall never cease, 
 dear Benefactor, to pray for you . . . and not only for 
 you but likewise for Lady Errol, Miss Frere, Miss Jane 
 Frere, and Miss Blake, you will easily believe me." 
 
 In a letter written a few days later, he says: 
 
 " I hope that I shall be able to realise the apostolical 
 manner of going without scrip and without purse. I have 
 already bought myself from an Armenian an old oriental 
 habit of a Dervish, which I will shew to you tomorrow." 
 
 Whether this exhibition took place or not is uncertain,
 
 28o J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 as Frere was particular in his ways, and may not have 
 relished contact with the garment. Various traditions 
 of Wolffs brief stay in Malta have been handed down 
 by former residents to the present day. One story tells 
 how Lady Erroll, sitting by her window, was astonished 
 by the irruption of a figure in the garden, leaping over 
 her flower-beds, and shouting as he ran " Oh, Lady Erroll, 
 Lady Erroll, have you any calomel? Little Drummond 
 is very ill, and the doctor says that calomel will kill 
 him, but I think it will do him good, so please give me 
 some of it" , 
 
 On another occasion, he was returning to Malta after 
 an absence, and of course had to undergo quarantine. 
 He was anxious that Lady Georgiana, who had remained 
 on the island, should come into the Lazaretto with him ; 
 but she, knowing the discomforts of that abode, declined 
 to do so. However she came to see him, and as he 
 talked to her from behind the grille, he rolled up his 
 handkerchief into a .ball, and flung it at her. The in- 
 dignant attendants at once declared that Lady Georgiana 
 was infected, and must go into quarantine with her 
 husband : and go she did, without any of the numerous 
 things indispensable to the comfort of a lady in the 
 Lazaretto. Wolff was devoted to his " lovely Georgiana," 
 as he always called her, but he could not resist the delight 
 of teasing her by telling in company the story of their 
 journey across the desert, when they were slung in baskets 
 on either side of a camel, and a large stone had to be 
 placed in his basket to make the balance true. 
 
 On December 29th, 1830, Wolff left Malta in the 
 Triumphante. He did not lose any time in beginning 
 his labours ; on the 3Oth he preached to the crew, and 
 distributed six French Bibles amongst them, " which they 
 began immediately to read," he tells Frere.
 
 AN APOSTLE OF THE JEWS. 281 
 
 " i Jan. 1831. I was delighted by observing the sailors 
 reading the Bible I gave to them. ... I observed the 
 mate make the sign of the cross ; it is delightful to observe 
 some religious feeling, let it be expressed in whatever a 
 shape it may. The sign of the cross made by an old 
 Roman Catholic woman is more consoling than to hear 
 the blasphemy of a polished, well-educated and poetical 
 Infidel! And it is sorrowful to observe that Duglas in 
 Edinburgh does not blush to write that Progress of 
 Infidelity was the first step to true Christianity ! Sadducees 
 never came to the Lord, but a Pharisee. . . . 
 
 " 2 Jan. The Captain asked me why I submit to so 
 much sufferings and privations ? I replied, ' You have 
 shed your blood for temporal liberty, how much more 
 have I to give my blood for the nations in order that 
 they may obtain liberty in Jesus Christ! The glorious 
 liberty of the children of God ! The time will come 
 (I continued) that the Three coloured flag of the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost shall be hoisted everywhere and 
 this will be a day of eternal memory, and there shall 
 be not only at Paris but from the rising of the Sun to 
 the going down thereof a cry of Glory ! 
 
 " 5 Jan. I was surprised that the French ascribe to 
 themselves the Victory at Trafalgar. They say that if 
 the Government would employ Captains of Merchant 
 ships they would certainly beat the English fleet And 
 the French permitted the Allies to come to Paris in 
 1814 so the Persians say after the Russians take a 
 country of them that the Shah permitted them to take 
 it." 
 
 On January 8th Wolff reached Alexandria, where he 
 was kindly received by Mr. Bartholomew, a Wesleyan 
 missionary.
 
 282 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 In February the news of Lady Erroll's death reached 
 Wolff, and he wrote to condole with Frere. He was 
 still at Alexandria, where he had busied himself with 
 " taking Bibles out of Magazines and Customhouses which 
 were sent 12 years ago by the Bible Society to be dis- 
 tributed to Jaffa and Cyprus, and which were almost 
 eaten by the rats." 
 
 A letter to his wife at this time was evidently sent 
 for Frere's perusal. It begins with an explanation that 
 Gog and Magog are identical with Russia, followed by 
 a paragraph headed " History of my present servant." 
 
 " Philipp Joseph Diock, born at Juluk beyond Darfoor, 
 walked about when a boy eight years of age in the fields 
 of his native country, in company of other boys, to eat 
 the wild fruits growing upon the trees, when suddenly 
 Bedouins, the enemies of his country, came, and took 
 prisoners the whole troop of boys. They brought poor 
 Diock with the rest to the tents of their camp, consigned 
 the weeping boys over to their wives, who tried to silence 
 them by caresses. A few days after, they were brought 
 to Egypt, where an Italian, Filippo Nardi by name, 
 bought him and gave to him his Liberty after 14 years' 
 service. He came after this into the service of Mr. 
 Gliddon, where I instructed and baptized him, and gave 
 to him the name Philipp Joseph Diock but alas, he is 
 something addicted to drinking, but I hope to cure him 
 by God's grace for I never take either spirits or wine 
 with me on my journies through the Deserts. He has 
 a great desire to see again, as he says, ' his Savage 
 country? On my asking him why, he replied ' To see 
 there the ashes of my father if he should be dead to 
 see there the ashes of my mother if she should be dead.' 
 On my return to Rosetta he came to Europeans, who
 
 AN APOSTLE OF THE JEWS. 283 
 
 made him drunk he spoke to me in the following manner : 
 ' You have saved my Soul, and therefore I am affection- 
 ately attached to you, and I would cut one's throat if 
 he was to do you harm.'" 
 
 This outburst only drew from his master the rejoinder 
 that Diock's soul was not yet saved if he got drunk. Wolff 
 was busy preparing for his departure, but found time to 
 preach " for two hours less five minutes," at Mr. Gliddon's 
 house on Sunday evening. 
 
 The next letter is full of Rabbinical and Talmudic lore, 
 interesting perhaps to Frere, but not to the general reader. 
 Wolffs letters resemble a commonplace book in which he 
 jotted down anything that struck him at the moment. 
 The following extract is entitled "Affecting Story of a 
 Greek Slave related to me by John Barker, Esq., H.B.M. 
 Consul-General." 
 
 " During the Massacre upon the Island of Scio in the 
 year 1822, a boy of an Ionian Greek was made slave. In 
 the year 1830 the master of that Greek boy came to 
 Alexandria with the boy, where he went to the Turkish 
 bath, and where he met by chance an Armenian Christian. 
 The Turk addressed himself to the Armenian Christian, 
 and said ' Buy this slave of me, for I don't know what to. 
 do with him. I wanted to make a Turk of him, but he 
 is obstinately attached to the Greek religion.' " 
 
 "Armenian : ' I don't want him.' 
 
 " In the night the Armenian dreamed that the Greek 
 Servant with his wife in the house of Signor Dusiza, a 
 Merchant at Alexandria, were the parents of that Greek 
 slave. The dream had made such an impression on him 
 that he went to the Greek servant of Dusiza. The wife of 
 that Greek servant went immediately to the Harem of 
 the Turk. The Greek slave suddenly recognised his
 
 284 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 mother, and exclaimed ' My Mother ! ' The Greek servant 
 of Dusiza went to Mr. Barker, who claimed the boy as an 
 Ionian Subject from Ibrahim Pasha. Ibrahim Pasha cited 
 both the Turk with his slave, and the parents of the slave 
 who came with their little girl. The resemblance of the 
 slave with the girl was so striking that all were convinced 
 that they were children of the same parents. 
 
 " Ibrahim Pasha to the boy : ' Go over to thy parents.' 
 
 " The boy joyfully obeyed. 
 
 " Ibrahim Pasha to the Turk : ' You go your way.' " 
 
 The civilisation of the West was even then exerting a 
 baneful influence on the East. Wolff mentions a certain 
 Hurshid Bey, one of Muhammed Ali's generals, who in 
 a large company of Europeans and Mussulmans, took a 
 slice of ham in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other, 
 with a shout of " Huzza ! " 
 
 From Alexandria Wolff went on to Damietta, in the 
 hope of finding there a ship to take him to Lattachia, 
 the first stage on the journey to Aleppo. At Damietta he 
 was the guest of the British Vice-Consul, Signor Michaele 
 Surrur, an Arab Catholic. Wolff and he were great friends, 
 in spite of the pomp and state affected by the Vice-Consul, 
 who always spoke in a loud voice because " a great man 
 ought to speak louder than a little man." They enjoyed 
 a long discussion on the Second Advent, none of those 
 present venturing to dissent from Wolffs views, with the 
 exception of a Greek Christian, " who had not more light 
 on this subject than many of the Protestants have opposed," 
 and who was peremptorily silenced by the Vice-ConsuL 
 
 With Mahommedans Wolff was always on friendly 
 terms, and his character of a religious devotee gained 
 him their respect wherever he went " Jews and Moham- 
 medans," he writes, " are not such infidels as the Evangelical
 
 AN APOSTLE OF THE JEWS. 285 
 
 Party in England are. Jews and Mohammedans have 
 never limited so much the power of God as the Protestants 
 and especially the Missionary Societies do. I foresee 
 great, very great judgements coming over the Protestant 
 Churches they may succeed in converting some among 
 the savages who have no books, but certainly they will 
 never be the Instruments of the Conversion of the Jews. 
 There is no such godless nation in the world than the 
 Protestants they have more confidence in, their steam-boats 
 than in the power of God. The Turk, when he perceives 
 an Earthquake, he exclaims ' This is of the Lord.' The 
 Protestants ascribe it to some cause in the Atmosphere. 
 The Arab, on seeing a Comet, concludes that the decrees 
 of the Lord are issued upon his creatures ; the Protestant 
 laughs at it ! The Syrian Christian lays the hands upon 
 the sick persons ; the Protestant, smiling, declares it to be 
 Superstition." 
 
 Being unable to find a ship at Damietta, Wolff returned 
 to Alexandria, and thence set out for Aleppo in February. 
 There is a gap in the letters, his next diary being dated 
 from Tabreez, where he arrived in July. From this we 
 gather that he left Erzeroom on the I4th of June, suffering 
 severely from an internal complaint, " which obliged me to 
 stay in places and lose my Tartar tho' I had paid him.'* 
 He was so ill at one stage that he was obliged to take a 
 priest from an Armenian Convent with him, because " I 
 wished to have a Christian with me in case that I should 
 die." Overtaken by a shower of rain, two hours' journey 
 from Bayazid, Wolff took refuge in a Kurdish tent, where 
 he met an aged Dervish from Bokhara. Wolff and he 
 talked long together on religious subjects, and Wolff at last 
 asked, " What will become of the world ? " The Dervish 
 answered, "The world will become thus good that the 
 lamb and the wolf shall feed together, and there shall be
 
 286 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 a general peace and fear of God upon earth and no 
 controversy on religion and all shall know God truly 
 no hatred." 
 
 " Who shall then govern this world ? " asked Wolff, to 
 which the Dervish replied that " Jesus should be King of 
 the whole world for thirty-six years." 
 
 " Whence do you know this ? " was Wolffs not unnatural 
 question. The Dervish answered, " From the Book " [the 
 Koran]. Wolf then asked, "What do you think of 
 Christians?" to which the Dervish's answer was, "If you 
 wish me to tell you according to the Book, I consider 
 them as Infidels but if you wish to know my thoughts 
 I tell you that we are all images of God more I cannot 
 tell you." 
 
 Well might Wolff consider this man " the most superior 
 Dervish" he had ever encountered. After a few more 
 questions and answers, they parted, and Wolff was left 
 with the conviction that "a missionary often finds more 
 light and confirmation about the truth of the word of 
 God by conversing with Dervishes and Jews than one 
 can find in the lectures of cold, even orthodox Professors 
 in the Universities of Germany, or among members of 
 committees of Missionary Societies." 
 
 Wolff called on the Prince of Khoy, who received him 
 graciously ; and was visited by two Moollahs and about 
 fifty Persians. On the 3rd of July he started again on his 
 travels, this time in a "Tukhtruan" or moving chair, so 
 that he reached Tabreez in a better condition of health. 
 The English residents at Tabreez Captain Campbell, the 
 Charg6 d'Affaires, Mr. McNeill, and others showed him 
 every kindness, and procured him letters of introduction 
 to officials at Khorassan and Bokhara. Interspersed with 
 an outline of his plans is an affectionate entreaty to " dear 
 little Drummond " not to write so quickly, as a little more
 
 AN APOSTLE OF THE JEWS. 287 
 
 time bestowed on the letters would make them more easy 
 to read. The traveller's health was rapidly improving 
 under the care of an English doctor ; and he wrote, " I 
 eat now with the appetite of a Wolf, not of Wolff. Dr. 
 and Mrs. McNeill treat me like their brother ; tell this to 
 Lady Georgiana, in order that her mind may be easy." 
 
 The next letter of any importance is written on a large 
 sheet of coarse grey-green paper, such as might be used to 
 wrap up a parcel, and is dated from " Sarakhs in Turkestan," 
 February I2th, 1832. It is addressed to " Mirza Baba 
 Hakeem Basha," and is annotated by Campbell, by whom 
 it was probably sent on to Malta. Wolff's mission was 
 prospering. " Mullah Tatsh, the Cadi of the Turcomans, 
 has declared me to be the fore-runner of Mehde, and that 
 I was predicted in the Hadees viz., that an Apostle of 
 Jews shall appear before the arrival of Mehde the Great. 
 This noise is gone abroad to Organtsh and Bokhara, and 
 the Turcomans bring to me their families to pray over 
 them, and more than 50 promised not to make slaves 
 again." 
 
 In a letter addressed to the same person, a few days 
 later, Wolff adds, " The report of my Mission has spread to 
 Khiva." 
 
 On February i8th Wolff was in the Desert of Mown 
 All the Jews of the territory had come on horseback to 
 meet him, and they took him to their tents, where he was 
 treated with the greatest hospitality. Thence he proceeded 
 on his way to Bokhara, then no place of resort for tourists 
 under the protection of the Russian flag, but the very 
 mouth of hell. 
 
 The King or Ameer (Wolff gives him either title in- 
 differently) was a monster of cruelty. Horrible stories 
 were told of his dungeons into which men were thrown at 
 the caprice of the tyrant or his favourites, that insects might
 
 288 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 devour their living flesh from their bones. Sometimes the 
 knife brought a release ; sometimes they were left to sink 
 under torture and starvation ; or suddenly brought back to 
 the daylight, after long years had passed, and restored to 
 their friends, who had mourned them as dead. Bokhara 
 was of great importance as the chief slave market of Central 
 Asia, and the horrible wickedness that prevailed within its 
 walls could only be compared to the abominations of the 
 old Canaanitish cities. 
 
 Here, as everywhere, Wolff's indomitable resolution 
 carried him through dangers from which a regiment of 
 soldiers could not have protected him. He was allowed 
 to visit the Jews of the town, although conversation with 
 Mussulmans on religious subjects was forbidden. The 
 Goosh Beekee (lit. " King's Ear ") or Prime Minister, at 
 first suspicious, became his friend and patron, and invited 
 him to tea. So much, and no more, was he allowed to 
 write to Captain Campbell, when drawing on him for more 
 money before setting off for Balkh and Cabul. Little did 
 Wolff think, as he rode away from the city, that twelve 
 years later he should come back, at far greater risk, in 
 search of two of the Ameer's victims. 
 
 In the meantime things were not going smoothly with 
 Lady Georgiana in Malta. At the conclusion of his letter 
 to Campbell Wolff had written, " Be so kind as to accept 
 the bills of Mirza Baba for the money I have drawn on 
 you, and you will be reimbursed by Mr. Frere at Malta." 
 Campbell apparently forwarded this letter to Frere, who 
 was dismayed at the thought of being made answerable for 
 Wolffs expenses. He wrote a long letter of remonstrance 
 to Lady Georgiana, pointing out how willing he had been 
 to assist Wolff in his mission, but expressing his annoyance 
 at finding himself " converted into a kind of Grand Seigneur 
 who is sending out Missionaries at his own expense." He
 
 AN APOSTLE OF THE JEWS. 289 
 
 particularly objected to the general misconception that he 
 was responsible for the route taken by Wolff, and for Wolffs 
 manner of travelling. Anxious to prevent Wolff from 
 " adding another name to the list of the victims of African 
 discovery," he had indeed suggested that Afghanistan was 
 less dangerous than Timbuctoo, and supplied Wolff with 
 the means for a sea voyage. But, as Frere acidly observes, 
 " to have suggested such a mode of travelling would have 
 been a degree of absurdity to which, I hope, I am not yet 
 arrived." 
 
