*Perhaps the sheriffs, the tools of your enemies, may venture to make a false and hostile return, on the presumption that they shall have a whole year of impunity, and that the merits of your petition cannot be heard this session.^[471] Some of your most respectable friends in the house of Commons are resolved, (if the return should be unfavourable) to state it forcibly as a special and extraordinary case; and to exert all proper strength for bringing on the tryal of your petition without delay. The knowledge of such a resolution may awe the sheriffs; and it may be prudent to admonish them of the impending danger, in the way that you judge most advisable. Adieu. God send you a good deliverance.*

409.
To his Stepmother

December the 7th, 1780.

Dear Madam,

My restoration to the character of a Senator has suffered some delay by the impatience of some strong competitors who have pushed between me and the door. I have received from the fountain head every kind of apology and assurance. I believe them to be sincere, and it is a matter of perfect indifference to me whether I enter the H. of C. the beginning or the end of the winter. My journey to Bath is not an object of indifference, and as nearly as I can calculate the business (for there is business) of the board of trade, I think I shall have the pleasure of embracing you about the 23rd or 24th of this month. You mentioned a lodging near your aerial castle (my sole object at Bath), and I shall be glad if you will secure it for that time.

Poor George Scott died this morning of the consequence of falling down a flight of stairs at Lord Bathurst's. His life was long and happy, and his death was not painful. After a false alarm I was glad to hear that Dr. Delacour was not in the bosom of Abraham. The poor Colonel is fighting with the monsters of Coventry. I think he will conquer, but his victory will be dearly purchased.

I am, Dear Madam,
Ever yours,
E. Gibbon.

Young Eliot is in town and dined with me Tuesday. The kindest enquiries passed reciprocally between Port Eliot and Bentinck Street. The father does not come till after the Holydays.

410.
To J. B. Holroyd, Esq

[Dec. 9th], Saturday Night, 1780.

Succeed – and may you say, such another victory would ruin us! The messenger has returned from the Bog, but Lord B[uckinghamshire]^[472] has not yet sent the necessary forms and titles for his creatures; it will not however be in his favour to delay, that or any other business much longer, and I wish your entrance into one house was as secure as the other.

An express has just arrived in nine days from Vienna; the Empress is dead,^[473]– and the Austrian Eagle may soar. – It is confidently said that the two great fleets are in sight, and expectation is high and eager. For my own part I do not believe that there ever can be a sea-fight.

411.
To J. B. Holroyd, Esq

Monday Night, December, 1780.

HOLROYD CREATED LORD SHEFFIELD.

All delays are at an end – Tuesday – to-morrow the final warrant will be signed; Friday next, you may salute the Royal paw.

Saturday the gazette will announce his Lordship, and Sunday (December 24th) I shall set out for Bath. Be resolute and conquer. We have forgot the fleets, but it is supposed that d'Estaing is in Brest. It is time that everybody should go to sleep for the Winter.

412.
To his Stepmother

Bentinck Street, December 21st, 1780.

Dear Madam,

I am sorry to inform you that I shall be forced to trespass a few days beyond the precise term which I had fixed. The constant attendance on the board of trade almost every day this week, has obliged me to defer till next Monday a visit of inclination and propriety to Lord Loughborough (at Mitcham in Surrey). I shall not return till Wednesday or Thursday, and instead of my Christmas, I shall eat my new-year's dinner, at the Belvidere. May that new year prove fortunate to you, to me, and to this weary country, which is this day involved in a new War. I shall write again about the middle of next week with a precise account of my motions. I think the gallant Colonel, who is now Lord Sheffield, will succeed at Coventry perhaps on the return, certainly on the petition.

I am, Dear Madam,
Ever yours,
E. Gibbon.

413
To Lord Sheffield

Prophecy of the events of two years

December 31st, 1780.

A profane historian will depart from Bentinck Street, London, and drink tea, sup and lye at Newbury in Berkshire.

January 1st, 1781.

The same historian will gently proceed from Newbury to Bath till he reaches the aerial cell of the Fairy of the Green, or more probably the white mountain. It is apprehended that the said Fairy will not be able to dine that day before four o'clock in the afternoon.

414.
To his Stepmother

Bentinck Street, February 24th, 1781.

Dear Madam,

*As you have probably received my last letter of thirteen hundred pages,^[474] I shall be very concise; Read, judge, pronounce: and believe that I sincerely agree with my friend Julian,^[475] in esteeming the praise of those only who will freely censure my defects. Next Thursday I shall be delivered to the World, for whose inconstant and malicious levity I am coolly but firmly prepared. Excuse me to Sarah. I see more clearly than ever the absolute necessity of confining my presents to my own family; that, and that only, is a determined line, and Lord S. is the first to approve his exclusion. He has a strong assurance of success, and some hopes of a speedy decision. How suddenly your friend General Pierson^[476] disappeared! You thought him happy. What is happiness?*

I am, My Dear Madam,
Ever Yours,
E. Gibbon.

