LETTER CCXLIV. TO HIS SISTER, MISS HORNER.

My dear Fanny,

Bowood, 26th Oct. 1815.

I told you I was reading Don Roderick the Goth; and notwithstanding the romance of the original story, it was with fatigue that I got through it. I am not surprised that the book has had a run, because there is a romantic story, and because it is seasoned with methodistical cant to the taste of the times; but that the work should be commended by any person of cultivated taste, as it has been, seems to me strange. With the exception of a few passages of mere description, I found none containing much poetry; and such as there is, little more than a string of the images and expressions that are familiar to every reader of the poets.

I found lying here a new tragedy with the title of Fazio, written by Mr. Milman, son of the London physician. It is worth your reading. Though full of great and obvious faults, they are those of a young writer, who has not studied the decorums and contrivances of his art; and in spite of them the composition affects you strongly, which is the one thing needful: there is a power of writing, and still more a depth of feeling, which with good discipline may make him a great dramatic writer. I hope he will receive encouragement from the reviews. He is said to have offered this play to Miss O'Neil for her benefit, and there is a character in it that would have suited her; but she said very sensibly, that she did not feel herself sufficiently established with the audience, to venture upon a new piece. In its present state, I do not imagine it would have success upon the stage. Sneyd Edgeworth, whom you remember in London, has published memoirs of the Abbé Edgeworth, the confessor

of Madame Elizabeth, who attended Louis XVI. in his last moments. A short narrative by the Abbé himself of what passed at the Temple, and still more a letter upon that subject, and upon his own escapes, addressed to a brother in Ireland, are written with a simplicity and truth of manner that is interesting and delightful.

The Romillys are expected at home this week. They have been as far as Genoa, and Dumont accompanied them. His spectacles were swept away by an Alpine torrent in the Bochetta.

Ever yours affectionately,

FRA. HORNER.

LETTER CCXLIV.* TO EARL GREY.

Dear Lord Grey,

Bowood, 27th October, 1815.

I am so much gratified with the political conduct of a friend of mine, of which you are not likely to hear immediately, that I cannot deny myself the pleasure of writing to you on purpose to mention it. It is James Macdonald I mean, who sits for the county of He did not return from the continent till near the end of last session, and had no opportunity of giving any vote but upon the Duke of Cumberland's question, in which he and Lord voted on opposite sides. But he was so little satisfied with the ambiguous manoeuvring of that family, with which he is so nearly connected, or with the conclusion to which it manifestly tended, that he took upon himself to explain his own opinions, and to desire an explanation of theirs. After some evasion the correspondence has ended in their accepting his resignation, and he is to take the Chiltern Hundreds on the first day of the session. Macdonald has the greater merit for acting in this way,

that he had formed no political connexion but with Lord by which he was in the smallest degree pledged to particular opinions; and that during the whole of that period, which has put men to so strong a test, from the first overthrow of Bonaparte to the last declaration of war, he was abroad.

I hope Lady Grey continues to gain strength, and you will present my best remembrances to her. Believe me, my dear Lord,

that

Ever faithfully yours,

FRA. HORNER.

LETTER CCXLIV.** FROM EARL GREY.

My dear Horner,

Howick, 1st Nov. 1815.

I received your letter of the 27th by the last post, and I am most sincerely obliged to you, for the account you have been so good as to send me of the result of Macdonald's explanations with Lord

You could not overrate the interest I take in it, nor the esteem which I must feel for such conduct. Without personal obligations or connections which could bind him in any degree, he has made a sacrifice to public principle, which, even amongst the many proofs of disinterestedness which the party now in opposition has furnished, must stand in the first rank. Great, however, as the gratification is which I must derive from an example of this character, and which so strongly sanctions the opinion I had formed of Macdonald, I confess it is not unaccompanied with regret, when I reflect how little the public are inclined to do justice to such sacrifices. On my own account, I can look back at nearly thirty years. spent almost in a constant opposition, without regret. But when I see so many of my friends excluded from

the situations in which their talents and integrity would have made them so useful, without the possibility, even in the event of any change, of retrieving lost opportunities, and in some instances, as in this, with the aggravation of family division, I cannot help experiencing a good deal of pain in the reflection. I am happy to tell you that Lady Grey's health is considerably improved since you were here. Pray remember me very kindly to Lord and Lady Lansdowne, and believe me, dear Horner, Ever most truly yours,

GREY.

LETTER CCXLV. TO HIS SISTER, MISS HORNER.

My dear Fanny,

London, 22d Nov. 1815.

I met the Chevalier Canova a second time at Holland House a few days ago; and it was indeed a most agreeable day. The other artists we had to meet him were Wilkie and Westmacott, but he was himself the only person that any body thought of. He talked a great deal, partly in French, which he pronounces very ill, partly in Italian, which I am told he speaks also as a provincial, for he is a native of Venice, but always with animation, spirit, and cheerfulness. I told you of his looks; a fine forehead, with sunk mild eyes; his manners are simple and easy, perfectly in the tone of good company. His brother is with him, the Abate Canova, a man of learning and classical attainments; they live constantly together, and their habit is, that the Abbé reads to Canova, while he is at work with his chisel, out of some Italian classic, or translation of the ancients. This sounds very amiably and like complete friendship.

He was naturally led to talk of Napoleon, and he was

pressed to tell us something of those scenes of familiar intercourse which that personage usually permitted himself to indulge in with Italians, though never with Frenchmen, and which he was known to permit especially with Canova. He told us that Napoleon conversed with him in the Venetian dialect, which he was fond of, a circumstance which of itself would render their conversation more equal and familiar, and was probably so intended. He urged him to settle at Paris, but this he declined, saying, he should die of cold in less than a year. I have heard that he added another reason, that he was not qualified to vie with the Parisian artists as a courtier; but this he did not repeat to us.

The new expedition for the Niger, which sailed lately, is fitted out in a very liberal style: Government has only been stingy upon one point, the allowance to be held out to the black soldiers who accompany the expedition, as their reward for returning back to Sierra Leone. This is the very point on which the success of the travellers may depend, and I fear the allowances are not large enough to prevail over the strong inclination those blacks will have to remain in their own country when they reach it. The stock of articles laid in for the traffic of the travellers, and for presents, has cost twenty thousand pounds; it is curious that the most expensive article is coral, of which they have taken four thousand pounds worth, and two thousand pounds worth of amber. If I can finish some business to-morrow, in which I am engaged, I mean to accompany Whishaw on a visit for a couple of days to Sir James Mackintosh: he lives near Aylesbury, and is deep, I hear, in historical composition. I shall write to my mother very soon; my kind love to them all. Very affectionately yours, FRA. HORNER.