 Lady Georgiana's answer was judicious and admirable. 
 As a good wife she defended her husband, while she apolo- 
 gised for his want of business habits. " I am assured he 
 feels for you the most sincere respect as well as affection, 
 but you know he is not attentive to forms." Wolffs 
 unceremoniousness had in no way lessened Frere's esteem 
 for his character, and the affair was soon adjusted to the 
 satisfaction of all parties. Lady Georgiana must have let 
 Wolff know how matters stood, for his next letter to Frere, 
 written from Delhi on December 2Oth, overflows with 
 gratitude. " That great kindness " he thought himself 
 unable to repay, but he sent remittances both to Frere and 
 to Lady Georgiana, so that his debt might be settled. 
 
 The meeting with his family was to be deferred longer 
 than he expected. When writing from Delhi, he expected 
 he reach Malta in four months; but the August of 1833 
 found him no farther on the way than Madras. His pro- 
 gress had been somewhat delayed by a violent attack of 
 cholera morbus, which had seized him on his way from 
 Hyderabad, and brought him to the brink of the grave. 
 He was reported dead in several newspapers, but struggled 
 back to life with the aid of strong remedies forty grains 
 of calomel and a cautery. 
 
 It was during his travels in India that he learned to 
 
 19
 
 290 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 know and love Arthur Conolly, with whose name his own 
 was afterwards to be so tragically associated. But for all 
 other details the reader must consult Wolffs published 
 diaries. After a hurried note from " Connamore in 
 Malabar," October i/th, 1833, giving the names of forty- 
 seven stations in India at which he had lectured and 
 preached, Wolff apparently wrote no more letters to Frere 
 until the summer of 1835. By that time he had reached 
 a comparatively civilised place, but he was still yearning 
 after Timbuctoo. 
 
 " BLACKHEATH, i July 1835. 
 
 " My dear Mr. Frere, 
 
 " All the books of my first Edition is gone, every 
 one of them and a second Edition is now printed, to which I 
 have got again several hundred Subscribers. That despicable 
 faction of Nonsubscribers dwindles away rapidly. I have 
 been lately at Norwich and lectured there the Mayor took 
 the chair, and I saw visible blessing, for a Jew has since 
 applied for baptism. Worldly-minded people will call this 
 boasting, but really would to God that I could mention 
 that a thousand Jews have since applied for baptism ! I 
 would have no hesitation to mention it to my dear patron 
 and dear Miss Frere. Last night I expounded at Mr. 
 Hatley Frere's. . . . 
 
 " A warm correspondence was carried on between me 
 
 and D ; he abused me like a pickpocket, and still signs 
 
 himself your affectionate H D . ... I am every 
 
 day somewhere else, and then leave always behind me 
 a shirt, and take one of my host's, so that I promote the 
 circulation of shirts? 
 
 A printed syllabus of one of Wolffs lectures is still pre- 
 served. There are no less than thirty-nine heads, and one 
 fears that he must have exceeded the " two hours less five
 
 AN APOSTLE OF THE JEWS. 291 
 
 minutes" which the audience at Mr. Gliddon's house in 
 Alexandria had endured. The lecture dealt principally 
 with his mission to Jerusalem, in which Lady Georgiana 
 was of great assistance, to judge from some of the 
 headings : 
 
 " 5. Lady Georgiana preaches to the Jews with the child 
 in her arms. 
 
 " 14. Lady Georgiana preaches in the Harem of the 
 Mufti of Damiat. 
 
 " 15. Lady Georgiana's preaching to the Jews and 
 Jewesses at Cairo. 
 
 " 20. Comparison of Lady Georgiana's Pianoforte with 
 the Songs of Orpheus. 
 
 " 34. Lady Georgiana's School at Jerusalem." 
 
 On this occasion no collection was made, and the tickets 
 were given away. This lecture was probably delivered at 
 Malta, whither Lady Georgiana and Wolff again betook 
 themselves in November 1835. 
 
 After this visit Frere heard no more from Wolff until 
 the August of 1838, when a letter in the well-known 
 irregular handwriting reached Malta : 
 
 " PARK SHOT, RICHMOND, SURREY. 
 " My dear Mr. Frere, 
 
 " I know that you will be glad to learn again some 
 tidings of your old friend Joseph Wolff, For my part I have 
 not forgotten the kindness I have received by you, and 
 therefore now take the liberty to mention to you that on 
 the 25th of May the Dublin University has kindly con- 
 ferred upon me the Honorary Degree of LL.D. On the 
 25th of June I was admitted to the Holy Order of Priest- 
 hood by the Right Revd. the Lord Bishop of Dromore 
 and last July I was appointed Chaplain to the Lord
 
 292 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Viscount Lorton and ten days ago I delivered two lectures 
 in the Vice-Regal Lodge before the Lord Lieutenant, his 
 Household, and the Archbishop of Dublin. Lady Georgiana 
 travelled with me through Ireland, and so did my boy, for 
 his vacations had just been. He goes on exceedingly well 
 at School, and knows already the Latin Grammar his 
 talents are generally admired by all. He speaks French 
 as well as he does English, and reads also the Hebrew." 
 
 Wolff and Frere were to meet once more. On his way 
 to Bokhara to rescue Stoddart and Conolly in 1843, Wolff 
 stopped at Malta, and was supplied by Frere with a letter 
 of introduction to Sir Stratford Canning, which proved of 
 the utmost service. On his return, nearly two years later, 
 he apparently spent no time in Malta. There is a letter 
 from him written on board the Duke of Cornwall steamer, 
 thanking Frere for a proffered loan of money which the 
 arrival of remittances from England made it unnecessary 
 for him to accept ; and then Wolff vanishes for ever from 
 among Frere's correspondents. 
 
 The most interesting portion of his life has necessarily 
 been omitted here. It is impossible to give a full biography 
 of all the notable personages whose letters have been 
 reproduced. So far as can be ascertained, Wolff never 
 wrote to Frere during his second journey to Bokhara. 
 The sending of a letter was such a danger in itself, owing 
 to the Ameer's suspicions, that Wolff never wrote, even to 
 his wife and son, except in case of urgent need. The story 
 of his going single-handed to rescue the men for whose 
 protection the English Government had refused to stir a 
 finger must be read in his published diaries. 
 
 Anything from his pen is too interesting to be left in 
 oblivion for he wrote as he talked and as he thought 
 but it is feared that, to those for whom he is but a name,
 
 AN APOSTLE OF THE JEWS. 293 
 
 the foregoing chapter will give an inadequate idea of his 
 personality. He might be visionary, hasty, disposed to 
 take offence, and tenacious of his opinion. But his earnest 
 conviction that the end of the world was at hand was never 
 made the excuse for neglecting any task ; if he were quick 
 to- resent a slight, he was slow to forget a kindness ; and 
 his indomitable will enabled him to surmount difficulties 
 which to other men seemed impossibilities. To the people 
 of Bokhara he was simply " Khoob Ademee " (" the good 
 man ") ; the wild races of the desert recognised what manner 
 of spirit was in him when they called him by the name of 
 " Baba Elias."
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 
 
 GABRIELE ROSSETTI. 
 
 "Yea, thou shalt learn how salt his food who fares 
 
 Upon another's bread how steep his path 
 Who treadeth up and down another's stairs." 
 
 (Dtv. Com. Parad. xvii.) 
 
 ON July 1 3th, 1820, Ferdinand, King of the Two 
 Sicilies, stood before the altar of his royal chapel 
 in Naples. His right hand was on an open Bible, his 
 eyes were raised to the cross, as he swore to defend and 
 maintain the Constitution which he had just granted to 
 his people, and called the vengeance of Heaven down 
 upon himself should he break the oath. 
 
 In the March of the following year Ferdinand abolished 
 the Constitution, and suppressed it with the aid of an 
 Austrian army. All who had taken part in the late 
 disturbances were marked out for punishment. A court- 
 martial was established to examine into the conduct of 
 all ecclesiastics, soldiers, and public officials for the last 
 thirty years. Some were hanged, others scourged ; those 
 who escaped by flight were condemned in their absence. 
 
 One of the worst offenders in the eyes of King Ferdinand 
 was a certain Gabriele Rossetti, who had held the appoint- 
 ment of Curator of Ancient Marbles and Bronzes in the 
 
 294
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 295 
 
 Naples Museum. A skilful draughtsman, and possessed 
 of a beautiful tenor voice, he was a well-known character 
 in literary circles. There was a popular catch which 
 linked his name with that of a great composer : 
 
 "Rossini, Rossetti, 
 Divini, imperfetti." 
 
 But he had drawn upon himself the unfavourable notice 
 of the Government by becoming a member of the secret 
 society of the Carbonari, to whose influence the revolution 
 was due, and by writing verses. Every one had sung his 
 " Ode to the Dawn of the Constitution Day," beginning 
 " Sei pur bella cogli astri sul crine " ; and a verse of 
 another poem, even more objectionable to Bourbon ears, 
 was notorious : 
 
 " I vindici coltelli 
 
 Sapran passarvi il cor ; 
 I Sandi ed i Luvelli 
 Non son finiti ancor."* 
 
 The reference to the assassination of Kotzebue by Sandt, 
 and of the Due de Berri by Louvel, was not likely to 
 be taken in good part by the King, and the poet spent 
 the spring of 1821 in close concealment. But he was 
 not fated to join the eight hundred victims who are 
 said to have perished under the Bourbon's vengeance 
 in one year. The wife of Sir Graham Moore, the British 
 admiral, knew and liked Rossetti, and persuaded her 
 husband to an act of mercy which was not strictly in 
 accordance with international etiquette. One day Sir 
 Graham's carriage drove down to the harbour, and from 
 it stepped a gentleman in a British uniform who em- 
 barked for Malta. Once under the English flag, Rossetti's 
 
 * " Vengeful blades will pierce your heart ; Sandts and Louvels 
 are not yet extinct."
 
 296 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 life was safe from King Ferdinand. It is curious to note 
 the occasions, during the Italian struggle for independence, 
 when the unofficial interference of one of our admirals 
 has been of service to the cause, or to individuals. 
 
 Rossetti's sufferings in the cause of freedom, his hair- 
 breadth escape, his reputation as an improvisatore, created 
 a general desire to see him among the leaders of society 
 in Malta. In a versified account of his life, the poet 
 speaks of the report which flew through the island 
 
 "that Italy's Tyrtaeus had arrived," 
 
 and of the invitation to him to improvise " in some noted 
 house." He recited six times in the course of the evening, 
 and his spirited declamation aroused general enthusiasm. 
 Next day he received congratulatory visits from all the 
 elite of Malta : 
 
 " But one beneficent and reverend mien * 
 In which I read exalted characters, 
 A diction which, arising from the soul, 
 Goes to the heart, and fixes what it says 
 This 'mid the throng I noted. . . . 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Nor did his presence lessen his repute. 
 
 Unconscious of his fame he singly seemed, 
 
 To hear it named was what he could not brook ; 
 
 Courtesy generous, and without display. 
 
 Learning immense, and greater modesty, 
 
 Ah, who could paint that noble-natured man? 
 
 * * * * 
 
 One day, when he accorded praise anew 
 To chants of mine which wakened his surprise, 
 I answered him, ' In you I seem to see 
 The imperial eagle by a sparrow charmed. 
 I know my verse has earned me banishment, 
 But I, excelling some, bend low to you.' 
 
 * I owe the translation of these verses, as well as other materials for 
 this chapter, to the kindness of Mr. W. M. Rossetti [see Preface].
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 297 
 
 And later, when I saw how plenteously 
 
 He dealt his succours to the sick and poor, 
 
 I in John Hookham Frere discerned the type 
 
 Of the sublime Christian philosopher. 
 
 None but an angel could portray him true ; 
 
 I feel my eyes grow moist to speak of him. 
 
 He called me friend, and that has been my pride. 
 
 I felt myself grow better by so great 
 
 A pattern. Nevermore he left my thoughts, 
 
 And even in death within my heart he lives." 
 
 In a note the author adds, " What I indicate regarding 
 the Right Honourable J. Hookham Frere is far less than 
 the truth. All Malta was full of his munificences, and 
 still resounds his praise ; and when in the sequel I quitted 
 that Island for England, I found widespread confirmation 
 of his repute as a most erudite man and a genuine 
 Christian." 
 
 It is strange to find Frere, the sound Tory, the disciple 
 of Pitt, becoming the warm friend and patron of the 
 hot-headed revolutionist who had been obliged to fly 
 for his life from an incensed king. But, as a rule, when 
 a man attempts to foment disorders, his fellow-subjects 
 style him a rebel ; it is only in other countries that he 
 becomes a patriot and a martyr. Frere could not have 
 sympathised with the Irish victims of 1798, any more 
 than, a few years after his death, his countrymen could 
 appreciate the grievances which the People's Charter was 
 expected to redress. But Frere could, and did assist 
 Rossetti, just as our fathers were quite pleased to shout 
 themselves hoarse for Garibaldi. History is for ever 
 repeating herself, and many of those who reject the 
 notion of Home Rule for Ireland as a monstrous absurdity 
 were honestly ready to upset the balance of Europe by 
 championing Crete against Turkey. 
 
 Frere endeavoured to persuade the authorities at Naples 
 to overlook Rossetti's poetical sins, or to regard them
 
 298 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 as the irresponsible utterances of a visionary. But King 
 Ferdinand's nerves had received a severe shock, and 
 every Carbonaro was a deadly enemy. Frere wrote to 
 his friend Mr. Hamilton, at Naples, asking his good 
 offices on Rossetti's behalf, and received the following 
 reply, dated September 9th, 1822 : 
 
 " Dear Frere, 
 
 " I have been most unsuccessful in the Enquiries I 
 have made respecting the merits of Rossetti and am very 
 sorry to say that even his best friends and admirers are 
 the loudest in condemning him for the pains he took 
 during the Revolution to preach up Carbonaro Doctrines ; 
 and only yesterday or the day before one of his dicta was 
 quoted to me, as descriptive of his usual language ' I 
 giorni dei Santi e dei Lovelli non son finiti ancora.' I 
 cannot therefore have the face to ask the Government here 
 to say a word in his favor, or to go out of their way to 
 exempt him from the operation of any general Regulation, 
 and I fear he must submit to his lot, if the orders under 
 which our people are acting at Malta are to be rigorously 
 enforced." 
 
 On September 28th King Ferdinand granted an amnesty 
 to persons concerned in the revolutionary or constitutional 
 movement. Thirteen men are excepted from it, and the 
 last name on the list is that of Rossetti. 
 
 The first letter yet discovered from Frere to the 
 unlucky poet must have been written at this time. It is 
 written in French ; but after Rossetti had settled in 
 England, Frere used his own language for correspondence, 
 while the exile's replies were always in Italian. To the 
 last day of his life Frere never learned how to spell 
 Rossetti's name.
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 299 
 
 " Mon cher Rosetti, 
 
 " Je s^avais il y a long terns que quelques uns de 
 vos vers avaient produit une impression extremement 
 defavorable dans 1'esprit du Roi ; je ne vous ai jamais 
 cependant rien dit, ne voulant pas vous chagriner gratuite- 
 ment ; maintenant je vous 1'avoue, afin que vous ne croyiez 
 pas que le malheur qui vous est arrive" me fasse changer 
 d'opinion sur votre compte, je s$ais tout ce que vous valez, 
 et le peu que peuvent signifier des vers populaires e'crites 
 au milieu d'une phrenesie populaire. 
 
 " Je trouve que c'est un malheur (puisque la manie de 
 vos auditeurs vous demandait des sentimens de cette force 
 la), qu'au lieu de citer des petits coquins modernes vous 
 n'ayez pas compulse" les exemples des grands scelerats 
 classiques, les Brutus, les Timoleons, et les Scaevola, vous 
 auriez eu alors 1'exemple des Alfieri, et de tous les pedans 
 qui idolatrent les crimes commis en Grec et Latin au nom 
 de la liberte". 
 
 " Mais pourquoi citer Louvel ? celui-la a assassine" le 
 prince qui devait un jour regner sur la France, et il m'a 
 toujours paru que vous aviez beaucoup de reconnaissance 
 et de respect pour votre Prince heVeditaire * et que vous 
 aviez cru meme que ce Prince e"tait un peu interesse" en 
 votre faveur 
 
 " ' Multa quidem nobis facimus mala saepe poetae.' 
 
 " Nous sommes convaincus que les paroles ne sont faites 
 que pour etre rhime'e et chanties, pendant que la partie 
 anti-poetique des hommes se persuade que les paroles 
 doivent toujours signifier quelque chose, ainsi ils ne senti- 
 ront jamais la necessite" de mettre Louvello pour rhimer 
 avec coltello. 
 
 * Francis, son of Ferdinand, who succeeded to the throne in January 
 1825.
 
 300 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 " Pour 1'exemple de Sandt c'est encore pire, car ce pauvre 
 Kotzebue 6tait un poete comme vous c'etait & ce qu'on 
 m'a dit, un homme de g6nie, dont le coeur 6tait excellent, 
 t 1'estomac encore meilleur, et qui a force de vivre avec 
 des gens raisonnables, avait renonc a des idees roman- 
 esques sur la Iibert6 et le bonheur des hommes. Cette 
 id6e me fait trembler, car je craindrai tous les jours de 
 voir arriver quelque nouveau Sandt exp6die par les 
 Carbonari pour plonger un couteau dans le ventre de cet 
 excellent Rosetti qui ne voudroit jamais que les couteaux 
 fussent employes que centre les pat6s de pigeon. Pardonnez 
 ce badinage sur un sujet qui n'est pas badinable, et croyez 
 moi. 
 