415.
To his Stepmother

Bentinck Street, April 13th, 1781.

Dear Madam,

RECEPTION OF HIS NEW VOLUMES.

I am always obliged to you for waking me by a friendly pinch from my silent lethargy, and I think it most prudent to write before I fall asleep again.

An author must always begin on the subject of his own work, the subject always most interesting to himself, but on this occasion he may assume the privilege of friendship and justly believe that it is not less interesting to you. Your praise has afforded me real satisfaction, not only because I wish to please you, but as I do not know any person (where questions of pure learning are concerned) from whose approbation I should derive more pride. To speak frankly, I am of your opinion with regard to the improvement of the style, nor is it very surprizing that my long practice should make a workman more expert and ready at his trade. I am curious to learn what passage in Prior you have in your eye: but as the works of that agreeable Poet are not extremely familiar to me, the resemblance is more probably the effect of chance than of design. The reception of these two volumes has been very unlike that of the first, and yet my vanity is so very dextrous, that I am not displeased with the difference. The effects of novelty could no longer operate, and the public was not surprized by the unexpected appearance of a new and unknown author. The progress of these two volumes has hitherto been quiet and silent. Almost everybody that reads has purchased, but few persons (comparatively) have read them; and I find that the greater number, satisfied that they have acquired a valuable fund of entertainment, differ the perusal to the summer, the country and a more quiet period. Yet I have reason to think, from the opinion of some judges, that my reputation has not suffered by this publication. The Clergy (such is the advantage of total loss of character) commend my decency and moderation: but the patriots wish to damn the work and the author.

Mrs. Hester Gibbon is now in town and stays some weeks. Her house is repairing, and her old friend Mrs. Hutchinson^[477] is just dead, without leaving her anything, at which Hester expresses more resentment than seems becoming in the character of a Saint. She is still healthy and sensible, refuses as formerly to enter my house, but appears pleased with my attentions, and those of Mrs. and Lady Porten and of Lord and Lady Sheffield, who have all visited her in Surrey Street. She enquired civilly and even quietly into your situation, and approved the sentiments which naturally fell from me. – When I sent you my book I likewise despatched another with a very polite letter to Port Eliot – A dead silence – I accidentally called in Spring Gardens to visit the son, and heard that the father had been three weeks or a month in town. I instantly wrote a note to express my surprize and concern, – a dead silence of four days terminated only by a mute, blank, formal visit. Mrs. Eliot however (they are an odd family) has called upon me this morning to announce her arrival; and I shall return her visit this evening.

My health this winter has been perfect, without the slightest attack of the gout, and I rejoyce to hear that you revive with the Spring. A friend like Mrs. P. was a real loss, and I think with you that in such an intimate connection the heart is of much more importance than the head. Embrace in my name Sara and the tame cat. I hope the former is not offended with, and I am persuaded that the latter adores, me, but am much disappointed that her Bath residence has not produced any shining adventures: a pair of small, neat horns might peep very gracefully out of a laurel crown, which her husband well deserves, though I think with you that his effusions are too frequent and precipitate.^[478] Adieu, dear Madam. I am still ignorant and indeed indifferent about the precise moment of my parliamentary beatification. Lord S. is chaired next Monday at Coventry; but it is needless to mention that family, as you hear the earliest and most copious accounts of them. Once more, Adieu!

I am, Dear Madam,
Most truly yours,
E. Gibbon.

416.
To his Stepmother

Friday, May 30th, 1781.

Dear Madam,

HIS ANNUAL TAX TO THE GOUT.

When I was called upon last February for my annual tax to the Gout, I only paid for my left foot which in general is most heavily assessed: the officer came round last week to collect the small remainder that was due for the right foot. I have now satisfied his demand; he is retired in good humour, and I feel myself easy both in mind and body. – If I complained of your silence, though somewhat longer than usual, I should be unreasonable indeed, and I only wish to be assured that it does not proceed from want of health or spirits. I hope you do not stand in need of a Physician, but I am concerned to think that, since the Jew's departure, you have not any one who knows your constitution or in whom you repose any confidence. How do you propose to spend the summer? do you mean to breathe the sharp air of the Welsh mountains? If you would visit the banks of the Thames you would find a hearty wellcome, and my cottage would be easily enlarged by an occasional lodging. I feel great comfort in this retreat at Hampton Court, and shall now escape every week from the heat and dust of the House of Commons.

