deurs, Ministres, Généraux, etc. Les Altesses Russes et Wurtembergeoises dinent et soupent régulièrement ensemble-l'Empereur et l'Archiduc Maximilien sont quelquefois de la partie. Enfin tout va comme il plait au Seigneur sans faire beaucoup de projets et d'arrangement, et tout le monde est content excepté quelques sots huppés, qui font les importants, et ne se trouvent pas assez distingués dans cette occasion. Les Ministres étrangers du second ordre ne sont pas des mieux traités -il n'est nulle part question d'eux, il n'y a que les Ambassadeurs auquels on fait un peu finesse. Ils ont soupé au dernier bal de Schoenbrunn, à la table de l'Empereur, où se trouvaient les principautés de Russie, de Wurtemberg, et celles de l'empire-c'est-à-dire, des premières maisons, telles que Saxe, Mecklenbourg, etc. Cette fête était belle-l'illumination, la quantité et la qualité des plats, des vins, et des rafraîchissements, tout était dans le meilleur ordre possible. Il y avait plusieurs quadrilles composés de différentes sociétés de la ville, habillées en matelots, en guerriers, en Hongrois, en Cossaques. Les guerriers l'emportaient sur les autres par la beauté et les agrémens des femmes qui se trouvaient dans cette société; Myladi Derby en était. de n'admettre à ce bal que des personnes d'un dehors agréable n'a pas été tout à fait remplie. Au reste, il y manquait aussi cette tournure gaie sans laquelle ces fêtes n'amusent pas jusqu'au bout."

L'intention de l'Empereur

Of the Emperor Joseph, M. Clément writes :-" Son gouvernement est digne de la plus grande attention. L'Empereur donne les plus belles ordonnances pour

l'économie de ses finances, pour l'administration intérieure, et pour la propagation des lumières parmi sa nation. Il n'y a rien de plus franc, et de plus populaire, que sa manière de vivre et ses conversations. Toute contrainte et toute étiquette est bannie de sa cour. Il n'y parait en public que les Dimanches matin en sortant de la messe. Il n'y à plus de réceptions à la Cour où les dames assistent. Il vient de choisir, parmi les 1325 chambellans de sa cour, 36 qui resteront attachés à sa personne, et jouiront de quelques prérogatives que les autres n'auront pas-c'est une distinction qu'il a voulu marquer à ceux qu'il a nommés."

In these letters of M. Clément there are many passages which show the estimation in which Mr. Elliot's society was held by those who had opportunities of living in it: "Où retrouverai-je le charme de nos entretiens?-La société délicieuse de la chère famille anglaise à Berlin ne se retrouve nulle part;" and such expressions are not peculiar to M. Clément, for among masses of letters from English travellers, Russian princes, German and French diplomatists, soldiers and savans, there are few in which no allusions are made to my grandfather's remarkable superiority of mind, to his powers of conversation, and his charm of manner; while Mrs. Elliot's beauty, and Mr. Liston's good sense, are not forgotton. Wit and gaiety, and kindness and ease, combined to make society delightful under the roof of the English legation at Berlin.

CHAPTER THE EIGHTH.

1780 to 1782.

LONDON AND BERLIN.

THE two years which had been spent by my grandfather in the tranquillity of a happy home had not been uneventful ones to his family in England. The first letter written to Hugh by Sir Gilbert, a few days after the former had set out for Berlin, told him of Rodney's victory off Cape St. Vincent (16th January 1780), and of the distinction gained by Captain Elliot1 in the action; and the same letter describes the effect produced on the writer by Mr. Burke's great speech on the alteration of the Crown Revenues-" a speech worthy of a true patriot." The naval action has been recorded in all subsequent histories of the time, and it is hardly needful to repeat here the rumours, the fears, and the hopes, which agitated the public mind in rapid succession before the event had been fully ascertained, or to dwell on the triumph with which the first five prizes were hailed as, under the charge of the America, they hove in sight off the Lizard. Burke's great speech on the alteration of the Crown's Revenue and influence was a triumph of another kind, no less well-known to all students of

1 John Elliot, son of the Lord Justice-Clerk.

English history; but, on account of its subsequent influence on the political sentiments and connections of the two brothers, it may be less rapidly passed over here.

At the time of their father's death, Gilbert and Hugh Elliot had formed no political connection of their own; Gilbert had come into Parliament a very few months before; Hugh had already for some time been resident on the continent. The former was following the law as a profession, the profession of the second removed him from the influence of English politics, but kept him in relation with the party in power. Hugh, high-spirited and full of zeal for the military honour of the country, naturally sided with those politicians who were determined to resist to the last any dismemberment of the empire, and who spurned a policy of conciliation arising out of the necessities of our position and our military failures. Gilbert, on the other hand, was not formed by nature to be a thorough-going party man. Like Trevanion in "The Caxtons," he was apt to see the gold side of the shield, while his party were still swearing it to be silver. When a "patriotic Duke" spoke to him, with evident glee, of the disasters of our army in America, he felt disgusted with the factious spirit which looked for parliamentary triumph in the humiliation of the country. But when Charles Fox made one of his splendid orations, when Burke brought all the power of his great intellect to the exposition of liberal principles, Sir Gilbert could not, like Hugh, look on these men as mere checks on the action of Government, or, like Mr. Eden, as outs trying to be ins.

While

A gradually-growing despair of the home policy with regard to the colonies, an ever-increasing distrust in the capacity of the men who guided the counsels of the country, a distaste for the tone and views of the supporters of Government, became more and more apparent in his letters. But, on the other hand, the party in power was the only one which, in defiance of failure, still professed to believe in the possibility of recovering the colonies, and refused "to tarnish the lustre of the empire by an ignominious surrender of its rights."1 under the influence of these doubts and misgivings Sir Gilbert seems to have held somewhat aloof from the more active portion of his brother M.P.'s, and this had long been matter of regret to his friends; but the speech of Mr. Burke, on Economical Reform, in the opening of the year 1780, decided him at once to "take part in a business with which," he wrote, "I am captivated;" and from that time his relations with Burke became those of the most cordial intimacy. In the summer of 1780 the Gordon riots took place, and in Mr. Eden's opinion they produced a more general desire for union, coalition, than he ever remembered to have seen before. The German story of the imps who would not be re-conjured into their bottle had received some practical illustrations during the scenes of riot with which London for days had been filled; and while there were military encampments in the parks to keep the people quiet, many notable leaders of parliamentary strife were disposed to mutual forbearance, rather than to further agitation of the public mind.

1 Last speech of Lord Chatham,