 " Votre tres-sincere ami et serviteur, etc." 
 
 Frere, perhaps with a recollection of certain passages in 
 the Anti- Jacobin, which had once caused reverend elders 
 to shake their heads, could treat the matter lightly, but 
 the Neapolitan Government had no sense of humour, and 
 remained blind to the difficulties of finding a rhyme for 
 " coltello." Knowing how extravagantly some of the 
 Carbonari had talked and acted, and how insecure was 
 the existing order of things at that time, one must acquit 
 Ferdinand and his advisers of any extraordinary severity 
 in this case. In Malta Rossetti's life was safe, but "spies 
 or other emissaries of the Bourbon Government" made 
 his position so intolerable that he resolved upon settling 
 in England. Early in 1824 he bade farewell for ever to 
 southern skies, and London gave him the refuge she has 
 afforded to so many great men who have learned in time 
 to love her grey skies and stony pavements as much as the 
 fairer lands that have rejected them and their message. 
 
 When the long series of letters to Frere begins, May 
 2nd, 1824, Rossetti was earning a precarious livelihood by
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 301 
 
 teaching. He had made acquaintance with two of Frere's 
 brothers, "who resemble you in visage, and I think also 
 in mind and heart," and had been permitted to enter Lord 
 Holland's library, where he beheld Frere's likeness, which 
 he thought " so life-like that I could almost hear your 
 words." He had called on a large circle of distinguished 
 men to present Frere's letters of introduction. " Lord 
 Holland, with whom I am to dine to-day, received me 
 most cordially, and introduced me to his son. . . . Mr. 
 Gurney . . . also asked me many questions with the in- 
 terest of one who loves you. Mr. Davenport . . . showed 
 the same warmth." Of Dr. Young and Mr. Heber 
 Rossetti had as yet seen nothing, and Mr. Rose was out 
 of town. 
 
 " In the dilemma of seeming to you a flatterer if I speak, 
 or of keeping silence so as not to seem that I prefer to 
 report the truth and take the risk, I will tell you then 
 that every one who spoke to me about you, whether as 
 a man of virtue or as a literary personage, has shown 
 admiration and veneration. Of the first matter I will say 
 no more, but must add that as to the second every one 
 is of the same opinion as myself. All have enlarged to me 
 on the admirable harmony and great propriety of your 
 verse ; and Mr. John Murray said that, through you, 
 Aristophanes is better in English than in Greek, adding 
 that no one as yet had entered into the spirit of his author 
 more than you, or rendered him into finer verse ; and I 
 was pleased to reflect that he, though unacquainted with 
 Greek, was echoing the voice of the learned. . . . By my 
 distinguished Admiral I was introduced to the poet 
 Campbell, who has a high opinion of you ; and how can 
 you, my friend, remain afar from a country where you are 
 so much known and appreciated ? . . ." 
 
 " Now I will speak to you of myself. Being resolved to-
 
 302 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 avail myself of improvising as a means of introduction and 
 not of profit, I contemplate relying upon my other two 
 resources as instructor and author. Your and my friends 
 agree in saying that I ought as soon as possible to 
 publish my poem, so that the Author may accredit the 
 instructor. But all (to keep back nothing from you) have 
 impressed upon me the two great difficulties the scanti- 
 ness of readers of Italian, and the great plethora of pro- 
 fessing instructors. Italian, they say, is known by few, 
 and the political vicissitudes of the Continent have cast 
 upon this solitary refuge a swarm of unfortunates who 
 have undertaken teaching. Arduous truths for me. But 
 my hopes are not very soaring, and hence my disappoint- 
 ment will not be very painful. I also will enter the ball, 
 and we shall see who has the best legs. Good conduct, 
 love of work, few needs, many acquaintanceships, abundant 
 assiduity, talent not deficient, must surely produce some 
 result. ... I went round to the Duke of Sussex, but at 
 a moment when he had much company. I delivered my 
 letter ; and a gentleman of his suite got me to leave my 
 address, saying that the Duke would send for me. . . . 
 To-morrow I propose to call on Lord and Lady Wallscourt. 
 The houses are so far apart, and my feet are so weak, that 
 the two things don't coincide. But patience is the remedy 
 for all evils. . . . 
 
 " P.S. Last evening a very unpleasant mishap occurred 
 to me. In coming home from a distance my pocket was 
 picked of the letter-case in which was a note addressed to 
 a gentleman in St. James's Square. What thieves there 
 are in this country ! What can they do with that note, 
 which to me might have been serviceable ? If the thieves 
 had a conscience, they should at least restore me the 
 note, for along with that were some visiting-cards with 
 my address."
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 303 
 
 A few days later Frere received a letter from Mr. 
 Davenport, whose acquaintance Rossetti had made through 
 his means : 
 
 " My Dear Sir, 
 
 " I have had great pleasure in serving Signor 
 Rossetti both for his own sake and for yours, and have, 
 as I trust, given him a pretty fair start in society here 
 by recommending him to everybody I know whose 
 patronage is likely to serve him, or whose Italian wants 
 mending. The man appears to me to be good and clever, 
 and possessed of uncommon powers of writing, tho' not 
 without the national fault of redundancy, of which I have 
 been endeavouring to cure him. I fear, however, that 
 a certain parson Adams-like simplicity (of which the 
 pickpockets have already twice availed themselves) will 
 prevent his keeping his money, should he make any, by 
 a work executed in a metre so ill-chosen for a long 
 poem. . . . 
 
 " You doubtless know (tho' perhaps you may still lack 
 the authority of a Reformer) that the country has com- 
 pletely altered its complexion in the course of last year, 
 The weavers work, the squires sell their produce, the Jews 
 are propitious, and the nation manifestly increasing in 
 wealth, power, and general contentment. Subjects of 
 political collision are scarce and at a premium, and the 
 liberal views of the Government satisfactory to all save 
 those who do not comprehend them. With regard to 
 literary fun, I believe it is almost extinct, at least of the 
 admissible sort, for of such you will hardly rank Don 
 Juan, tho' by far in my mind the cleverest poem of the 
 sort in any language, far surpassing both in variety and 
 interest his Italian models. Captain Rock's adventures 
 are certainly very clever, and unhappily too well founded
 
 304 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 on truth. There is nothing else absolutely. Nor is there 
 much of news in other respects, if you except the novelty 
 of the successful establishment of Christian schools at- 
 tended by native children at Calcutta ; a liberal spirit 
 of which Heber (the new Bishop) will avail himself. This, 
 with Perkins' substitution of hot water for gunpowder in 
 gunnery, and the infidelity of old moneylenders' wives, 
 constitutes nearly the extent of my knowledge." 
 
 Mr. Davenport took much trouble to gain subscribers 
 for the first volume of Rossetti's edition of the " Divina 
 Commedia." In a letter to Frere, dated December 4th, 
 1827, which was sent with a copy of the second volume, 
 Rossetti says : " I have dedicated it [the book] to a friend 
 of yours ... I owed him a pledge of gratitude for the 
 warmth with which he promoted the printing of the first 
 volume, he having procured me some eighty and more 
 subscribers all of them persons of distinction." This 
 was Mr. Davenport. Rossetti then discusses the chances 
 of his being elected professor of Italian literature at 
 University College. Rose, Davenport, and Cary were 
 among his supporters, but he had little hope of success, 
 and the event proved him right. " There were too many 
 dogs about this bone," to quote his own words. He 
 concludes : 
 
 " Of political news I cannot give you a syllable, because 
 I know not and care not ; and to tell the truth, 1 under- 
 stand these matters not at all. Truly it is a strange 
 thing that I, who don't at all understand what politics 
 are, should for politics be persecuted and exiled. Such is 
 Fate ! If the King of Naples knew me, he would indeed 
 have something to laugh over. But this is not the first 
 absurdity which people make him commit, and probably 
 it will not be the last."
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 305 
 
 Mr. William Rossetti's note on this passage is as 
 follows : " Certain it is that, as far back as I recollect 
 my father, say from 1835, he took a great deal of interest 
 and engaged a great deal in conversation concerning 
 Continental politics. Yet it may well be that this was 
 not the original bent of his mind and feelings, and that, 
 even in those Neapolitan transactions which had led to 
 his exile, he felt much more as a Neapolitan and Italian 
 nationalist than as a politician, strictly so called." 
 
 If Frere were the most irregular of correspondents, he 
 could be most voluminous when the fancy seized him to 
 write. The next in order among the MSS. is a letter 
 of three pages in which he discusses at length Rossetti's 
 peculiar views on the interpretation of poetry. Rossetti, 
 who was then at work on his " Spirito Antipapale," prided 
 himself on having discovered some occult meaning, some 
 mystical allegory, in the works of the great mediaeval 
 poets, and Frere was not disposed to accept all his con- 
 clusions : 
 
 " MALTA, June 8, 1830. 
 
 "... There are I think two things to be considered. 
 First How much the world will bear to be told ? as, for 
 instance, supposing you were able to show a continued 
 Allegory running through the whole of Petrarch's amatory 
 sonnets, would it be prudent to venture on the promulga- 
 tion of such a discovery? Would not all the admirers 
 of Laura and all the host of sonneteers be up in arms 
 against you like the Madman in Horace, who was angry 
 at his cure, and reproached his physician for having de- 
 prived him of an agreeable illusion ? " 
 
 Herein Frere showed his wisdom : an allegory appeals 
 to few readers. Commentators including Rossetti himself 
 have written for many years in all civilised languages, 
 
 20
 
 3 o6 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 but none of them has been able to convince more than 
 his own little circle of disciples that she who stood on 
 the other side of Lethe's stream and called to the 
 wayworn pilgrim 
 
 " Guarda mi ben ; ben son, ben son, Beatrice" 
 
 was Philosophy, or any other abstract virtue. 
 
 Frere then observes that "poets are of all artists the 
 most servilely imitative ; they borrow from one another 
 (or adopt from one language into another) the same 
 forms of speech, the same combinations of images, the 
 same trains of consecutive thought, or at least, what 
 appears to be thought, but which is in fact nothing more 
 than mere mechanical association. Hence we see that 
 the old rubbish of Heathen Mythology still holds its 
 place in poetry, and the Gods and Goddesses flourish in 
 verse, as handsomely as ever they did 2000 years ago. 
 
 " Now there was at the time of the Revival of Learning, 
 a little pedantic fanatical Coterie who chose to occupy 
 themselves with projects for the revival of Heathenism, 
 and this is a fact attested by the correspondence of 
 Erasmus, who speaks of himself as exposed to their 
 enmity and antipathy. 
 
 " But, I would ask, is it allowable to put these things 
 together, and to infer from the existence of a heathenish 
 Sect in later times (some of whom were poets, and em- 
 ployed of course heathen imagery) that therefore all 
 modern poets who have made use of heathen imagery 
 are to be set down and catalogued as belonging to the 
 Sect which Erasmus denounces ? 
 
 " . . . . With respect to secret societies, my belief is 
 that they are the natural growth of the human mind 
 which delights in mysterious confidences and pledges of 
 mutual secrecy and reciprocal support : the operation of
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 307 
 
 this principle may be traced even among boys at school, 
 and I could give you an instance of it, from my own 
 recollection. 
 
 " Historically speaking, I believe that one secret associa- 
 tion at least may be found derived by successive changes 
 and affiliations from the most remote times ; but as to 
 their efficacy in governing, or in any way materially 
 influencing the affairs of the world, I am a great sceptic. 
 They are the natural refuge of a defeated faction of an 
 antient form of worship when abolished of a Reform 
 when suppressed and crushed. And it follows of course 
 that whenever the faction regains its ascendency, or the 
 Reform is effected their triumph will be accompanied 
 with some exhibition of the symbols, and some display 
 of the jargon with which they had before consoled their 
 seclusion and depression. 
 
 "It is a very common error in natural Philosophy to 
 conclude that an agent which is discovered wherever an 
 
 effect is produced, must of course effect everything 
 
 I think that the very extraordinary success with which 
 you have developed this obscure and unobserved portion 
 of the social organization of Europe in the middle ages 
 exposes you in a more than ordinary degree to similar 
 errors in your estimate of the efficacy and importance 
 of those secret associations whose existence you have 
 detected and traced with so much acuteness, that you 
 may be induced to overlook or underrate the efficacy of 
 all the other mighty agents which, in those changefull and 
 extraordinary times, were effecting alterations almost as 
 rapid as those which we now witness. . . . 
 
 " I find that I have been writing in a very magisterial 
 and authoritative style, but you who have seen something 
 of the modern tone of Criticism must be aware that 
 whenever a man devotes his time and talents to a
 
 308 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 particular pursuit, be becomes liable to be lectured and 
 corrected by those whose total ignorance of the subject 
 enables them in their own opinion (and sometimes in that 
 
 of the world) to take a more enlarged view of it 
 
 I shall be very glad to see what you have written, if 
 you can find any safe way of sending it but I think 
 best to write this my Review of it beforehand. Nothing 
 flattens the spirit of a Review so much as the previous 
 perusal of the work ! ! " 
 
 A few months later, Frere lost his wife, and Rossetti's 
 letter of condolence is touching and affectionate. It closes 
 with an entreaty to Frere to come home an entreaty 
 echoed by all Frere's family and acquaintance, but which 
 was never granted. In 1832 the " Spirito Antipapale " 
 was published, and Rossetti sent a copy to Frere, as his 
 answer to the objections which have just been quoted. 
 He was now Professor of Italian at King's College. On 
 receiving the book, Frere sent a gift of money, which 
 Rossetti thus acknowledges : 
 
 "8 May, 1832. 
 " My generous Benefactor, 
 
 "... If you knew how many anxieties you have 
 soothed in my mind by your unexpected gift, if you knew 
 how timely and appositely it has come to relieve me from 
 a state such ' die poco e piit morte' you would feel all the 
 value of your generosity, and would allow me to express 
 in part how I regard it. . . ." 
 
 He then discusses his favourite theory " that the works 
 of Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio not to speak of very 
 many others who wrote from age to age up to our time 
 are all pertaining to a sect, and in especial to the secret 
 society of Freemasons. You will see the whole occult 
 doctrine of the sect disclosed for the first time and applied
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 309 
 
 to the works which I have been examining. . . . But 
 above all you will perceive that the so-called ' Platonic 
 Love ' (the spirit of which passed from Spain to Provence, 
 and from Provence to Italy) is no other than a fiction of 
 the Sect I speak of." 
 
 After all the sage cautions which Frere had previously 
 uttered, it is amusing to find him entirely thrown off his 
 balance by Rossetti's "discoveries," and going beyond 
 him in the new scheme of interpretation : 
 
 "MALTA, July 27, 1832. 
 
 "... Taking the Key which you have given us, I have 
 applied it to Chaucer, and find that it serves to show 
 him to have been a partizan of the Sect, and an adept 
 in the secret language. I had before imagined it possible, 
 that (as Dryden did afterwards) he might have translated 
 Palamon and Arcite, merely for the sake of the Poetry 
 without any knowledge of its secret meaning. I now am 
 convinced that this is impossible. I find in him moreover 
 other things most extraordinary and unexpected : namely, 
 the point upon which you have been most reserved, and 
 upon which you may probably think it right to continue 
 so in short, the doctrine of the Paulicians.* I see their 
 main tenet distinctly asserted in two passages, and in each 
 of them, the real intention disguised by the same artifice 
 of a pretended parenthesis which serves to cover the 
 blasphemy ! It seems to me a subject for serious considera- 
 tion how far it may be right in itself or prudent in other 
 
 * The Paulicians were a sect founded by one Constantine, an 
 Armenian, who died towards 684 ; he relied greatly on the writings 
 of St. Paul interpreted in a peculiar sense. He held the Manichaean 
 doctrine of a good and an evil Principle, and especially that the Creator 
 and Governor of the present world is diverse from the ruler of the 
 world to come, W. M. R.
 
 3io J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 respects, to give greater publicity to these prodigies ! and 
 I would give a good deal to have the opportunity of 
 conversing with you upon the subject of your unpublished 
 manuscripts, and to consider how far you may venture to 
 proceed in your vindication against the blockheads who 
 have attempted to run you down without incurring the 
 danger of hostility from other quarters." 
 
 After thanking Rossetti for his proposal of dedicating 
 a book to him, and suggesting that it might be wiser to 
 inscribe it to some new friend whose good will was not 
 "already secured as a permanent acquisition," Frere 
 discusses the indications of the existence of a pagan sect 
 which he had found in Erasmus's letters. He imagines a 
 connection " between the allegorical narratives of the Celts, 
 and those of the Poets whose enigmas you decypher." He 
 points out that " Blanche Flour, who appears in the latter 
 allegorical narratives, is to be found in Celtic Romance 
 as the mother of Tristram, Tristram being an impersonifica- 
 tion of the schismatic system of the Druids of Cornwall 
 the whole Allegory being satisfactorily decyphered by 
 Davies in his Book called Druidical Remains." 
 
 If the curious reader cares to pursue the question, and 
 has access to an old library, he will find that Dr. Davies 
 interprets the well-known story of Tristram and Iseult 
 in the most proper manner. " Tristram," according to 
 him, means " proclaimer," and " Iseult " is " something 
 covered" or "secret." Hence, the fair wife of King 
 Mark was, of course, a new religion of which the gallant 
 knight was the first high-priest. 
 
