I. CHAP. overflowed with tears of happiness, and the whole family carried along with them the affections of the greater part and the esteem of all the citizens.' 1 'On Tuesday, February 22, we set out from sweet Geneva,' writes Lady Stanhope.2 I had not time in my last to tell you of the marks of friendship and honour shewn us on leaving notre seconde patrie. In coming out of our court we found the dragoons on each side of the street. Charles joined them, and went to the gates where he got into the coach, and they got on horseback and escorted us to the frontier-the archers drawn up in line out of the gates, and the streets from our door crowded to the outside of the town. The officers went in a coach and six horses adorned with ribbons to the first post, where each made me a compliment. And there we took our last farewell. If the blessings of these whom we saw from our door to the last farewell can avail we may be happy. It may seem vanity to mention not only the concern of our private friends but of all the town; but it would be ungrateful were we not sensible of the uncommon marks of distinction and friendly affection shewn us by all ranks. You may guess how much I was affected. I cannot think of it with dry eyes.' 3 They arrived in Paris at the end of February, and lodged at the Hôtel de Lancastre, Rue St. Thomas. Lady Stanhope could not move from her sofa owing to an accident. She was visited by a few friends, who were 'very obliging but not like those of Geneva-les amis de cœur are not to be met with everywhere. My two Messieurs courrent le monde and dine often abroad.' Even the grave Lord Stanhope becomes mildly dissipated in this charming Paris. My lord is quite a gay young man,' writes his wife to Lord Chatham. T'other night a lady made him dance, after which he saluted them all; this diverted me very much when I heard of it.' 5 Charles had given way to gold lace and laced ruffles, but still rejected powder. Il y a ici un Milord Stanhope,' wrote Madame du Deffand to Horace Walpole; 'il arrive de Genève, où il a été dix ans pour l'éducation de son fils qui a vingt-un ans. Ni le père ni le fils n'ont pas vu une seule fois Voltaire; quel homme est-ce-que ce Milord?' Lord Stanhope was intimate with 1 John Moore, View of Society and Manners in France and Switzerland, p. 164. Lady Stanhope to Lady Chatham, January 31, 1774. 3 March 9, 1774. * April 14, 1774. Lady Stanhope to Lord Chatham, April 14, 1774. Lettres de Mme. du Deffand à Horace Walpole, ed. Toynbee, ii. 591. I. and esteemed by most of the learned men of the capital, and the CHAP. prize awarded to Mahon for his essay on the pendulum (of which success he heard while at Paris) procured him notice. Condorcet formed a high opinion of his abilities, and Adam Ferguson, who passed through on his way to join a pupil, 'carried my youth to many of his acquaintance in the learned world.' 1 'I hope,' writes Lady Stanhope, ' that Charles will spend his time well; at least hitherto it has been different to that of the generality of his country-men whom he has not had time to frequent.' One of these was the handsome young Thomas Coke, later known as Coke of Norfolk, deeply occupied in flirting with Princesses and 'making considerable havoc among the young beauties during his stay.' Charles went on several excursions with Lady Mary Coke and his aunt, Mrs. Hamilton. On May 10 Louis XV died unregretted, and Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette ascended the throne amidst popular rejoicing. All seem pleased with their new Sovereigns and I believe with reason.' 2 Lady Mary, Mrs. Hamilton, and Mahon went to see the vault at St. Denis where the King's body was to be placed, and returning at eight o'clock met the funeral procession coming at a gallop. Lady Mary considered the mob 'very great and very indecent, as so far from shewing the least concern they hooped and halloed as if they had been at a horse race instead of a funeral procession.' On another occasion they spent the day at Versailles, particularly admiring the apartments of the Princesses, 'all hanging with black, so clean, so finely furnished, so agreeably situated.' Before many years had passed, the young nobleman was to rejoice at the collapse of the absolute monarchy, the material splendours of which he was now privileged to explore. 1 Lady Stanhope to Lady Chatham, April 14, 1774. To Lady Chatham, May 30, 1774. II. CHAPTER II POLITICAL APPRENTICESHIP, 1774-1778 I CHAP. IN July 1774 the travellers returned to England, and early in September Lord Mahon was presented at Court in coal-black hair and a white feather.' Lord Stanhope would not suffer him to wear powder because wheat was so dear, and the wits said he had been tarred and feathered. His taste in hair-dressing, or rather the want of it, was indeed the first thing to strike his compatriots. They were right in their supposition that the young noble was not like others of his class. A young man of Puritan habits and democratic principles could find few companions to share his ideas. 'I am sorry to say,' writes Lord Chesterfield, that the youth of the present day have neither learning nor politeness. Their manners are illiberal and their ignorance is notorious. They are sportsmen, they are jockeys, they know nor love nothing but dogs and horses, racing and hunting.' They played deep and drank deeper. Royal Princes were dead drunk at the Court balls, and in Piccadilly respected Statesmen were found in the gutter. Fox lost his patrimony at the gaming-table. His contemporaries thought temperance more eccentric than any sensual indulgence. Pitt's correct mode of life was the subject of indecent jests, and it is easy to suppose that they regarded Mahon's teetotal views with contempt, his scientific interests as little better than necromancy, his pursuit of reforms from which no benefit could accrue to himself as sheer madness. Even his hygienic ways, imbibed from Tronchin, must have appeared crazy, and it was considered worthy of remark that he slept with no nightcap and the window open,' a taste unknown in that most stuffy age.2 1 Walpole's Letters, ix. 42. 