I am, Dear Madam,
Ever yours,
E. G.

417.
To his Stepmother

June 16th, 1781.

Dear Madam,

I take the earliest opportunity of informing you that in the course of next week I shall be elected for the borough of Lymington in Hampshire. You may be sure of hearing from me before the end of the month.

I am,
Ever yours,
E. Gibbon.

END OF VOL. I

Footnote_471_471. At the general election in September, 1780, Colonel Holroyd's re-election for Coventry was prevented by no return being made. After a hearing before the House, the sheriffs of Coventry were committed to Newgate, and a new election ordered. The poll began towards the end of November, and remained open for thirty days. At the close, though a large majority voted for Colonel Holroyd and Mr. Yeo, Sir Thomas Hallifax and Mr. Thomas Rogers were declared duly elected. The unsuccessful candidates petitioned against the return. The first day on which a committee could be balloted for was June 26, 1781. But on the motion of Lord Beauchamp (January 23) the petition of Lord Sheffield and Mr. Yeo was referred to a committee for February 15. The return was amended by an order of the House, dated February 27, 1781, by substituting for Hallifax and Rogers the names of Colonel Holroyd (who in the interval had been created Lord Sheffield) and Mr. Edward Roe Yeo.

Footnote_472_472. Lord Buckinghamshire was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The reference is to Colonel Holroyd's elevation to the Irish peerage as Lord Sheffield.

Footnote_473_473. The Empress Maria Theresa died November 29, 1780.

Footnote_474_474. The second and third volumes of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon had presented his first volume of the Decline and Fall to the Duke of Gloucester. When the second volume appeared, it was, in like manner, presented to the Duke, who "received the author with much good nature and affability, saying to him, as he laid the quarto on the table, 'Another d – mn'd thick, square book! Always scribble, scribble, scribble! Eh! Mr. Gibbon?'" (Best's Personal and Literary Memorials, p. 68). "You will be diverted to hear," writes Walpole to Mason, January 27, 1781, "that Mr. Gibbon has quarrelled with me. He lent me his second volume in the middle of November. I returned it with a most civil panegyric. He came for more incense; I gave it, but alas! with too much sincerity; I added, 'Mr. Gibbon, I am sorry you should have pitched on so disgusting a subject as the Constantinopolitan History. There is so much of the Arians and Eunomians, and semi-Pelagians; and there is such a strange contrast between Roman and Gothic manners, and so little harmony between a Consul Sabinus and a Ricimer, Duke of the Palace, that though you have written the story as well as it could be written, I fear few will have patience to read it.' He coloured: all his round features squeezed themselves into sharp angles; he screwed up his button-mouth, and rapping his snuff-box, said, 'It had never been put together before' – so well, he meant to add – but gulped it. He meant so well certainly, for Tillemont, whom he quotes in every page, has done the very thing. I well knew his vanity, even about his ridiculous face and person, but thought he had too much sense to avow it so palpably."

Footnote_475_475. "When he ascended the throne, his pride was sometimes cruelly mortified by the reflection that the slaves who would not dare to censure his defects were not worthy to applaud his virtues" (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iii. ch. xxii.). Gibbon quotes the sentiments from the words of Julian himself (Ammianus, xxii. 10).

Footnote_476_476. Probably General Sir Richard Pearson, K.B., who died suddenly at Bath of gout in the stomach, February 13, 1781.

Footnote_477_477. Mrs. Hutcheson, whose maiden name was Lawrence, married as her first husband Colonel Steward. Her second husband, Archibald Hutcheson, M.P. for Hastings, at the time of his death (1740) commended her to the guidance of William Law. She was joined by Miss Hester Gibbon, and the two ladies, in 1743, settled at King's Cliffe, in a house belonging to Law. There Mrs. Hutcheson founded a school for boys. She died at the age of ninety-one, in January, 1781, and, at her own request, was buried at the feet of Mr. Law.

Footnote_478_478. William Hayley (1745-1820) was a voluminous poet. Byron (English Bards and Scotch Reviewers) attacks him with severity — "Whether he spin poor couplets into plays,Or damn the dead with purgatorial praise,His style in youth or age is still the same,For ever feeble and for ever tame." In 1780 he had addressed to Gibbon An Essay on History, in Three Epistles. He married, in 1769, Eliza Ball, daughter of the Dean of Chichester. The marriage proved unhappy; but it should be added that Mrs. Hayley adopted her husband's illegitimate son, who, born in 1780, afterwards became the sculptor, and treated him as her own child. In 1789 Hayley was separated from his wife, whose mind had become affected. Hayley was at this time living at Eartham, in Sussex, a property which he had inherited from his father.