 Frere was unable to find in Milton anything "which 
 appeared to exhibit the traces of a secret doctrine." Pre- 
 sumably, he did not extend his researches to Shakespeare, 
 or we might have had another variety of the Great
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 311 
 
 Cryptogram. He begs Rossetti to set aside twenty copies 
 of his book, and to send two of them to Southey and 
 one to Coleridge. " In this Island, upon so delicate a 
 subject, I do not even venture, nor indeed do I think it 
 fair, to bring such subjects into discussion the few copies 
 of your Dante which are to be found in Italy are borrowed 
 and pass from hand to hand till they are almost worn to 
 pieces with constant reading." 
 
 This letter drew an answer from Rossetti, which, as his 
 son observes, " contains matter adapted to surprise British 
 readers." The book on which he was engaged was at 
 first intended as a second volume or sequel of " Lo Spirito 
 Antipapale." It ultimately became " II Mistero dell' Amor 
 Platonico del Medio Evo derivato da' Misteri Antichi." 
 As we shall see, it was never published, although it was 
 printed, and thus we have no opportunity of judging of 
 the contents for ourselves. Mr. William Rossetti is of 
 opinion that " the innermost arcanum indicated (but not 
 manifestly set forth) in that book is that the writers of 
 whom it treats did not believe in any Supreme Deity at 
 all, but regarded Man as his own sole Deity." 
 
 5/ft September, 1832. 
 " My very dear Sir and Friend, 
 
 "... As to what my discovery really consists in, 
 you will find it in a private MS. which I will send you 
 under precaution. If it were lost on the way, I should 
 be little concerned ; if you were to put it in the fire, I 
 should mind still less. Born as I was and brought up in 
 a most pious family, religion is to me a cherished senti- 
 ment ; and I was distressed when the sight of my mind, 
 without connivance of the will, led me on to that which 
 1 should have wished never to see." 
 
 One is reminded of the neophyte who raised the devil
 
 3 i2 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 and was unable to dismiss him. Rossetti then shows that 
 his patron was mistaken in thinking that Milton was not 
 one of " the sect." 
 
 "You, who know the Paradise Lost as I do the Divina 
 Commedia, you with the eagle eye, can turn it to those male 
 and female angels who eat and marry, to that mysterious 
 Limbo, and other (of) the like. What is the name given 
 in the Sect to him who conducts the neophyte in the grade 
 Ne plus ultra, to discover the ' Lost Word ' or ' Lost 
 Parable ' ? And what is that word ? You know it 
 it is the Verbum it is I. N.R.I., which is explained in 
 two ways. And by means of whom is the Verbum 
 discovered ? By means of Raphael, the ' illuminator 
 of the blind.' And who indicates to Adam the future 
 Verbum ? All the doctrine of Milton, and the disposal 
 of his canvas all is in the catechisms of the sect ; 
 and I can prove even to indisputable evidence, that 
 Cromwell was the head and regulator of it in his period 
 that he was the Christ who was to found the New 
 Jerusalem, announced to be so near at hand; wherefrom 
 arose all that hypocrisy both in England and on the 
 Continent, all the mystic language controlled by that 
 man of craft. And was not Milton the Protector's 
 private secretary ? . . . I am here writing to a man of 
 whom one can say ' Sapienti pauca! If he cautions me 
 ' Don't touch Milton, because, if you prove badly, you 
 will be derided, and if well, you will be persecuted, and 
 in whatever case you will be blameable,' I bow my head 
 to the sage, and say that I myself was meaning to adopt 
 that course." 
 
 All this was too much for Frere's credulity, and he 
 replied on October nth:
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 313 
 
 "... I am sorry to think that your researches should 
 have led you to conclusions which I do not think can be 
 fairly founded upon them. You may find secret science 
 interwoven with everything ; older almost than everything. 
 What then ? I am afraid that you think me more learned 
 upon these points than I really am. . . . The existence 
 of the Antipodes the Copernican system were truths 
 which at their first promulgation unhinged and disturbed 
 many minds, and perhaps those of the discoverers among 
 the rest. If this is the case with you, I trust the effect 
 will be transient." 
 
 Nevertheless, in his next letter, dated January nth 
 1833, Frere is again hankering after occult matters. He 
 quotes a passage from Erasmus to the effect that " in 
 tliat Tragedy [the Reformation] he was aware of the 
 influence of a secret agency distinct and separate from 
 that of the well-known authors and leaders of the Reform,* 
 and begs Rossetti to favour him with his interpretation 
 of the characters of Theseus and Creon and the King of 
 Thrace in the story of " Palamon and Arcite." 
 
 By some means Rossetti possessed himself of "some 
 most interesting books of Masonry, and others of the 
 1 6th and I5th centuries, which reveal the secrets of the 
 Sect of Love." " I frankly confess," he writes to Frere, 
 " that I repent of having plunged into water so deep and 
 dangerous ; my conscience has sustained a severe shock. 
 To recover it from the trial, I have had to revert to- 
 matters of religion, which shall not cease to be my guide 
 for the rest of my life. And so I resolved to suspend 
 for a while the previous discussions, and to publish my 
 Psalmody" 
 
 This was a poem, " Iddio e 1'Uomo," which Rossetti 
 published in 1883, and dedicated to Frere. He naively
 
 3 M J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 assures his patron that he need not scruple to accept the 
 dedication, since " some English men of letters " had 
 advised that the poem should be inscribed either to the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury or to the Bishop of London. 
 
 But he could not leave the forbidden subject. "Were 
 I to tell you all that I have lately discovered, so as to 
 impose silence on the wordy disbelievers of my discoveries, 
 I should astound you. I have in my hands petitions from 
 Inquisitors to the Pope, begging him to extend their 
 powers, as they had found out that the poets, in their 
 fiction of love-affairs, concealed a different meaning. I 
 "have historical facts of persons imprisoned by the Holy 
 Office in the i6th century for having revealed the keys 
 of the conventional diction in which many books were 
 written. And other and yet other things which I leave 
 unsaid. But, as you have remarked, whatever may be the 
 efforts I make and the force of documents and reasonings, 
 it will always be impossible to convert the bigwigs of 
 Dantism and Petrarchism." 
 
 Even the composition of religious poetry did not succeed 
 in calming Rossetti's mind. He writes again on April 3rd, 
 1883: 
 
 "... I will tell you candidly, my dear Sir, that that 
 subject-matter is of incalculable peril ; and this has 
 troubled my mind, and has made less hard to me the 
 inveterate and unjust objections which were made against 
 me. The explanation of the mysteries, made according 
 to the doctrines of the Sect, is of such dangerous beguile- 
 ment that it may be termed the greatest blow which can 
 ever be dealt at religion. The trying dilemma in which 
 I find myself is this : if I choose to make the full demon- 
 stration of my theory, so as to impose silence on my 
 gainsayers, I shall appear impious, and shall be harmful ;
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 315 
 
 if I choose to state the matter with prudence and by 
 halves, I shall always give an opportunity to the ill-offices 
 of adversaries. In this hard case, it is better to abide the 
 assault and be silent. Even in your eyes I shall perhaps 
 be a bad man, or at least an anti-religious one, if I impart 
 to you some of my interpretations : what then is to be 
 done ? Consign so much labour to the fire ! At times I 
 have been tempted to this, but as yet have not had the 
 courage to do it." 
 
 Favourable notices of his " Spirito Antipapale," and 
 encouragements to proceed with his work, poured on 
 Rossetti from his own countrymen. Count Ugoni prophe- 
 sied that he would, one day, " be cited as a phenomenon 
 in literary history." But the sale of the work did not 
 progress rapidly, only two hundred copies being sold out 
 of five hundred. 
 
 Frere wrote on June 8th, thoroughly sympathising with 
 Rossetti's difficulties, and affirming the strength of his own 
 religious convictions. "In an infinite system, it is impos- 
 sible for a finite understanding to affirm of any two points 
 that they are opposite and contradictory. This I conceive 
 is as true in Metaphysics as any Theorem in Mathematics, 
 and this is the true answer to good people whose faith is 
 shaken because they are unable to trace Kangaroos from 
 Noah's Ark to New South Wales." 
 
 Three weeks later he wrote a letter of good advice, 
 which, as it extends over four large sheets, is too long to 
 be given in full. It is certainly among the most charming 
 that he ever wrote. 
 
 ' PIETA, June 29, 1833. 
 " MY DEAR ROSETTI, 
 
 " I ought before this time to have acknowledged the 
 receipt and perusal of your enlarged Edition, but the fact
 
 316 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 is that the microscopic beauty of your writing and the 
 weakness of my own eyes at the time made me defer it, 
 till I found them strong enough to go through the whole 
 at a single effort. . . . The perusal of this proposed Edition, 
 and the information which you give me of the exhortations 
 received from your literary correspondents, suggest to me 
 many more serious and anxious reflections. They are 
 telling you ' Your work is making a great noise you will 
 be attacked and confound your opponents and when 
 you are dead, in some Biographical Dictionary under the 
 Letter R there will be a long Article vindicating your 
 memory. Don't trouble yourself with the prospect of 
 persecution and opposition. Was there ever a man more 
 opposed and persecuted than Tasso was? And what do- 
 we see now ? Has he not got a great staring Bust in an 
 ugly Temple in the public Garden, which is the daily resort 
 of all the Dandies and Elegantes in Naples ? ' This is the 
 glorious prospect which your literary friends and advisers 
 exhort you to entertain. 
 
 " It reminds me of a story which was told me at Lisbon. 
 A Jew was going to be burnt, and the Rabble of boys were 
 very anxious to see him burnt alive, and proportionably 
 apprehensive lest he should disappoint them by recanting. 
 They therefore followed and encouraged him with shouts 
 of ' Sta fermo, Mose ! Sta fermo, Mose ! ' You can reckon 
 at least half a dozen voices all unanimously shouting out to 
 you ' Sta fermo, Mose ! ' 
 
 " But all these speculations are foreign to your actual 
 situation. If you were in Italy indeed, I have no doubt 
 that the Duke of Modena would be willing to accommodate 
 you with a Dungeon ; which, after you had consecrated it 
 by making it, for twenty years, the abode of persecuted 
 Genius, would in future Ages be visited by sympathetic 
 Tourists ; and an Album would be kept there, in which they
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 317 
 
 would each deposit their extempore effusions, composed 
 beforehand at the Inn moreover, independent of this 
 glorious posthumous prospect, your period of captivity 
 would in the mean while be soothed by hearing the known 
 voices of literary friends occasionally shouting ' Sta fermo ! ' 
 under your window. Or you might have a tomb like that 
 of Dante at Ravenna, the resort of poetical and literary 
 pilgrims observe how magnificently I treat you ! For my 
 own part, I should not care to have a tomb, where people 
 should come to evacuate their bad verses any other pollu- 
 tion would be more tolerable. But this a matter of taste 
 to return to the subject. 
 
 " If such are your aspirations, in conformity with the 
 exhortations of your Sta-fermo friends, the proper scene 
 for them is in Italy ; there you may excite a ferment, 
 attract persecution, and acquire celebrity. In England 
 people are too busy to trouble their heads about speculative 
 matters, and when it is once understood that these specula- 
 tions are of a kind likely to prove dangerous to Society, 
 Society, having other things to think of, contents herself 
 with avoiding all notice of the Work or of the Author. . . . 
 
 " If 1 had known you at Naples, my dear Rosetti, and 
 had conceived for you at that time, the same esteem and 
 regard that I have since entertained, I should have warned 
 you against being hurried away by the applauses and 
 acclamations by which you were then surrounded, which 
 the zealots of party, indifferent to your future safety and 
 happiness, and anxious to add to their political Martyrology 
 a name already eminent in literature, urged you on to the 
 sacrifice of all your early hopes and prospects. But then, 
 at least, you might have been actuated by patriotic hopes 
 and illusions. . . . But now in the name of Heaven 
 for what are you called upon to sacrifice yourself finally 
 and irretrievably?
 
 318 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 " When you were going to England I warned you by 
 the example of Foscolo. But, believe me, the abandon- 
 ment in which Foscolo found himself would be nothing, 
 compared to that which you would experience ; if it could 
 be said of you that you were the Author of a " dangerous 
 work" What could your friends do for you ? I cannot 
 easily believe that you have many friends more warmly 
 interested for you than I am. But, how could I deny 
 that work was dangerous, when the perusal of it would 
 convict me of a Falsehood ? or would it be in my power 
 to persuade any man that the Author of a dangerous 
 Work might nevertheless be a safe instructor for his 
 family ? . . . . 
 
 " I do not know what course you may have taken, and 
 if you should have determined to bring these matters into 
 discussion, I might find myself indirectly contributing to 
 the service of infidelity, if you should in the mean time 
 have become irrecoverably bound to it, the publication of 
 your enlarged Edition would have so bound you, and in 
 that case, the dedication prefixed to the Salterio * would 
 have marked me to all the World, either as a hypocrite, 
 who encouraged opinions which he had not the spirit to 
 avow openly ; or as an imbecile old dupe blinded by 
 cajolery, and unable to detect an intention which was 
 now manifest to all the World. Others might think 
 perhaps that a great honour was done me in having 
 my name illuminated by a conflagration of which a 
 man of your genius was the Incendiary but it is an 
 honour which I am happy to have escaped, at least for 
 the present. 
 
 " There are many things, my dear Rosetti, which induce 
 me to fear the worst for you. Your openness to adulation 
 such as that of Count Segovi (which my sister when 
 * Jddio ed VUomo
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 319 
 
 she saw it, said it (sic) was an affront to your under- 
 standing) and which is just a repetition of the same sort 
 of encouragement which induced you to put yourself for- 
 ward at Naples. ' They are persuading him,' she said, ' to 
 go forward and set fire to a Mine.' The influence of your 
 brother Exiles I judge them whether justly or no from a 
 sample or two I have seen here ; a young man came as 
 a refugee, he had been obliged to leave Naples, he said, 
 having renounced the Cathl Religion. 'What religion 
 then do you now profess ? ' ' Sono del MetJiodo' As he 
 did not look at all like one of our Methodists, I enquired 
 what the Methodo meant? When I was told in a con- 
 fidential tone ' Sono Carbonari.' About six weeks before 
 I had seen another, precisely of the same description. 
 That you should associate with your brothers in Exile is 
 natural even the satisfaction of hearing your native 
 language spoken is an inducement and though they may 
 not be so far advanced in their philosophic views as the 
 young gentlemen of the Methodo, yet it is not to be 
 imagined that they will advise you to maintain a self- 
 denying silence upon subjects sacro digno silentio, they 
 would rather encourage you to go forward and set fire 
 
 to the Mine 
 
 "The Gentile dispensation is essentially exoteric, and 
 the exception proves the Rule ; the Apocalypse is ap- 
 pointed to remain sealed to the time of the end. At this 
 time of the end, many of the harmonies of the antient 
 and primitive world, now prohibited to profane and 
 impious curiosity, will be developed and revealed, but in 
 the mean time it is an inexpiable crime to attempt to break 
 open the sanctuary in which they are concealed, with 
 Engines borrowed from the Magazines of profane learning. 
 That you may avoid this guilt, and live to behold this 
 consummation which (according to the opinions of the
 
 320 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 best and most learned Christians) is not far distant is 
 the sincere wish of 
 
 " Your very sincere friend, 
 
 "J. H. FRERE." 
 
 Thus ends a letter, the writing of which must have been 
 a great labour to Frere, who confesses that " the posture of 
 writing (at least of writing legibly) is so intolerable to me." 
 Rossetti cannot have received it when he wrote again, at 
 great length, on July I, 1833, to prove that " Petrarca was 
 a sectary and not a lover." " There is his averment that his 
 Bucolics contain the same matter (expressed in metaphors) 
 as his LitercB sine Titulo which set forth manifestly his 
 indignation against the papal court ; and his Bucolics speak 
 of his love for Laura, just as the Canzoniere does. Whence 
 it can be gathered that the Canzoniere itself contains anti- 
 papal philippics expressed in the conventional diction. 
 The first solemn canzone ' Nel dolce tempo della prima 
 etate ' depicts in fact the seven sectarian grades in Petrarca's 
 seven transformations ; and his first transformation is that 
 in which he changes into a laurel." 
 
 The uninstructed reader can but echo Rossetti's own 
 exclamation at the close of his letter "A most curious 
 thing ! " He condescends to the level of middle earth in 
 the last sentences : " In this favoured island, peace is partly 
 restored, for the vertigo of Reform seems to be dissipated 
 from many minds. Pray Heaven it may cease altogether ! 
 The fear of influenza has made many persons flee the city." 
 
 On July 3Oth he writes : " Would to God that the 
 admirable political system of this country, which I pro- 
 pound as the sole exemplar of the best, could become the 
 system of my country and of all Europe ! This is, in sub- 
 stance, the supreme desire which the Salterio expresses ;
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 321 
 
 nor will as much, certainly, be contradicted by you. This 
 is not an impulse excited in me by anarchical instigators, 
 with whom I have no relations, but the spontaneous 
 impulse of a heart which mourns over the fate of my 
 unhappy country." 
 