2 Meryon's Lady Hester Stanhope, ii. 15. II. Mahon had no desire to spend his mornings fitting on a coat, CHAP his evenings at Goostree's, his days at Newmarket. Nor did he associate with our English Bumpkin Country Gentlemen, the most unlicked creatures in the world.'1 With some persons, to work is an imperious instinct : it is impossible for them to idle, and they grudge themselves the time for rest. Such a one was Mahon. Among the young Bucks and Bloods' he had no companions; and it is significant that his great friend was his cousin, William Pitt. Charles was the senior by some six years; but the disparity of age was compensated by Pitt's precocious development of mind. They had many characteristics in common. Both could answer to the charge of looking slender and thin.' 2 Both were of unimpeachable integrity, and both had perseverance and resolution. George IV is said to have remarked of Hoppner's portrait of Pitt: 'Yes, yes, there he is with his d-d obstinate face!' But Mahon was far more unbending than his friend. Once pledged to a cause he never forsook it, however prejudicial to himself; while Pitt held 'that a man who talks of his consistency merely because he holds the same opinion for ten or fifteen years, when the circumstances under which it was originally formed are totally changed, is a slave of the most idle vanity.'4 At the outset, their politics were identical; and they were two of the first politicians versed in the principles of the 'Wealth of Nations.' But in temperament they were different. Mahon was impetuous where Pitt was cautious, and zealous where he was cold. Without the awe-inspiring haughtiness characteristic of all the Pitts, Mahon was possessed of manners which forbade impertinence or familiarity. Led by his scientific tastes to mix largely with mechanics, he preserved a dignity which could never be hidden by any democratic professions of dress or conversation. When Lord Chesterfield wrote, Custom, that governs the world instead of reason, authorises a certain latitude in political matters not consistent with the strictest morality,' he expressed very delicately the corruption of the age. The intrigues by which Thurlow contrived to remain in the Cabinet during all mutations of government are well known. The conduct of Richmond was not above reproach. Lord Carlisle changed sides thrice in the course of a single year. Shelburne earned for himself the nickname of Malagrida,' the Portuguese Jesuit Lord Mansfield was ready to prostitute the cause of justice to 1 Letters of Lord Chesterfield. 2 W. Pitt to Lady Chatham, January 3, 1780. Chatham Papers. II. CHAP. save the King's brother from the penalty of the law, and Lord Kenyon did not hesitate to support a grossly unconstitutional measure to accommodate his party. Fox showed no scruples in allying himself with a man whom he had declared worthy of impeachment and the scaffold; and Dundas' happy faculty of putting himself at anyone's disposal was neatly hit off by the caricature in which he is represented asking Wha wants me?' Of the ministers there was always one-often several-ready to intrigue against the rest of the Cabinet; and one Prime Minister declared' I will never again be at the head of a string of Janissaries who are always ready to strangle or dispatch me on the least signal.' Walpole's cynical observation that every man had his price was no idle sarcasm in the eighteenth century. But Mahon was never to be bought. His integrity was unswerving, and his position outside the lines of party. The year 1774 was of critical importance in the life of Charles Stanhope for more reasons than one. In September he proposed to Lady Hester Pitt (his second cousin) and was accepted, to the great pleasure of all parties.1 'As to the young gentleman,' writes Mrs. Boscawen, he is a happy man and has made an excellent choice. The world has long made it for him.'2 The match aroused considerable interest. 'Lord Chatham's eldest daughter,' wrote Walpole to Sir Horace Mann, 'is married to Lord Mahon, Lord Stanhope's son and a descendant of your old Baileys and Binnings. So I make you my compliments.' 'I wish I could find words,' writes his happy mother to Lady Chatham, 'to express what I feel at this moment. I often wished that I had a daughter, and in her I think I shall have one as dear to me as if so by birth. My boy is so good that I hope he'll make your daughter as happy as I expect she will make him, or I shall be sadly disappointed in both. I do think that it will be the cleverest match that has been for a great while; the union of two good hearts and two good heads surely must turn out well. I can't tell you how I long to embrace our Girl.' 4 Of Lady Hester Mr. Cholmondeley (familiarly alluded to as 'Chum ') writes: 'I have the pleasure of knowing her to be without compliment one of the most accomplished persons of the age and to have availed herself of every benefit which could possibly result from the most refined and prudent education.' 5 The engagement gave equal 'Lady Mary Coke, iv. 406. * Mrs. Boscawen to Lady Chatham, October 1, 1774. Chatham Papers. * Thomas Cholmondeley of Vale Royal to Lady Stanhope, October 8, 1774. Stanhope Papers. |