prise of this extraordinary man. It is assumed, too, that the allies are all to be had as they were last year; now without considering the effect, which Bonaparte's declaration, that he will maintain the treaty of Paris, must have upon those powers which are in possession of what they have usurped in Italy and in Germany, it ought to be recollected, that these usurpations, and the indecent spectacle which the allies exhibited during the whole winter in their congress of plunder, have deprived them throughout Italy and Germany of that moral force, which they boasted of last year, and with truth, as the foundation of their successes. But even if these things could be taken for granted, I question if it would not still be but a short-sighted prudence, to reject the opportunity which his professions of peace and moderation might afford of confirming in the public mind of Europe, an impression of the justice of our cause in that war, which, if it be renewed, will be one of no short duration, and must in the course of it involve in all the vicissitudes of fortune the best parts of the world. For England, I own, I cannot see, if we are to have another period of war, that ultimate success abroad, if to be hoped, would compensate our sure and irreparable losses at home; the inevitable insolvency of the Exchequer must, in one disguised shape or other, bring on a dreadful convulsion of property, with the ruin of all those families, whom the Courier, (resuming the ancient Jacobinical phrase of its Editor when he was the hireling of violence of another sort,) stigmatizes as the drones of society, the annuitants, those who live on the savings of former industry; and in addition to this calamity, we shall witness the acceleration of that change, which is already begun, of our old civil system of freedom and law, for a military government. Such are my present melancholy dreams; sleeping or waking, they are about my bed, and about my path, speaking most literally; for since this devil incarnate rose again from the dead I have known no comfortable day. Some differences of opinion among my political friends, are also come at last to add a little to the annoyance; but that is a trifle compared with the dismal prospects that one has before one's mind, for England and all that we are attached to. I do not know if you could give me any comfort, by helping me to less dreary views, but it would be some pleasure at least to talk over these matters with you: I wish you were in this green country with me for a few idle days, it is more beautiful at present than ever; and furnishes a melancholy, but composing contrast to the storms and perpetual winter of the political world. I am much concerned to hear so bad an account of George Ellis, and regret sincerely with you, that I have not had an opportunity of knowing better a person of whom you entertain so high an opinion. I have not read the Memoires Secr. Something I heard of them, or something I accidentally saw on opening one of the volumes, gave me an impression that they were unworthy of credit. Adam desires to be remembered to you. Pray give his father what aid and comfort you can about his bill; he is sadly teazed by the ignorance and want of reason of your Scotch heads, as you call them. Ever, my dear Murray, Affectionately yours, FRA. HORNER. LETTER CCXXXIII. TO HIS FATHER. My dear Sir, Lincoln's Inn, 10th April, 1815. I have just time to acknowledge your letter of the 7th with its kind inclosure, having been all day at the House of Lords. I have a good deal to communicate to you, connected with politics; but it will be a couple of days before I shall find time for so long a letter as I have in view. You would not be sorry, I am sure, to see my name in the small minority the other night, which voted that we ought not to begin the war by an attack on France. The question is a very difficult one, and upon which different views may be taken, even by those who are most agreed upon political principles and objects. My determination was not taken without a great deal of previous consideration, which my absence from London gave me an opportunity of pursuing at leisure, and I did not give that vote before my opinion was clear and satisfactory to my own mind. The consequences, in the event of immediate war, may be important to myself, with respect to my seat; but, of course, I saw all these consequences, and gave them no weight. There are some differences of opinion among our leaders, which may never come to a difference in Parliament; that depends upon events; but having had confidential communications with both the eminent persons to whom I allude*, I have found, in this instance, only fresh occasion to respect the patriotism and public integrity of both. But I shall be more particular, when I can find time to write at length; in the mean time, I request that you will * Lords Grey and Grenville. Ed. keep the whole of this to yourself, with the exception of Leonard; for the time is not yet come for making any such disclosure, and it is possible that the necessity of making any disclosure may yet be averted. The state of things at Paris is infinitely curious, and not yet intelligible. Most affectionately yours, FRA. HORNER. LETTER CCXXXIV. TO HIS FATHER. My dear Sir, Lincoln's Inn, 18th April, 1815. Though no circumstance has occurred since my last note, to terminate the suspense in which all political affairs are at present held, or to break the silence which mutual kindness and unwillingness to differ in action have thrown over the differences of opinion that exist among the leading persons of opposition, I feel it due to the impatience which my note may have occasioned, not to keep you any longer in ignorance of what has passed about myself. At the same time, I must request you to observe still the same confidential secrecy upon this subject; on which it would be improper on every account, and particularly on account of the kindness with which I have personally been treated, that any premature disclosure should come from me. As I have already explained to you, I had formed my own opinion, upon the new state of affairs produced by the return of Bonaparte to France, before I left London for the circuit; and the leisure of travelling by myself, and of the time I passed in the country, afforded me an ample opportunity of reconsidering all the circumstances. It was but too certain that there had arisen an entirely new conjuncture, in which there was to be expected a diversity of opinions, and in which every individual, having a seat in Parliament, would have his vote to give according to his judgment. Before I left London, I explained the views I then took of the subject to Lord Grey, and requested him to apprise me of any indication that might appear in the party, of sentiments more inclined to war. During my absence, I was apprised by him of a correspondence that had passed between him and Lord Grenville, in which the latter, with that frankness and public integrity which mark every part of his political conduct, had sought occasion to put Lord Grey in possession of the whole of his opinions upon this new state of things. The result was, the statement on Lord Grenville's side, of an opinion that the maintenance of peace with Bonaparte is impossible, and that our policy ought therefore to be a renewal of the concert of last year for immediate action; on Lord Grey's, the opinion, that, even granting war to be unavoidable in the end, it is the duty and policy of this country, and of the allies, to take every chance of maintaining the peace, and that a war immediately begun, by an aggression against France, would both want the justification of aggression by France, and would involve the unjustifiable principle of interfering with the right of the French to choose their own gov ernment. I wrote to Lord Grey, and expressed the satisfaction I felt in coinciding wholly with his sentiments; and then I turned myself to consider, how I should proceed with most propriety and delicacy towards Lord Grenville, in order to relieve him, or Lord Buckingham, from the disagreeable necessity of making any communication to me, and at the same time to avoid every thing like fuss or éclat in relinquishing my seat for a differ |