 The length of his previous letter to Rossetti had pre- 
 vented Frere from writing to any other correspondent by 
 the same mail, and on July 3ist he had time to say little 
 more than : " Pray think well and consult with conscientious 
 men and with your own conscience before you venture 
 on the irretrievable step of revealing one of the two great 
 antagonist mysteries. My firm conviction and apprehen- 
 sion is that it will be ruinous to your fortune and future 
 peace of mind. You shall suffer no pecuniary loss by what 
 you suppress. I have not time to say more, but may God 
 guide you and preserve you from becoming the instrument 
 of evil." 
 
 Frere's next letter to Rossetti is dated October 4th, 
 when he once more filled four sheets with his fine, 
 tremulous writing. His chief object was to dissuade 
 Rossetti from preparing a corrected and enlarged edition 
 of his " Spirito Antipapale," on the grounds that those 
 readers who were not already convinced would not be 
 influenced by additional proofs and illustrations, and that 
 subscribers to the first edition would have a right to be 
 aggrieved. 
 
 w But perhaps ... it may be your intention to make a 
 similar alteration in the character of your prose work, over- 
 looking all the literary and bibliopolic calculations with a 
 view to those higher duties which the Author of the 
 'Giovane Italia' so strongly inculcates as peculiarly incum- 
 bent upon all the Italian Literati at the present moment. 
 
 21
 
 322 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 If this is the case, the very passages to which I should 
 object must be the same for the sake of which the enlarged 
 Edition is to be printed. I say ' is to be printed,' for that 
 it will be printed I feel quite sure. I am not able to 
 en g a g e you to forbearance by outbidding the golden 
 dreams of an anticipated party triumph, nor eloquent 
 enough to persuade you. But the Truth may speak for 
 itself ; and it is a truth which all history attests, that Poets 
 engaging in politics are commonly treated with levity (you 
 to be sure are an exception) by their opponents, but at the 
 same time (and in this you are not likely to be an excep- 
 tion, nor can I find any instance of an exception) they are 
 uniformly and invariably the dupes of their own associates. 
 Milton was the only man of equal political demerit who 
 escaped unhanged at the Restoration. He was the only 
 man of equal zeal and eminence who was unrewarded 
 during the Commonwealth and under Cromwell. Dryden 
 was miserably rewarded by his own party while they were 
 in power, but upon their downfall was kindly treated by 
 their enemies and by his own. To explain why this should 
 be, and always must be the case, would require a discussion 
 as long as a Chapter in Montaigne the Reason of it lies 
 at the very root of our social nature. And if you can 
 solve the Problem for yourself, the result may perhaps (as 
 I should wish it to do) remain more deeply impressed 
 upon your mind. . . ." 
 
 " Since writing the above I have read for the loth time 
 your Letter of the 30 of July which by-the-by came by 
 the last Packet And I observe in it that you say that 
 you have no connection relazione nessuna with the present 
 Frantic political sectaries. This declaration of yours, if 
 it had struck me before, might have saved me the trouble 
 of writing, and you of reading, the greater part of my 
 2nd sheet. . ."
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 323 
 
 He then urges Rossetti to write a new book, instead 
 of wasting time over " enlarged editions." 
 
 "The Precept so frequently repeated in the French 
 Cookery Books is applicable to Literature ' Servez 
 Chaud!' An Artiste who aspires to fame and popularity 
 will never allow his omelette to grow cold upon the table. 
 He never thinks of 2nd Editions of the same dish ; but 
 serves up fresh ones ' Hot and Hot ' as our own Cooks 
 say. . . . 
 
 "By-the-by, what strange work some of your country- 
 men are making : I do not mean politically, but poetically ; 
 I have just seen Signer Pellico's Tragedies. He seems to 
 think that the language of tragedy ought to be something 
 quite different from natural speech, and that all vernacular 
 phrases must be subjected to an artificial transformation 
 before they are fit for an heroic Character. So that 
 his sentences look like King Joseph's Mules, when the 
 Muleteers out of spite, harnessed them each in the wrong 
 place. All his words seem to be out of their place, restive 
 and fighting, Yet I am told that he is popular, popular 
 in the Country of Berni ! Cannot you do anything to 
 set them right, either by precept or example ? 
 
 "Adieu my dear Rosetti ! I have not said a loth part 
 of what I had to say ; but writing is so irksome to me, 
 that I would rather have gone 50 miles for the sake of 
 seeing you for ten minutes than have gone through the 
 fatigue of this scrawl." 
 
 Poor Rossetti wrote back in great distress, on October 
 3 1st, to disclaim any connection with Mazzini's celebrated 
 journal : 
 
 " I don't know why you speak to me of the Giovant 
 Italia, which I never read ; that political tinge which
 
 324 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 appears in my poem is derived from the British Constitu- 
 tion, and not from the Giovane Italia. I introduced almost 
 all of it when I was doing the work in Malta, long before 
 the Giovane Italia existed ; I could show you the old MS. 
 What Englishman could reject those sentiments, whatever 
 be the party he belongs to? ... I repeat to you, and I con- 
 firm it by solemn oath, that I am not in political relations 
 with any one, whether on the Continent or in England. 
 What I have written is the outcome of my investigations 
 on Dante ; and it is the result of chance that I have lapsed 
 into these blessed politics which now infect the world." 
 
 The conclusion of this letter refers to Frere's offer to 
 pay over to Rossetti the sum of 50 at Christmas time. 
 Rossetti points out that he has some work, and the 
 prospect of more, and that "in the decent mediocrity in 
 which I and family live there still remains to me a residue 
 of your liberality and of my industry. . . . Let me respect- 
 fully ask you not to incur further expense for me." 
 
 The eagerness of Rossetti and Frere to detect allusions 
 to " the Sect " in everything they read, reminds the modern 
 reader of the spirit in which a certain class of mythologists 
 will trace ' Dawn myths ' in Malory's Morte Arthur or the 
 nursery rhyme of Jack and Jill. Frere writes on February 
 I4th, 1834: 
 
 " Did I ever tell you an odd coincidence ? Ld. Herbert 
 of Cherbury, the earliest of our Deistical writers, is repre- 
 sented asleep in a Wood in a picture, from which a print 
 is prefixed to his Memoirs published by Walpole." 
 
 On March 3ist Rossetti replies: "Very curious what 
 you tell me about Lord Herbert, known as a free-thought 
 writer, who is represented sleeping in a wood, the 
 customary fiction of Dante, Francesco, Colonna and others.
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 325 
 
 One of the most singular books I have read in this line 
 is the Pilgrim's Progress, which is here accounted a pro- 
 duction of an eminently Christian spirit. It is a true 
 duplicate of Dante's Commedia, and is confessed as such 
 by the author himself in his preface to Parts I and 2. 
 Dante begins the course of his grades with the Eagle 
 (i.e. St. John) which introduces him to the Mysteries. 
 And thus does that Pilgrim he begins with St. John. 
 Dante had recourse to that shift to avoid persecution, and 
 the author of the Pilgrim did the like. But his book, 
 like Dante's, is almost sanctified by common opinion, and 
 one should not speak about it at all. How many masked 
 sphinxes in the literary world ! I have come upon so 
 many that it is a true marvel." 
 
 It would be difficult to conceive the feelings of the 
 Bedfordshire tinker and the Florentine noble, had they 
 been aware that such parallels >would be drawn between 
 them. But how is one to understand the following passage 
 in a letter from Rossetti dated June 1st? Did Victor 
 Hugo actually possess a sense of humour, in spite of all 
 that has been said to the contrary? or was his a similar 
 case to that of Monsieur Jourdain ? 
 
 "Even in our own days similar works are produced, 
 mirabile dictu \ Besides The Epicurean of Thomas Moore, 
 published in London in 1826, there came out in Paris in 
 1831 Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, which is one 
 of the most ingenious and interesting that I have ever 
 read of the same class. All people are plunging most 
 eagerly into the reading of it, and how few there are 
 who understand it! I knew here in London a friend of 
 Victor Hugo ; I told him that I comprehended the inner 
 spirit of that romance, and could likewise make others 
 comprehend it, and that this I could do, not by knowledge
 
 326 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 communicated to me, but by my own sole cogitation but 
 that I should carefully avoid doing that. When he re- 
 turned to Paris, he related to Hugo what I had said, and 
 gave him my Spirito Antipapale to read. And the French 
 author, in returning the book, asked him to congratulate 
 me upon it, adding that he was not surprised at my under- 
 standing the inner sense of his romance. . . ." 
 
 "... My friend Charles Lyell * has translated into 
 English verse the Lyrical Poems of Dante. ... It is all 
 founded on my system of interpretation, as stated in the 
 Preface and the Notes. He has requested me to conclude 
 his volume with a dissertation on Platonic Love, some 
 hundred pages long ; and I could not refuse so noble and 
 generous a friend, to whom I have many obligations. 
 The voice of gratitude is to me a sort of irresistible 
 command. Have no fear that I should say much I will 
 be most prudent. At every line I write, I will fancy that 
 you are at my shoulder ; and when I seem to feel a tap 
 of yours on my pate, I shall at once cancel or modify. . . . 
 I will at last unmask the old fox Petrarca ; and when the 
 mask falls, you will perceive the Platonic lover disappear- 
 ing, and the Patarin sectary coming out." 
 
 By the time of Rossetti's next letter (Feb. 1st, 1836) 
 the " hundred pages " have swelled into " two volumes, 
 quite long." " I owe so much to that Scotch gentleman, 
 in whom I know not whether prudence or learning or 
 generosity is uppermost, that I could not resist his desire, 
 although I had laid aside the idea of any such publication." 
 
 At the close of this letter, he gives us a glimpse of 
 his domestic troubles. Some years previously he had been 
 married to the daughter of Gaetano Polidori, with whose 
 calm regular features, framed in the widow's cap, her son's 
 
 * Of Kinnordy, Forfarshire.
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 327 
 
 drawing has made us familiar. She was now reduced to a 
 skeleton by a long illness. Hopes were entertained of her 
 ultimate recovery, but in the meantime she was obliged to 
 remain with her mother in the country, and the care of four 
 infant children was added to Rossetti's other labours and 
 anxieties. A timely gift of 50 from Frere enabled him 
 to defray the expenses of her illness, and he toiled doggedly 
 at his work. On the last day of February 1836 he sent 
 " the first printed sheets, going on to the middle of Volume 
 I." for Frere's approval. 
 
 Mr. William Rossetti thus explains "the sectarian omen" 
 to which Frere alludes in his next letter. " Many of the 
 writers classed by Rossetti as members of a secret sect 
 (Dante, Petrarca, etc.), date some of their most important 
 transactions as occurring on Good Friday " as, for instance, 
 Dante's vision of the three beasts in the wood. Frere 
 confuses Mr. Lyell with his famous son and namesake 
 whose " Principles of Geology " had recently been published. 
 
 " MALTA, April 6tA, 1836. 
 
 " Your work by a .singular coincidence reached me on 
 Good Friday : shall I confess that I felt annoyed at the 
 sectarian Omen ? I was so, and posponed the reading of 
 it till the day before yesterday. What, in the midst of 
 many interuptions, I have been able to read hitherto 
 (about 140 Pages) has filled me with alarm and astonish- 
 ment ; I feel convinced that of those who read what I have 
 been reading, those who draw any conclusion at all (or at 
 least 99 out of 100 of them) will be led to this short 
 inference, that all religions are alike, all equally the result 
 of human policy and contrivance, according to the words 
 of the vulgar old infidel song 
 
 " Religion's a politic trick 
 Devised to keep Blockheads in Awe."
 
 328 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 " What I have read hitherto appears to be an illustrative 
 comment upon this noble and elegant text. 
 
 " Admire, my dear Rosetti, the majestic energy and 
 brevity of the English character and language, which 
 comprises in a couple of Lines the enunciation of a 
 proposition which your Petrarchs and Dantes are obliged 
 to develop bit by bit in hundreds of Cantos and Cartloads 
 of Commentaries. 
 
 "But seriously, my dear Rosetti, for never in my life, 
 when feeling for another, did I feel more seriously and 
 deeply than at this moment, consider in what times we 
 are living; upon the very verge of the first Christian 
 dispensation, on the eve of those times in which it has 
 been predicted that faith should not be found upon 
 earth. . . . 
 
 "For myself I must say that sixteen years ago events 
 were predicted to me by a student of prophecy (my own 
 brother*) which at that time appeared to me, humanly 
 speaking, impossible ; and which at the present day 
 appear, humanly speaking, inevitable. You, my dear 
 Rosetti, according to [the] course of nature, may live, 
 and probably will live to witness some stupendous 
 development demonstrating that those systems which 
 your readers had been taught by you to consider as 
 branches of the same, were essentially the forms of two 
 Antagonist principles. Figure to yourself what will be 
 your feelings of horror, if the events which you may 
 live to witness should enforce that conviction upon your 
 mind. 
 
 "My dear Rosetti, I am afraid of appearing to act 
 
 towards you with a tone of harsh and ungracious 
 
 generosity. But you tell me you are writing more for 
 
 the sake of your family than from any other inducement. 
 
 * Hatley Frere.
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 329 
 
 If this is the only temptation which besets you, it is 
 one from which I should consider it an act of the 
 strictest conscientious duty to deliver you. You have 
 fame enough, and you are not very greedy of it, and 
 from considerations of utility and interest, it is possible 
 for a man to have too much Fame as well as too little. 
 There remains therefore the simple question of profit ; 
 and if after a strict and conscientious examination you 
 should think it better to forbear from publishing, let me 
 know your estimate of the profit which you anticipate, 
 and I will take care that you shall be no great loser 
 by your forbearance. . . . 
 
 " Mr. Lyell's name brings back to my mind that stunning 
 discovery of his. The only conclusion which it admits is 
 one which singular as it may seem I feel compelled to 
 adopt that in the two opposite hemispheres of the spiritual 
 world there are vast undiscovered tracts. . . ." 
 
 Rossetti replied to this letter by pointing out that 
 Cudworth, a clergyman of the Church of England, had 
 anticipated some of his conclusions in a work entitled 
 "The Intellectual System," published in 1678. He also 
 pleaded that his MS. had been read " by my aged Father- 
 in-law, an extremely prudent man, no less than well read 
 and of high character," and by " an English churchman, 
 Mr. Keightley, a religious and erudite man, author of 
 various accredited books," who both gave it their approval. 
 
 Three months later (August ist, 1836) he gives us a 
 glimpse of the poet whose fame was to eclipse his own, 
 and of that poet's future biographer : 
 
 " During this past season I have had a sufficiency of 
 employment, and I thank God for giving me the means 
 of maintaining my family, and educating my two boys,
 
 330 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 who are now biggish one of them eight years old, the 
 other nearly seven. They have a decided inclination for 
 study ; they recite Shakespear with an energy to astonish 
 the hearer, and they have that author constantly in their 
 hands. The elder is already studying Latin and (a rare 
 thing) with pleasure." 
 
 There is a gap in the correspondence at this date. 
 Rossetti's reputation was gradually increasing both abroad 
 and at home, and his talents and industry won him 
 respect even among those who could not agree with his 
 theories. In this class was Bunsen, who wrote to Frere 
 from Rome : 
 
 " Rossetti's book [which] I received from your kindness, 
 is ingenious but not true. He has overshoot (sic) the 
 mark. Dante was a precursor of the Reformers, but in 
 another way." 
 
 Literary reputation is not enough of itself to support 
 a family, and the struggle for existence was still hard 
 to the little household in Charlotte Street. When Rossetti 
 wrote again to Frere, on March ist, 1839, he was obliged 
 to confess : 
 
 " In health we are not lacking ; but it is now two years 
 (and I can't conjecture the cause) that I have had little 
 to do. Public regard for me has increased, and I have 
 gratifying proofs of it ; but the work and the profit have 
 diminished, and of this I have very sad evidence. Also 
 there was a robbery in my house, by a carpenter, about 
 ^40, as you may have seen in the newspapers ; and by 
 three insolvencies of schools I have lost upwards of 100." 
 
 It is evident from another letter that Frere assisted
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 331 
 
 Rossetti at this crisis, and there soon appeared a hope 
 of better days. " Amore Platonico " was still growing, 
 in spite of Frere's dissuasions. By this time it had 
 expanded into "three solid volumes." Rossetti was un- 
 certain whether it should be published, or whether it 
 should go into the keeping of some men of learning 
 alone, without ever being on the counter of any book- 
 seller." He was less desirous than of old to avoid giving 
 scandal, since Rome had placed his sacred poem "in 
 which there is nothing that does not breathe the love 
 of God and man" in the Index of Prohibited Books. 
 Frere evidently wished to know something of Charles Lyell, 
 who had been originally responsible for the undertaking, 
 as one of Rossetti's letters gives a long account of the 
 Scotchman, with whom he had corresponded for more 
 than two years before they met in London. " He held 
 at the baptismal font my first son, named Gabriel Dante 
 Charles ; the last name comes from his godfather. . . . 
 He is cited by all who know him as a true model of 
 the Scottish gentleman ; such, in short, that I count him 
 worthy of your friendship. . . . He knows a great variety 
 of things, but in Italian literature he is really deep." 
 
