live, and prove as healthy as their eldest brother. With regard to the little foundling which fo many friends or enemies chose to lay at my door, I am perfectly innocent, even of the knowledge of that production; and all the faults or merits of the Hiftory of Oppofition must, as I am informed, be imputed to Macpherson, the author or tranflator of Fingal. Dear Madam, moft truly yours. N° CXXXII. EDWARD GIBBON Efquire to Colonel HOLROYD at Coventry. LONDON, Monday, February 7th, 1780. HEN the Attorney General informed me of the W exprefs he had juft fent down to Coventry, I had not the least doubt of your embracing the bolder refolution. You are indeed obliged to him for his real friendthip, which he feels and expreffes warmly; on this occafion I hope it will be fuccessful, and that in a few days you will find yourself among us at St. Stephen's in the heat of the battle. But you know that I am a daftardly, pufillanimous fpirit, more inclined to fear than to hope, and not very eager in the purfuit of expenfive vanity. On this vacancy the celerity of your motions may probably prevent oppofition; but at the general election your enemy the corporation will not be asleep, and I wish, if it be not too late, to warn you against any promifes or engagements which may terminate in a defeat, or at least a conteft of ten thousand pounds. Adien. I could believe (without feeing it under her paw) that my Lady wishes to leave Coventry. No news! foreign or domeftic. I did not forget to mention the companies, but find people, as I expected, torpid. Burke makes his motion Friday; but I think the rumours of a civil war fubfide every day! petitions are thought lefs formidable; and hear your Suffex preteft gathers fignatures in the country. N° CXXIII. EDWARD GIBBON Efquire to Mrs. GIBBON, Bath. DEAR MADAM, W HEN you awakened me with your pen, it was my intention to have shewn some figns of life by the next post. But fo uncertain are all human affairs, that I found myself arrested by a mighty unrelenting ty. rant, called the gout; and though my feet were the part on which he chose to exercise his cruelty, he left me neither strength nor fpirits to use my hand in relating the melancholy tale. At present I have the pleasure of informing you, that the fever and inflammation have fubfided: but the abfolute weakness and monstrous fwelling of my two feet confine me to my chair and flannels; and this confinement moft unluckily happens at a very nice and important moment of parliamentary affairs. Col. H. purfues thofe affairs with eager and perfevering zeal; and has the pleasure of undertaking more business than any three men could poffibly execute. He is much obliged to you for your kind congratulation. Mrs. Eliot is in town; but I am quite ignorant (not more fo than they are themselves) of their intentions. I will write again very foon. I am, dear Madam, most truly yours. No CXXIV. The Same to the Same. DEAR MADAM, June 6th, 1780. As S the old ftory of religion has raised most formidable tumults in this town, and as they will of course seem much more formidable at the distance of an hundred miles, you may not be forry to hear that I am perfectly fafe fafe and well my known attachment to the Proteftant religion has moft probably faved me. Measures, and effectual measures, are taken to fupprefs those disorders, and every street is filled with horfe and foot. Mrs. Holroyd went out of town yesterday morning; the Colonel remains, and fhews his usual spirit. I am fincerely yours. N° CXXV. EDWARD GIBBON Efquire to Mrs. GIBBON, Bath, DEAR MADAM, A LONDON, June 8th, 1780. Sa Member of Parliament, I cannot be expofed to any danger, as the Houfe of Commons has adjourned to Monday fe'nnight; as an individual, I do not conceive myself to be obnoxious. I am not apt, without duty or neceffity, to thrust myself into a mob: and our part of the town is as quiet as a country village, So much for personal safety; but I cannot give the same affurances of public tranquillity: forty thousand Puritans, fuch as they might be in the time of Cromwell, have ftarted out of their graves; the tumult has been dreadful; and even the remedy of military force and martial law is unpleasant. But Government, with fifteen thousand regulars in town, and every gentleman (but one) on their fide, muft extinguifh the flame. The execution of laft night was fevere; perhaps it must be repeated to-night: yet, upon the whole, the tumult fubfides. Colonel Holroyd was all last night in Holborn among the flames, with the Northumberland Militia, and performed very bold and able fervice. I will write again in a poft or two. I am, dear Madam, ever yours. N° CXXVI. The Same to the Same. DEAR MADAM, June 10th, 1780. I SHOULD write with great pleasure, to say that this audacious tumult is perfectly quelled; that Lord George Gordon is fent to the Tower; and that, instead of fafety or danger, we are now at leisure to think of justice: but I am now alarmed on your account, as we have just got a report, that a fimilar disorder has broken out at Bath. I fhall be impatient to hear from you; but I flatter myself that your pretty town does not contain much of that scum which has boiled up to the furface in this huge cauldron. I am, dear Madam, moft fincerely yours. N° CXXVII. I DEAR MADAM, The Same to the Same. BENTINCK-STREET, June 27th, 1780. BELIEVE we may now rejoice in our common fecurity. All tumult has perfectly subfided, and we only think of the juftice which must be properly and feverely inflicted on such flagitious criminals. The measures of Government have been feasonable and vigorous; and even oppofition has been forced to confefs, that the military power was applied and regulated with the utmost propriety. Our danger is at an end, but our difgrace will be lafting, and the month of June 1780, will ever be marked by a dark and diabolical fanaticism, which I had supposed to be extinct, but which actually fubfifts in Great Britain, perhaps beyond any other country in Europe. Our parliamentary work draws to a conclufion; and I am much more pleasingly, though laboriously, engaged in revifing and and correcting for the prefs, the continuation of my History, two volumes of which will actually appear next winter. This bufinefs fixes me to Bentinck-ftreet more closely than any other part of my literary labour; as it is abfolutely neceffary that I fhould be in the midft of all the books which I have at any time used during the compofition. But I feel a ftrong defire (irritated, like all other paffions, by repeated obftacles) to escape to Bath. Dear Madam, Moft truly yours. N° CXXVIII. EDWARD GIBBON Efquire to Colonel HOLROYD. A July 25th, 1780. S your motions are fpontaneous, and the stations of the Lord Chief* unalterably fixed, I cannot perceive the neceffity of your fending or receiving intelligence. However, your commands are obeyed. You wish I would write, as a fign of life. I am alive; but, as I am inmersed in the Decline and Fall, I fhall only make the fign. It is made. You may fuppofe that we are not pleased with the junction of the fleets; nor can an ounce of Weft India lofs be compenfated by a pound of Eaft India fuccefs: but the circuit will roll down all the news and politics of London. I rejoice to hear that the Suffex regiment of Dragoons † are fuch well-difciplined cannibals; but I want to know when the Chief cannibal will return to his den. It would fuit me better that it fhould happen foon. Adieu. Lord Mansfield, † Commanded by Colonel Holroyd. |