 In the October of 1839, Rossetti wrote with mingled 
 pride and indignation that "the Jesuits in Rome have 
 undertaken to confute my Spirito Antipapale in a series 
 of academical discourses which they read in public, with 
 a concourse of prelates and other people, and even of 
 Cardinals to the number of five or six at a time." 
 Readers of our own day will at once recall several books 
 which attained phenomenal popularity through the assist- 
 ance of eminent and well-meaning divines, who solemnly 
 warned the public against such objectionable literature. 
 Of course the result of these Roman lectures was to
 
 332 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 determine nearly every one of the hearers to procure a 
 copy of the " Spirito Antipapale," and of every other 
 book by the same author. Rossetti bewailed his fate. 
 " Whose the fault ? I was expelled from Italy without 
 solid reason, and merely because I wrote constitutional 
 poems after the King of Naples had conceded liberty 
 of the press liberty which I never transgressed or ex- 
 ceeded. Had they allowed me to remain out there, this 
 present indignation would not have arisen, for I should 
 never have written the books which I have published 
 here." His doom was to please neither side. Frere 
 wrote back on November 29th, " I am amused with what 
 you told me of Jesuit Lectures at Rome. On the other 
 hand here is an impudent giovane-Itatia-sort-of-a-fellow, 
 one Zaccheroni, who is abusing you in a preface for 
 degrading Dante as he says." 
 
 By the beginning of 1840, matters came to a crisis with 
 the "Amore Platonico." Frere entreated Rossetti to let 
 him buy the whole edition, that it might do no harm to 
 public morals. Rossetti in his reply pointed out that 
 he had been goaded into writing this objectionable work 
 through the unjustifiable attacks made upon him by critics 
 at home and abroad. Charles Lyell, who had been put 
 to great expense over it, was naturally anxious that it 
 should not be destroyed. Rossetti pleaded that he might 
 be allowed to finish printing the whole, and then, after 
 consigning a hundred copies to Lyell, he proposed to send 
 the remainder to Frere. " I have not the courage (accord- 
 ing to a phrase of Petrarca's) to burn with my own hands 
 a beloved offspring that costs me so much pain ; and, if 
 you would lend yourself to this necessary office (excuse my 
 boldness) I would despatch to you the remaining edition. 
 Whether Neptune or Vulcan be the devourer of my vigils, 
 I shall not see it, but I will endure it. However this may
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 333 
 
 be, I will never put on sale, either here or elsewhere, a 
 writing of such a quality." * 
 
 A modern writer has lately told us how he suffered, 
 when condemned by his publisher either to expurgate or 
 to suppress his greatest work, because of the respect that 
 is supposed to be due to the morals of the Young Person. 
 He alone could adequately sympathise with Rossetti, whose 
 succeeding letters are full of the proposed sacrifice. In the 
 mean time, the German men of letters were beginning 
 to awake to the merits of the Spirito Antipapale. Dr. 
 Joseph Mendelssohn explained the new system of inter- 
 preting Dante to select audiences at Berlin, and, not 
 content with this, published his lectures and sent a copy 
 to Rossetti. As Frere said, " between the Jesuits on the 
 one hand, and the Germans on the other," the book was 
 " fairly afloat." 
 
 The expenses of printing " Amore Platonico," according 
 to Rossetti, would amount to 130. Frere, who knew by 
 experience how expenses of this sort accumulate, sent a 
 draft on Messrs. Hoare for 150, and must have sincerely 
 hoped that he should hear no more of the book. However, 
 on August 1 6th, 1841, Rossetti was forced to own that 
 there was still 35 owing to the printer ; and a few weeks 
 later, came a letter from Charles Lyell, who had generously 
 agreed to retain only fifty copies of the " Amore Platonico " 
 for private distribution among his friends. Frere showed 
 his sense of this kindness by sending him, through Rossetti, 
 a copy of the translations from Aristophanes, which, being 
 unpublished until after Frere's death, were not easily to 
 be obtained. Lyell evidently thought that the highest 
 praise he could bestow upon the book was to describe 
 how it had delighted " my son the geologist," " who 
 
 * The great mass of copies of the " Amore Platonico " remained in 
 Rossetti's possession and were burnt at his death.
 
 334 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 feasted upon it here, last Christmas, with the Greek text 
 beside him." 
 
 He confessed that he was sorely exercised about " Amore 
 Platonico," "a work which seemed as if it never would 
 end, and which I heartily wish had never been begun. In 
 a mere literary view it is most ingenious, learned, and 
 valuable, but in the conclusion that must be drawn from 
 it, in spite of all Rossetti's disguise, is hateful. I am con- 
 vinced, however, that it cannot be mischievous to the world 
 at large, as it will not only be very little read, but never 
 by those who are of an age to have fixt religious opinions. 
 As regards himself it is most injudicious, and might be 
 ruinous ; for (as I long since told him) an enemy could 
 make it a bolt to shut the door of every ladies-school 
 against him, as a teacher, and thus deprive him of bread. 
 The work however is printed, and owing to me, and gives 
 me much to answer for ; but I esteem Rossetti, and should 
 grieve that after eight years' labour it were not of some 
 profit to him. What then is to be done? He is half 
 distracted, and implores me to write to you, and entreat 
 you to revoke the order which condemns his book to the 
 flames. I most cordially do so. He pledges himself not 
 to sell a copy in England, and with that I am satisfied ; 
 and as he has already sent nine copies to La giovane Italia, 
 I give consent to his dividing the remainder between her 
 and La jeune France. Where should we stop if we 
 sentenced all that is bad to fire and faggot ? Would the 
 ' Divine Legation of Moses,' * Middleton's ' Inquiry,' or 
 Milman's ' Hist, of Xty.' (all noble works) escape ? Then 
 pray spare poor Rossetti : 
 
 4 E s'ella per mio prego gli perdona, 
 Fa che gli aununzj in bel sembiante pace.' '' 
 
 * By Bishop Warburton.
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 335 
 
 Frere's answer to this is not forthcoming, but by the 
 October of the same year, Rossetti had sent twenty copies 
 of his work to Italy, and two to Germany. To divert his 
 mind from this painful subject, he was composing " a little 
 poem on the cholera morbus," and his children were already 
 a great solace to him. The eldest had for some time shown 
 his talent for painting, and, at the age of thirteen, he did 
 " nothing but invent groups and designs." " Not wanting 
 to thwart his inclination," wrote the proud father, " I have 
 started him on pursuing the profession he covets. If he 
 succeeds, he will aid my old age. A hundred times do I 
 thank God that my four children are all studious and all 
 good. If I can leave them a good education, leading them 
 on to an honourable path in life, I shall die contented in 
 the fogs of England, without regretting the sun of Italy." 
 
 There is now an interval of nearly three years in the 
 correspondence. Frere was growing very old, and was 
 more averse than ever to holding a pen, and Rossetti was 
 seized with a dangerous illness. Charles Lyell writes to 
 Frere on August 29th, 1 843 : 
 
 " Poor Rossetti has been in imminent danger since 
 February last from a pulmonary affection. He has put 
 himself into the hands of a Paris physician, and boards 
 with him. On Aug. 7th he was well enough to write 
 cheerily, and said that the fever was subdued, the pain 
 diminished and there were other symptoms of amendment. 
 He even hoped he might not be obliged to winter at 
 Marseilles. His excellent wife (a daughter of G. Polidori) 
 is with him. The London physicians thought his case very 
 desperate." 
 
 Perhaps it was this description of Rossetti's plight that 
 induced Frere to send him the help acknowledged in the 
 following letter. To judge from the opening sentences,
 
 336 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 the poet had thought or imagined some coolness between 
 himself and his patron : 
 
 3 July, 1844- 
 
 " Dear and revered Sir, 
 
 " I should not have waited so long without writing to 
 you, and would not have taken as the opportunity a new 
 beneficence of your's, if I had not been apprehensive that 
 my letters were no longer acceptable to you, as at one 
 time they were. . . . 
 
 " If you are not conscious how much I owe to you, I will 
 tell you with a greatly touched heart. I owe you my life, 
 for God ordained you to be the means of preserving it, 
 for the good of my family, whose education I hope to com- 
 plete. If I had not had in reserve 100 and upwards 
 which I owed to your liberality, I should certainly have 
 died. Without such a sum I could not have quitted my 
 business affairs for more than eight months, could not have 
 got change of air, first at Hastings, and afterwards in 
 France, could not in short have done what was prescribed 
 by Doctors for endeavouring to re-establish my decayed 
 health. . . . God grant that the ^42 which you have so 
 opportunely sent me may count for 42 years added to 
 those which Providence had allotted to your life of 
 generosity ! . . . 
 
 " You should know, my very dear Sir, that, barely re- 
 covered from a long and obstinate diabetes which wore me 
 down during about four years, I was in the best of spirits, 
 and with doubled ardour was again working in my laborious 
 profession. . . . Thus opened for me the year 1843, with 
 favourable prospects, as I had a great deal to do ; when on 
 the 1 7th of February (a day truly inauspicious) I was 
 attacked by an influenza of no little severity. I did not 
 choose to relinquish my work, and continued going about 
 and teaching, reading and writing, without an interval ;
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 337 
 
 and soon the illness continually increasing assumed a horrid 
 character of consumptive bronchitis." 
 
 Rossetti then describes his sufferings, and dwells fondly 
 upon the devotion of his wife, who never left him for a 
 single instant. 
 
 " Many a time was I tempted to write to you, but was 
 always restrained by the fear which I have above expressed 
 to you, and also by the idea that a narrative of my 
 misfortunes might be taken by you as an importunate 
 request. Pardon me, Sir 
 
 " I was advancing towards a cure with a favourable con- 
 valescence, when (most grievous disaster) in mid October 
 one of my eyes was totally darkened ; a fatal consequence 
 of the long and painful illness from which no one had 
 believed I should ever recover. In the evening I had 
 excellent eyes, and in the morning I found myself with 
 one eye absolutely blind ! Without external or internal 
 pain, without the slightest visible sign of decay, my right 
 eye was in an instant eclipsed. For three or four months 
 I remained in a tremor for the other ; but then, thanks to 
 God, it regained strength, and I now read, write, walk 
 teach, do anything and if it continues thus, I shall resign 
 myself to the will of Him who gives and withdraws the 
 light. . . . 
 
 " I may render thanks to the Giver of all good for having 
 bestowed on me four excellent children, full of health and 
 talent, educated by their mother in the principles of religion 
 and honour. They all four know four languages, and 
 speak them with facility, and write them correctly their 
 own native language, Italian, French, and German ; the 
 two boys know also Latin and Greek. My elder daughter * 
 
 * Maria Francesca Rossetti, author of " A Shadow of Dante." 
 
 22
 
 338 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 too knows a little Greek : and possesses so much informa- 
 tion historical, geographical, and of all sorts that I view 
 her with envy and shame. My elder son, who studies 
 painting as his own choice, in which he progresses well 
 so as to give promise of a good artist, has uncommon 
 poetic genius. At the age of only 13 he composed an 
 English poem in various parts, which his Grandfather, 
 Signer Polidori, has thought fit to print. . . ." 
 
 Mr. William Rossetti explains this poem to have been 
 "Sir Hugh the Heron," and is of opinion that fatherly 
 partiality has exaggerated the four children's knowledge 
 of German. The mention of English as " their own native 
 language " is curious, and shows how entirely Rossetti felt 
 himself to be cut off from that country for whom he had 
 dreamed and sung and toiled in his youth. 
 
 In spite of his illness, Rossetti had found time to bring 
 out a second edition of his Salterio, the first edition having 
 long been exhausted. His unlucky " Amore Platonico " 
 was still a source of trouble. " A gratuitous enemy who 
 by the manoeuvring of Lord Brougham poses here as a 
 man of learning and has been made Librarian of the 
 British Library," had attacked Rossetti on the subject in 
 " an insulting article in a Review." Rossetti had made no 
 reply, and refused to sell a single copy of the book to any 
 applicant. Mr. Lyell had been guilty of publishing an 
 Analysis of Dante's " Vita Nuova " and " Convito." " He 
 has aimed at confuting my system of interpreting the works 
 of Dante which, truth to tell, seems to me a little odd." 
 Rossetti pours out to Frere his grievances against Mr. Lyell, 
 who had urged him to write the " Amore Platonico," and 
 then drawn back when two-thirds of 'the printing was 
 completed, who had disturbed him in the midst of collect- 
 ing his Lyrical Poems to write a monograph on La Beatrice
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 339 
 
 di Dante, and when the printing had begun left him to 
 finish it at his own cost. Those who have seen how the 
 "Amore Platonico," which was originally intended to fill 
 a hundred pages, finally stretched into five volumes, will 
 scarcely be surprised at Mr. Lyell's behaviour. But the 
 bitterest cut of all was yet to come. " A little while after- 
 wards he wrote to me again, asking me to draw up for him 
 a programme of arguments and materials and authorities 
 to uphold the literal sense of the Divina Commedia ; and 
 I, steadily working, made it for him. And he (a strange 
 thing to say, and incredible to hear) made use of my work 
 to confute my system ! Who could ever have imagined 
 and foreseen it ? And why has he done this ? Because a 
 sister of his suggested to him to do it." 
 
 Frere returned a sympathetic answer, and seems to 
 have wished for more information, which Rossetti gave 
 on August 3rd : 
 
 " My gratuitous enemy, patronized and put forward by 
 Lord Brougham ... is named Antonio Panizzi, and he 
 succeeded in getting himself chosen Librarian of the 
 British Museum by his Lordship's help ; and poor Mr. 
 Gary, a man of such high merit, was set aside, so that in 
 indignation he quitted the British Library, to avoid being 
 subject to Panizzi." 
 
 Lord Brougham was only true to the principle which 
 has nearly always been followed by the heads of public 
 departments that of exalting an alien at the expense of 
 those who have conscientiously done the work for many 
 years ; but Rossetti, to whom Gary had shown much 
 civility on his first arrival in England, did not appreciate 
 the situation. 
 
 " When, on account of my illness, I gave up teaching,
 
 340 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 I had forty-five lessons a week I was compelled to break 
 off at the moment when the profits were coming in ; this 
 year I have had only twenty-six, what a difference ! " 
 However, Rossetti's left eye was steadily regaining strength, 
 and he hoped to be able to go on with his work. He 
 sent a copy of " Sir Hugh the Heron " to Frere, and from 
 the last letter he wrote to his patron, it is evident that the 
 young author had not desired such fame. It seems as if 
 Frere had been renewing his old warnings, from the 
 eagerness with which Rossetti disclaims the charge of 
 turbulence. 
 
 "2 September 1844. 
 
 "... No, I am not a turbulent and restless spirit. I 
 desire the amelioration, by rightful and holy means, of 
 unhappy Italy ; I desire a reasonable and just government, 
 akin to this of highly favoured England ; a constitution 
 excluding arbitrary power ; a liberty not amounting to 
 license ; and in chief a purity of dogma, closing the path 
 to blind superstition and violent fanaticism. Such is my 
 profession of faith, political and religious. A republic is 
 a dream of maniacs, impossible and perilous in the present 
 conditions of Europe, with which it appears to me incom- 
 patible. Never was a more absurd injustice committed 
 than that which expelled me from my native land. But, 
 if here I find peace, and shall continue to find bread, I 
 shall thank Providence, which for my bettering, permitted 
 that injustice. Italy will always be a field of thistles and 
 thorns, unless her lot be changed ; and for the present 
 it seems to me impossible that this should be changed. 
 Her recent agitations, the whirlwind which tosses so many 
 minds, and the blood which smokes in more than one 
 region, the rigours of Rome, of Naples, of Piedmont, the 
 tenacity of the governments in their absolutism, so much 
 upheld by the Papal Church, and so antagonistic to the
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 341 
 
 spirit of the age, make me feel that my exile is not a 
 disaster. . . . 
 
 * That dear firstborn son of mine is distressed at the idea 
 that I took it upon me to send you those verses of his, 
 written at a boyish age ; whereas those which he has 
 lately composed are far superior for he is now sixteen 
 years old, and he himself jeers at his earliest attempts. . . . 
 
 " Your much attached, 
 
 " GABRIELE ROSSETTI." 
 
 There are no more letters to him whom Rossetti 
 affectionately styled his " Maecenas." Frere's health was 
 failing, and he died in little more than a year after receiving 
 the letter which has just been quoted. We all know how 
 bravely Rossetti struggled with his difficulties, and how 
 fully his children realised their early promise. To his 
 latest day, he preserved a grateful memory of his English 
 friend. Mr. William Rossetti has described how, when the 
 news of Frere's death reached England, Rossetti fell on 
 his knees, tears streaming from his dim eyes, and exclaimed, 
 with passionate fervour, " Anima bella, benedetta sit tu, 
 dovunque set! " 
 
 .Rossetti's own life ended in 1854. The last twelve 
 years had been clouded by bodily suffering, but the mind, 
 though weakened, was still active. The struggle for 
 existence had been severe, especially during the seasons 
 in which he was completely prevented from earning any- 
 thing towards the support of his family, but even in its 
 worst straits the little household never owed a halfpenny 
 to a tradesman. Before his death Rossetti saw the early 
 promise of his son fulfilling itself on the one side in " The 
 Girlhood of Mary Virgin," and " Ecce Ancilla Domini," 
 and on the other, in " The Blessed Damozel " and " Sister 
 Helen."
 
 342 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 The dream of a free Italy which had filled Rossetti's 
 young thoughts, and which had caused him to know the 
 bitter taste of alien bread and the ruggedness of " another's 
 stairs," was not to be realised in his lifetime. A delusive 
 vision of help from France in 1831 had called forth his 
 passionate cry to Italy : 
 
 " Sorgi, sorgi, dal sonno profondo, 
 lo son 1'alba del nuovo tuo di." 
 
 But this was as false a dawn as that which he had seen, 
 star-crowned in his trance at Naples. Not until many 
 years after his death was Italy free, from the Alps to the 
 Adriatic, and her deliverance was to come, in the first 
 place, from the Piedmont that had seemed to him hope- 
 lessly crushed beneath the heel of absolutism. It is 
 pleasant to think that in the hour of her triumph Italy 
 did not forget the man who had endured life-long exile 
 for her sake. A proposal was made to transfer his remains 
 to his native land, but his widow could not bear to be 
 separated from them. Frere's prophecy was fulfilled, and 
 an inscription in Santa Croce now records the honoured 
 name of Gabriele Rossetti.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 EXEUNT OMNES. 
 
 THE epochs of our youth are marked by the gain 
 of new friends or new interests, and those of our 
 declining years by the loss of old ones. Frere had to pay 
 the penalty of a long life in the death of nearly all who 
 had been young with him. Less than a year after his 
 return to Malta, he heard of the sudden death of Canning. 
 The next loss was that of Lady Erroll, whose long suffer- 
 ings came to an end in January 1831. For some time she 
 had been a helpless invalid, unable to walk, and, as her 
 family discovered when too late, terribly bullied by her 
 maid. To the once gay and lovely Irishwoman, death 
 could only have been a merciful release, but her husband's 
 grief was overwhelming. 
 
 A mournful diversion came in the following November 
 in the shape of a visit from the dying Walter Scott. Times 
 were changed since the days of their first meeting in 
 London, when Canning and Frere had been pronounced 
 by him to be " far too good for politics." A certain amount 
 of intercourse had been kept up between them, as is shown 
 by an almost illegible letter among Frere's papers. The 
 bearer was a son of Scott's old friend Hector Macdonald 
 Buchanan, whose children were " ex officio " nephews to 
 
 343
 
 344 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Scott. The removal to a warmer climate came too late to 
 save him, and he died at Malta in 1828.* 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR 
 
 "Will you allow me so much interest in your 
 recollection as to permit me to introduce to your acquaint- 
 ance Mr. James Macdonald Buchanan, a young gentleman 
 of good family and fortune whom the apprehension of a 
 disease fatal to four elder brothers who have been cut off 
 as fast as they grew up, obliges to remain abroad. He is 
 now the last male of an ancient family and his father and 
 mother, proprietors of one of the most beautiful places on 
 Loch Lomond, are obliged to deny themselves the pleasure 
 of keeping their only remaining son at home, lest the 
 severity of his native climate should prove as prejudicial to 
 his health as it has to his unfortunate brothers. I am the 
 more interested in this young gentleman that from the 
 time of early childhood my children and the young 
 Macdonalds were always so intimate that the houses of 
 both seemed to be the same, so that 1 feel particularly the 
 distress of our good friend the father of Mr. Macdonald 
 Buchanan. 
 
 " I have little news to send you from this quarter. Poor 
 Gifford, ' the Scourge of Impostors, the Curse of Quacks,' is, 
 you see, retired to rest. Rose I have not lately seen, but 
 he had when I last heard of him got a new mode of treat- 
 ment which always amuses his complaints for some time 
 with the assistance of Hinvaes. He has not been in 
 Scotland this season, where by contriving that he shall 
 shoot black-cock and catch salmon we generally contrive 
 to make him happy for a few weeks. Last time I had the 
 pleasure of his company, I had infinite difficulty in pre- 
 venting his converting Hinvaes into a sort of Minotaur by 
 
 * Vide Scott's Diary.
 
 EXEUNT OMNES. 345 
 
 dint of cutting a bullock's hide and horns into a masque 
 and surcoat for the more of [word illegible]. But I resisted 
 this as not having too good a character among my 
 neighbours to stand the various reports to which such a 
 transformation might give rise, as one half of Teviotdale 
 would believe I had raised the devil, and the other half 
 that I had lost the moderate proportion of sound mind 
 which they are disposed to give me credit for. So you 
 may conclude and I am sure will be glad to learn that 
 Will Rose is still the old humourist he always was. 
 
 "But you, my dear [Sir] the dweller of the classical 
 Parthenope,* what are you doing for the Muses, Grecian or 
 Gothick ? Does Aristophanes proceed, and wherefore is 
 Whistlecraft silent? Has the trade of collar-making 
 flourished so much more than any other in Britain that 
 that ingenious person has no leisure vacare musis ? Let 
 it not be and do [not] let Indolence like a second Jack 
 the Giantkiller cut short the records of our British Titans. 
 I know nothing which so delighted all who could enjoy 
 fun for fun's sake without demanding some hidden satire, 
 which I believe was caviar to those [who] cannot relish 
 a jest unless it is (as some men prefer their dinner) at 
 their neighbours' expense. 
 
 "Write all this nonsense down to its right cause and 
 forgive this intrusion on the part of your old friend 
 and Dear Sir, 
 
 " Most respectful and humble Servant, 
 
 "WALTER SCOTT. 
 
 "EDINBURGH, JANUARY 27TH, 1827." 
 
 Frere prepared in a characteristic manner for Scott's 
 reception at Malta, in 1831, by setting various young men 
 to write Latin verses in honour of the occasion. One of 
 
 * Frere was then staying at Naples.
 
 346 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 these effusions still remains, written in a thin copybook 
 with marbled covers, and adorned with a design on the 
 first page representing Scott's arrival. Arrayed in High- 
 land costume, according to the artist's notions a tunic, 
 mantle, and Wellington boots he stands on the deck of 
 a vessel surrounded by Tritons, and preceded by Fame 
 blowing a trumpet. 
 
 Sir Walter was so completely the wreck of his former 
 self that only a melancholy pleasure could be derived from 
 the meeting by those who had known him in his prime. 
 The bitterness of death was passed, and those who loved 
 him felt little beside relief when the end came, a few 
 months later. 
 
 Year after year carried away Frere's relations and 
 acquaintance. A bad attack of influenza ruined the health 
 of the faithful sister who alone of all his family and 
 generation remained near him, and in January 1839 she 
 was laid in the cemetery beside his wife. His helplessness 
 without her to write letters, distribute charity, and minister 
 to his comfort in a thousand ways, was very pathetic. 
 Lord and Lady Hamilton Chichester devoted themselves 
 to the man who had supplied a father's place to Honoria 
 Blake before her marriage ; but their dutiful care could not 
 fill the void left by the removal of his contemporaries. 
 Before his own death he was called upon to mourn the 
 loss of Edward Frere, always a favourite brother, whose 
 children he regarded " almost as his own." If the earlier 
 years of his life had been spent in writing political and 
 literary satires, towards the end of his life his chief poetical 
 compositions were epitaphs. 
 
 His gift of sympathy enabled him to take a deep interest 
 in the rising generation, and in the promise of at least two 
 of Edward Frere's children he found some consolation for 
 the thought that his own day was past and gone. Their
 
 EXEUNT OMNES. 347 
 
 letters were joyfully welcomed and treasured until his 
 death. The younger, Richard, was in the I3th Light 
 Infantry, thanks to his uncle who deplored his choice of 
 a profession, but gave him a commission. In 1837 he 
 went to India with his regiment, and passed through 
 various exciting experiences. 
 
 The 1 3th formed part of "Sale's Brigade," which was 
 working towards Afghanistan. In 1839 one of Richard's 
 letters, written in the Bolan Pass, March i8th, 1839, 
 describes the dismal march of six-and-twenty miles 
 through the desert, after crossing the Indus. 
 
 After* seizing upon Candahar, our forces attacked 
 Ghuznee, and Richard Frere's regiment took a prominent 
 part in the fray. On August i/th he writes from 
 Cabul : 
 
 "... On the morning of the 23rd of August we fell in 
 at one o'clock, and marched down to within a few hundred 
 yards of the town behind a hill where we should be in 
 some measure screened from the enemy's fire, and here we 
 met the rest of the party told off for the storming party, 
 viz., H.M.'s 2nd and i/th, and the Company's European 
 Regt. A few minutes after, the I3th moved down, and 
 extended in skirmishing order the R. wing to the R. of 
 the road, and the L. wing to the L., for the purpose of 
 covering the advanced storming party, consisting of the 
 Light Companies of H.M.'s 2nd and I7th, and Company's 
 European Regt., and a company of the I3th, under Col. 
 Dennie of the I3th. You know that it is the custom to 
 send the colours to another Regt, when your own goes 
 out skirmishing, and as I was with our colours, I was 
 sent to the I7th 
 
 " As soon as the chief engineer went forward with a bag 
 of powder which they fastened to the Gate and blew it
 
 348 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 open, Col. Dannie's party rushed forward, before the 
 enemy had time to recover from their panic, and got into 
 the town. They kept up all the time a very heavy fire 
 from the ramparts on our troops. Immediately after the 
 4 companies got in, Brigadier Sale who commanded the 
 whole, led the column consisting of the Queen's 2nd, 
 Company's European Regt, followed by the I3th (who 
 closed in their centre directly the gate was burst open), and 
 the Queen's i/th. Brigr. Sale was wounded in the cheek 
 whilst leading, by a party who rushed between the head of 
 the column and rear of Col. Dennie's party the two rear 
 sections of which they cut to pieces, and caring nothing for 
 the row of bayonets opposed to them, attacked our men 
 sword in hand, and cut several of them down, and in fact for 
 a moment checked them ; however they soon recovered 
 themselves, and made good their entry. All this time we 
 had been standing in column on the road exposed to the 
 fire from the bastions, but luckily it was dark with the 
 exception of the flashes of light from the Guns, and a few 
 blue lights which they had burnt to try and get a sight 
 of us, but which had much more effect in making them- 
 selves visible. In addition to this, they almost all aimed 
 too high so that altho' their fire was heavy, our loss was 
 very trifling considering all things, and that the balls were 
 whistling about us in all directions. We found the 
 entrance strewed with the ruins of the roof of the gateway, 
 beams, planks, etc., etc., and over all this we had to make 
 our way. Here the opposition had been considerable, as 
 was proved by the number of killed and wounded lying 
 about. When we got thro' into the body of the place, we 
 formed up on an esplanade under a wall on the right 
 which screened us from the lort. The enemy still kept up 
 a fire from the houses, and detached parties on the 
 ramparts. We remained here a little time, and then the
 
 EXEUNT OMNES. 349 
 
 1 7th were ordered to attack the fort which is built on the 
 top of the mound at one end of the town ; the road up to it 
 winds along the face of the mound, and so the first gate is 
 at right angles to the wall. The men leading rapped 
 at it with the butts of their musquets, and somewhat I 
 confess to my surprise, the gate was opened without 
 opposition. . . . From hence we ran up a sloping road to 
 the centre building, a square one with a tower at each 
 angle ; the door of this was opened, and we got into the 
 courtyard of the palace ; from hence there were stairs 
 leading up to the roof, and from thence to the towers, and 
 I was fortunate enough to be the first to gain the top of 
 one of them, and the 1 3th regimental colours were the first 
 displayed on the Fort. 
 
 " The rooms were soon broken open and plunder of all 
 kinds thrown out into the court. One man of the ijth 
 got nearly 200 in gold coins, etc. The harem of Dost 
 Mahommed's son (who commanded the garrison) were 
 brought out and placed under the charge of sentries, as 
 it was supposed he was concealed among his wives. They 
 were a collection of the ugliest women I ever saw : fair, 
 but fat, with broad flat faces, and small eyes. I only saw 
 one with good features among them. 
 
 " The firing had by this time pretty well ceased in the 
 town, the inhabitants having concealed themselves. . . . 
 There were immense numbers of horses, many of which 
 being wounded, and many more frightened by the firing, 
 were galloping and fighting through the streets, and 
 trampling on the soldiers. . . . We got back to camp at 
 past 7. I must say I did not see the slightest excesses 
 committed by the men, nor was a single man that I saw, 
 shot or cut down after he threw down his arms." 
 
 Two years later Sale, fighting his way down from
 
 35 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Afghanistan, was obliged to throw himself into Jellalabad, 
 and Richard Frere was among the " Illustrious Garrison." 
 While the siege lasted, and for some time afterwards, there 
 were few opportunities of sending letters. A few lines 
 written in the minutest characters on a sheet of thin paper 
 rolled inside a quill, which the bearer might conceal in his 
 ear or his turban, occasionally reached their destination. 
 
 There is one letter of considerable length to J. H. Frere 
 dated "Jellalabad, April 29th, 1842," when communication 
 was again open, in which Richard describes the course of 
 the siege : 
 
 "You will have learned from the newspapers that in 
 October last Sir Wm. MacNaghten sent a force under 
 General Sale to put down what at the time was supposed 
 to be a partial insurrection among the Ghilgie tribes 
 between Cabul and Jellalabad ; this however turned out 
 to be merely a part of a most extensive insurrection 
 extending from Candahar to the Khyber Pass. We 
 arrived at Gundamuck the end of October, having had to 
 fight our way the whole way from Cabul through a most 
 difficult country. Whilst we were at Gundamuck we 
 heard of the murder of Sir A. Burnes (which was the 
 commencement of the insurrection at Cabul), and that 
 the troops at Cabul, about 6000 in number, were closely 
 besieged. The whole country was now in a dreadful 
 disturbed state, and Sir R. Sale determined to throw 
 himself into Jellalabad. At Gundamuck, there were some 
 Khyber and Afghan levies who had been left as a garrison ; 
 no sooner were our backs turned than these people rose 
 against their officers, burnt the magazine and Cantonment, 
 and it was with some difficulty that the Officers and a few 
 men who remained faithful made their way into our camp 
 that night. The following day we reached Jellalabad,
 
 EXEUNT OMNES. 351 
 
 which we found to be a large town surrounded by a wall 
 sadly dilapidated, so much so as, in many places, to have 
 had a pathway made over it for donkeys and bullocks 
 to go up and down on their way into and out of the 
 fort. We had heard that there were plenty of supplies in 
 the commissariat stores, but on our arrival found just one 
 half-day's supply of flour, and some barley and Indian 
 corn. We got into the town late in the evening, and 
 held the gates with small parties of our own people ; the 
 enemy surrounded the fort in great numbers and burnt 
 the Cantonments, which lay about ^ a mile from the walls. 
 The next morning we were able to look about us, and 
 occupied the walls, but as there were no parapets, we 
 were obliged to lie down flat on the ramparts and bastions 
 in order to screen ourselves from the fire of the enemy, 
 who in consequence of the thick cover afforded by gardens 
 and orchards which came close to the wall, were rather 
 too close for us to be safe. The next day we all sallied 
 and beat off the enemy with very great loss to them, and 
 next to none on our side. One or two of the neighbouring 
 chiefs came in, and we got supplies from all quarters. We 
 set to work to repair the walls and destroy the cover near 
 the town, which we were enabled to do, as we very 
 fortunately had with us a party of 300 Sappers and Miners, 
 whose tools we took and made such good use of our time 
 that we very soon had built a parapet all round the fort 
 and repaired all the breaches. On the ist Deer, the enemy 
 who had been for some days gathering from all directions, 
 came down again in great force, and annoyed our working 
 parties. We again sallied, and again drove them away 
 with great loss. The rest of the month was passed with- 
 out our being further annoyed. The beginning of January, 
 we heard of Sir W. MacNaghten's murder, and soon after 
 of a treaty having been entered into with the Cabul
 
 352 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 insurgents for the evacuation of Afghanistan. Orders 
 were sent down to Genl. Sale to proceed to Peshawur, 
 but he suspecting treachery, refused to move until joined 
 by the Cabul force. On the I2th a solitary officer arrived, 
 wounded and half dead of fatigue, from whom we heard 
 of the total destruction of that ill-fated army." 
 
 Richard then briefly tells the story that we know too well, 
 of incredible folly and tragic disaster. The last that his 
 informant, Dr. Brydon, had seen was a crowd of the enemy 
 surrounding the party of Europeans, "who were laying about 
 them in all directions with the butts of their musquets." 
 
 A large piece has been torn from the last sheet of this 
 letter, but it is possible to fill in some of the details from 
 a journal kept by Richard Frere during the siege, and sent 
 to his brother. " On the morning of the I4th [the day 
 after Brydon's arrival] the Cavalry patrolled some miles 
 in the Cabul road to look for stragglers. They brought 
 in the bodies of three officers who had been cut down 
 within four or five miles of Jellalabad. 
 
 "On the 1 2th Feb. we heard of the Birth of the Prince 
 of Wales, and a salute was fired, but powder being rather 
 scarce, the guns were loaded with very small charges. 
 
 " On the 1 5th we were not a little surprised at seeing 
 Mahommed Ukbar's camp pitched on the opposite side the 
 river. Several of the Tents were evidently English, spoils 
 of the ill-fated Cabul army. 
 
 "About n o'clock a.m. on the ipth, while we were all 
 at work digging the ditch round the town, the fruits of 
 two months' labour* were destroyed in a minute by a 
 
 * R. Frere writes to his brother on Nov. 3Oth, 1841: "We are 
 becoming finished builders, having had so much practice, and are 
 at it from 7 a.m. to 10, and again from 11 to 2, every day, Sundays 
 included."
 
 EXEUNT OMNES. 353 
 
 dreadful shock of an Earthquake. The earth undulated 
 to such a degree that it was difficult for us to keep on 
 our legs, the ground cracked in several places, and the 
 noise (resembling a very high gale) was so loud that the 
 crash of falling walls was unheard. The parapets were 
 completely ruined, the ramparts in some places cracked, 
 five bastions thrown down, three breaches made in the 
 walls, and one of the gates almost thrown down. The 
 loss of life among the Troops was very small, the whole 
 of them being at work or on guard. . . . Such was the 
 activity with which the Troops worked to repair their 
 defences that before night a parapet of dry clods was 
 thrown up all round the Town, and the breaches made 
 impracticable. In a week the whole was in almost as 
 good a state of repair as before. For two months 
 afterwards we seldom passed 24 hours without one or 
 more shocks, but none to be compared to the first. 
 
 " On the 22nd about 8 p.m. news was brought from 
 the Cabul Gate that the Enemy were moving down to 
 the attack ; the Troops were all immediately under arms, 
 but our supposed Enemy proved to be two old walls, 
 which in the moonlight had exactly the appearance of 
 compact bodies of men." 
 
 And so the Journal goes on, with its bald record of 
 the struggle against the forces of man and of nature. 
 There were occasional sorties, in which the besiegers 
 suffered more than the besieged. On March 9th, news 
 came that Ghuznee had capitulated, but a spark of hope 
 may have cheered the garrison on March 1 5th, when they 
 heard that " Ukbar was wounded." It proved to be a 
 trifling injury in the arm, caused by the accidental 
 discharge of a gun by one of the Sirdar's servants. 
 The wretched man was in consequence burned alive 
 
 23
 
 354 J- H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 with his brother. Then a Moollah in the camp prophesied 
 that an earthquake would throw down the city walls, 
 and the enemy turned out to wait for it. The shock 
 came in the course of the afternoon, but it was too slight 
 to affect the garrison. On April ist the cavalry made 
 a sortie, and captured four hundred and eighty sheep. 
 "Some of the sheep were given to the 35th N.I., but 
 they (although on half rations) desired that their share 
 might be given to the men of the I3th who required it 
 more than they did. Genl. Sale, hearing this, ordered 
 that 2 Ibs. of flour should be issued to each Sepoy of 
 that Regt. instead of the sheep, and the men of the I3th 
 begged their commanding officer to express their gratitude 
 to their fellow-soldiers of the 35th." 
 
 On April 5th and 6th spies brought word that General 
 Pollock had been defeated in the Khyber Pass. A royal 
 salute thundering from the enemy's camp convinced the 
 garrison of the truth of these reports, and all the senior 
 officers of the garrison represented to General Sale that 
 their only hope of escape lay in attacking Ukbar while 
 his force was weakened by the absence of the troops 
 whom he had sent to the Khyber. The General yielded 
 to their representations, and a sally was made on the 
 morning of the 7th, in which the garrison, although they 
 suffered heavy loss, gained the advantage. The enemy 
 " broke and fled in all directions, leaving guns, tents, etc., 
 behind them, we set fire to the camp, and brought in the 
 guns. . . . The next morning supplies poured in, and 
 Jellalabad was relieved. Letters were received from 
 General Pollock announcing his safe arrival on this side the 
 Pass. The salute, we afterwards found, was in consequence 
 of news of the Shah's murder having been received." 
 
 In reading the diary of any siege, one is generally 
 impressed with its baldness. All events seem reduced to
 
 EXEUNT OMNES. 355 
 
 the same dead level, and the writer chronicles a hailstorm 
 and a sally with an equal degree of interest. There is 
 no fine writing, no seeking for effect, in Richard Frere's 
 business-like record. The account sent to his uncle, so 
 far as it can be read, is even more dry and brief than the 
 entries in the diary, and at the conclusion he apologises 
 for having said so much about his own adventures, "but 
 at this end of the world I have little else to talk about." 
 
 In September 1842 Richard was at Cabul, whither the 
 hostages had just been escorted in triumph after a narrow 
 escape at Bameean. " Their Keeper received a letter 
 directing him to take those that could move across the 
 frontier to Khooloom, and to kill those that could not stir. 
 Fortunately Major Pottinger, who was with them, was 
 equal to the emergency ; he represented the certain reward 
 they would get by not obeying this order, and proceeded 
 to issue summonses to the chiefs round them to come in 
 to him, and actually appointed a new Governor of 
 Bameean, from whom he got a present of 1000 Rupees ; 
 those Chiefs that came in he rewarded with presents 
 [? permission] to levy the taxes of different districts, and 
 a Kafila fortunately passing through the valley, he levied 
 a contribution from it, which gave him the means of 
 distributing presents among the chiefs. They reached 
 Kulloo on their way back ; and the very day after they 
 left it, they heard that a party of Ukbar's Horse had 
 passed through after they quitted the place. By that 
 time their party had been reinforced by the Kuzzilbashes 
 who went out to meet them ; and a few days after, they 
 met General Sale. . . . They are all looking well, I think, 
 except Ladies Macnaghten and Sale and Mrs. Sturt,* who 
 are looking worn." 
 
 * Mrs. Sturt, whose first husband had been killed at Cabul, married 
 again and returned to India, to be one of the first victims of the Mutiny
 
 356 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 At the conclusion of this letter, Richard Frere apologises 
 for haste, as his messenger is anxious to start, and looks 
 forward to a meeting with his brother, when he will have 
 so much to tell him. That meeting was never to take place. 
 On his way down to Ferozepore, Richard Frere died of 
 fever at Rawul Pindi, in November 1842, regretted and 
 missed by all who knew him, but most of all by the 
 brother in Bombay who had been counting the days till 
 his coming. 
 
 This brother, afterwards to be famous as Sir Bartle 
 Frere, was very dear to the uncle in Malta, at whose 
 house he had spent a month on the way out to India, 
 taking advantage of the opportunity to learn Arabic from 
 Joseph Wolff. Sir Bartle Frere's biographer says of 
 J. H. Frere : " From him Bartle in some measure derived 
 his early political ideas, and learnt the veneration for 
 Pitt and Canning which he always retained." The uncle 
 and nephew had much in common (besides a warm 
 admiration for Mountstuart Elphinstone) and especially 
 that marvellous wideness of sympathy which gave them 
 the power of entering into the thoughts and feelings of 
 others. Their letters touch upon every imaginable subject. 
 At one time Bartle is diligently writing of Sanskrit to 
 his uncle, who wished to know something about that 
 language ; at another he has been patiently enduring^ 
 with the kindness and courtesy for which he was after- 
 wards a proverb, a two-hours' lecture on the mulberry 
 from a luckless cultivator " who thinks, talks, and dreams 
 of nothing but mulberry trees." The ancient Maharatta 
 kgends interested him at a time when few Englishmen 
 took any note of the superstitions of the conquered race ; 
 and so did some " red and small perfumed plantains " 
 which he succeeded in procuring for the Pieta. The love 
 of a garden was born in all the Freres.
 
 EXEUNT OMNES. 357 
 
 It is clear, from a passage in one of the letters, that he 
 and his uncle were accustomed to exchange their views 
 on the political affairs of India. At this time he was 
 a young man under thirty years of age, but his estimate 
 of the situation has proved singularly just and accurate. 
 
 "Feb. 2yd, 1840. 
 
 " Things have much changed at Lahore since this time 
 last year ; the Prince Kurruck Singh * is all but a prisoner 
 in the hands of his Father's Minister, and all parties seem 
 looking to us as the power who is to decide which party 
 shall have the ascendency, instead of, as in Runjeet Singh's 
 time, the only one in India whom it was worth their while 
 to conciliate so that the Punjab must probably before 
 long become, whether we wish it or not, as much a part 
 of the British Empire as the Nizam's dominions. 
 
 " The court of directors has approved of all that was 
 done relative to the Rajah of Sattara. . . . No reasonable 
 doubt could be entertained of his having held correspondence 
 with foreign powers, which he had been warned, when first 
 seated on the throne, would, if ever discovered, entail the 
 loss of his kingdom ; and it was perhaps a stretch of 
 clemency, though undoubtedly a well-judged one, to offer 
 him any choice but that of his place of confinement. 
 It is therefore the more extraordinary that he refused 
 the terms offered, which were simply that he should 
 return to the old regime by which everything he did 
 was under the eye of the Resident. On his growing up 
 this rule had been relaxed by Mr. Elphinstone in con- 
 sequence of the Rajah's great aptitude for public business ; 
 but its relaxation was a pure matter of sufferance, and 
 not of right. I should not have mentioned all this, but 
 
 * The half-imbecile son whom Runjeet Singh had appointed his 
 'heir.
 
 358 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 for a circumstance which the Governor mentioned as his 
 explanation of the extraordinary obstinacy of the Rajah, 
 and which struck me as very curious. Sir James says 
 that the impression left on his mind was that the Rajah 
 thought this Governor had no power to depose him, 
 and that whatever the Governor and Court of Directors 
 might do, his case would be taken up in Parliament, and 
 his kingdom restored to him. This delusion he (Sir 
 James) attributes chiefly to the license of the Press, which 
 without knowing anything of the rights of the case, took 
 up the Rajah's cause as that of an injured man, and 
 raised in him all these extravagant hopes. He quotes 
 an opinion of Sir J. Malcolm, that all the difficulties which 
 attended his (Sir J. M.'s) negociations at Baroda were 
 traceable to the liberty of the Press then much less free 
 than now and concludes by a prediction that the liberty 
 of the Press will be found to create difficulties im- 
 measurable in our intercourse with native states, and that 
 by operating in the same way as it has done at Sattara,. 
 lead gradually to the absorption of every one of them. 
 Does not this sound strange from a somewhat ultra Whig 
 writing to a Govr. Genl. and President of the Board of 
 Control of similar politics ? " 
 
 A few years later Bartle Frere was appointed Resident 
 of Sattara, then governed by Appa Sahib, brother of the 
 obstinate Rajah who had been removed to Benares. At 
 the death of Appa Sahib, Sattara was " annexed " by Lord 
 Dalhousie, in spite of the indignant protests of Mountstuart 
 Elphinstone, Sir George Arthur, Frere himself, and many 
 others who held to the old traditions of English faith and 
 honour. 
 
 When the disasters in Afghanistan began to follow each 
 other, thick and fast, Bartle Frere sent to his uncle the
 
 EXEUNT OMNES. 359 
 
 reports that came to Bombay from the North-west, with 
 comments of his own. On October i6th, 1842, he 
 writes : 
 
 " I got a small note from Richard written on the I5th 
 September from the Race course at Cabool. He was in 
 excellent health and great spirits, and had the honor to 
 command the leading company of his Regiment in forcing 
 the pass of Jugdulluck, where Sir Robert Sale was wounded. 
 I have only however received one of the daily letters which 
 he says he had written since leaving Gundamuck, and the 
 force had been several days without receiving any post. 
 This, after all their brilliant and very decisive success, is 
 a bad commentary on Lord Palmerston's arguments as to 
 the soundness of the Whig Affgan policy, and his assertions 
 that we might and ought to take permanent possession of 
 the country." 
 
 It was not long after this that Bartle received the news 
 of his brother's death. The blow was stunning, but he 
 struggled bravely to continue his old work and keep up 
 former interests. In February 1843 he sat down to write 
 to his uncle, and after nearly filling a sheet was interrupted 
 " by the arrival of the most unexpected news from Scinde : 
 there had for some time past been every prospect of a 
 rupture with the Ameers the post had been stopped, and 
 numerous marauders had made their appearance on the 
 Cutch frontier but no one was prepared for the news with 
 which, on the 27th, Major Outram made his appearance in 
 Bombay. He had been sent to Hyderabad to induce the 
 Ameers to sign a fresh Treaty which has been imposed on 
 them. After much persuasion they were induced to sign 
 it, but immediately afterwards the Residence where he was 
 living was attacked. He defended it with 100 men for 
 four hours against 4000 Beloochees with 6 guns, and when
 
 360 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 his ammunition ran short made an orderly retreat to the 
 river and joined Sir Chas. Napier, who on the i/th, the 
 next day, with 2800 men of all arms, attacked the Enemy 
 22,000 strong and very well posted, and after a desperate 
 Engagement completely routed them ; the principal Ameers 
 immediately surrendered, and Hyderabad was given up to 
 us on the 2oth. ... I only wish our cause of quarrel had 
 been more just." 
 
 Napier's victory was "the hardest bought and most 
 sanguinary battle that has occurred for years past," and 
 our difficulties were by no means ended with the defeat of 
 the Ameers. Bartle Frere foresaw the troubles that were 
 to come upon us in India, when others in a higher official 
 position were blind and deaf to the threatenings of the 
 storm. Writing to his uncle on New Year's Day, 1844, 
 he says : " The peace of Scinde seems threatened by com- 
 binations precisely of the kind you describe, originating in 
 Affganistan at Candahar, and having for their object the 
 union of all true believers in a religious war. The time for 
 this to succeed is hardly, I think, yet arrived ; but unless 
 means are taken to consolidate our Empire more effectually 
 than has hitherto been attempted, such combinations will 
 be formed every 1 5 or 20 years, and must at last effect their 
 object. Unless, indeed, the direction in which the danger 
 is to come be changed by a decay in religious spirit among 
 the Mahometans all over the world, of which there are 
 many symptoms." 
 
 There are other letters from Bartle Frere to his uncle, 
 but they are not likely to interest readers beyond the circle 
 of his own family. In one of them he announces his 
 engagement to Miss Arthur, whom he married in the 
 October of 1 844. The husband and wife then left Bombay, 
 and spent part of their honeymoon in Malta at the Pieta, 
 where J. H. Frere was rejoiced to welcome the nephew
 
 EXEUNT OMNES. . 367 
 
 after his own heart. It was then that uncle and nephew 
 held the long conversations on past days that Sir Bartle 
 afterwards recorded in his " Memoir of J. H. Frere." The 
 newly married pair then went on to England, having, as it 
 proved, taken leave for ever of the old uncle, who died at 
 the beginning of 1846 in January, the month which had 
 been fatal to his wife and to his sister. 
 
 Old John Murray, no bad judge of talent, put J. H. 
 Frere on a par with such men as Scott and Byron, saying 
 that he might have done anything that he chose. Had he 
 chosen that was the sting of it. With everything in his 
 favour talents, position, friends, health, and means he 
 accomplished almost nothing. A translation of some of 
 Aristophanes' comedies that still holds the field against 
 newer versions some fragmentary renderings from the 
 Greek and Spanish, and some burlesques these were his 
 chief contributions to literature. In politics his name will 
 be for ever associated with disaster and blunders. He 
 held all the winning cards, but he left the game to others 
 who were less well equipped at the outset. 
 
 Yet there is another side to the picture. The desire for 
 finished achievement is natural, and we would fain have 
 something to show at the end of life. But to those who 
 are in the midst of the struggle, it is oftentimes a blessing 
 to find a listener who is detached from it without having 
 lost interest in it, who is clever enough to understand the 
 hopes, fears, schemes, and difficulties of others, without 
 having any personal stake in the game. That Frere on 
 his enchanted island could enter into other interests, how- 
 ever various, these extracts from his letter-bag must have 
 shown, and if he would strike no blow for any one of his 
 old standards, he was always ready to help others to buckle 
 on their armour. 
 
 The fate of most of his correspondents has already been
 
 362 J. H. FRERE AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 told. Lady Cadogan died a little while before him ; Lady 
 Davy, in spite of her having "no stomach left," as she 
 wrote to Frere, survived until May 1855. In 1850 Mrs. 
 George Frere was laid in her grave, having sought peace 
 and ensued it, throughout her life ; and exactly twelve 
 months later, the elder Bartle Frere died. Charles Ellis 
 (Lord Seaford) died in the same year as Lady Cadogan. 
 William Stewart Rose, deaf, rheumatic and imbecile, had 
 been mourned as lost by all who loved him, for some time 
 before death put an end to his sufferings in 1843. 
 
 The letters given in the first chapter carried us far back 
 into a past that we only know by history and tradition ; 
 the letters in this last chapter tell of events which, if not 
 within the memory of many of us, belong to our own age. 
 The Reform Bill has effected a complete revolution in 
 politics, similar to that caused in other spheres of action 
 by the introduction of railways and cheap literature, 
 machine-guns and ironclads. When John Hookham 
 Frere opened his eyes upon the world, a naval commander 
 put on white silk stockings and all his medals and orders 
 before taking his ship into battle ; members of the House 
 of Commons taunted each other in Latin quotations, and 
 settled their differences with pistols. Publishers and 
 editors begged for contributions, and would pay a fiand- 
 some fee in advance to a promising young author, ^ckets 
 for the opera were not to be purchased by every nouveau 
 rtcfie, but could only be obtained from one 6^the Lady 
 Patronesses. It was a different world more gciurtly, more 
 leisurely ; now gone beyond recall. 
 
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