21 apr, 2010
Origineel brief aan John Pringle
Geplaatst door Willem in de categorie: Brieven, TijdschriftenReacties (0) Tags: Pringle, VLO
Hiervan is een vertaling afgedrukt in de Vaderlandsche letteroefeningen.
Letter 484: To SIR JOHN PRINGLE
p 272
† * 484. To SIR JOHN PRINGLE
St. Andrew's Square, Edinburgh,
Feb. 10, 1773.
My dear Sir,
That the present Pretender was in London in the year 1753, I know with the greatest certainty;† 1 because I had it from Lord Marischal, who said, it consisted with his certain knowledge. Two or three days after his Lordship gave me this information, he told me, that the evening before, he had learned several curious particulars from a lady (who I imagined to be Lady Primrose),† 2 tho my Lord refused to name her. The Pretender came to her house in the evening, without giving her any preparatory information; and entered the room, when she had a pretty large company with her, and was herself playing at cards. He was announced by the servant under another name. She thought the cards would have dropped from her hands on seeing him. But she had presence enough of mind, to call him by the name he assumed; to ask him when he came to England, and how long he intended to stay there. After he and all the company went away, the servants remarked how wonderfully like the strange gentleman was to the Prince's picture, which hung on the chimney-piece, in the very room in which he entered. My Lord added (I think from the authority of the same Lady), that he used so little precaution, that he went abroad openly in daylight, in his own dress; only laying aside his blue riband and star; walked once through St. James's, and took a turn in the Mall.
| p 273 |
About five years ago, I told this story to Lord Holdernesse, who was Secretary of State in the year 1753; and I added, that I supposed this piece of intelligence had at that time escaped his Lordship. ‘By no means’, said he, ‘and who do you think first told it me? It was the King himself, who subjoined, “And what do you think, my Lord, I should do with him?”‘ Lord Holdernesse owned that he was puzzled how to reply; for if he declared his real sentiments, they might savour of indifference to the Royal Family. The King perceived his embarassment, and extricated him from it, by adding, ‘My Lord, I shall just do nothing at all; and when he is tired of England, he will go abroad again.’ I think this story, for the honour of the late King, ought to be more generally known.
| p 273 |
But what will surprise you more, Lord Marischal, a few days after the coronation of the present King, told me, that he believed the young Pretender was at that time in London; or at least had been so very lately, and had come over to see the show of the coronation, and had actually seen it. I asked my Lord the reason for this strange fact. ‘Why,’ says he, ‘a gentleman told me so that saw him there; and that he even spoke to him, and whispered in his ears these words: “Your Royal Highness is the last of all mortals whom I should expect to see here.”–“It was curiosity that led me,” said the other; “but I assure you,” added he, “that the person who is the object of all this pomp and magnificence is the man I envy the least.”‘ You see this story is so near traced from the fountain head, as to wear a great face of probability. Query, What if the Pretender had taken up Dymock’s gauntlet? I find that the Pretender’s visit in England, in the year 1753, was known to all the Jacobites; and some of them have assured me, that he took the opportunity of formally renouncing the Roman Catholic religion, under his own name of Charles Stuart, in the new church in the Strand; and that this is the reason of the bad treatment he met with at the Court of Rome. I own that I am a sceptic with regard to the last particulars.
| p 273 |
Lord Marischal had a very bad opinion of this unfortunate prince; and thought there was no vice so mean or atrocious of which he was not capable; of which he gave me several instances.† 1 My Lord, tho a man of great honour, may be thought a discontented courtier; but what quite confirmed me in the idea of that prince, was a conversation I had with Helvétius at Paris, which I believe I have told you. In case I have not, I shall mention a few particulars. That gentleman told me, that he had no acquaintance with the Pretender; but some time after that prince was chased out of France, ‘A letter’, said he, ‘was brought me from him, in which he told me that the necessity of his affairs obliged him to be at Paris; and, as he knew me, by character, to be a man of the greatest probity and honour in France, he would trust himself to me, if I would promise to conceal and protect him. I own,’ added Helvétius to me, ‘altho I knew the danger to be greater of harbouring him at Paris than at London; and altho I thought the Family of Hanover not only the lawful sovereigns in England, but the only lawful sovereigns in Europe, as having the full and free consent of the people; yet was I such a dupe to his flattery, that I invited him to my house; concealed him there, going and coming, near two years; had all his correspondence pass through my hands; met with his partisans upon Pont Neuf; and found, at last, that I had incurred all this danger and trouble for the most unworthy of all mortals; in so much that I have been assured, when he went down to Nantes to embark on his expedition to Scotland, he took fright and refused to go on board; and his attendants, thinking the matter gone too far, and that they would be affronted for his cowardice, carried him, in the night time, into the ship, pieds et mains liés.’ I asked him, if he meant literally? ‘Yes,’ said he, ‘literally. They tied him, and carried him by main force.’ What think you now of this hero and conqueror?
| p 274 |
Both Lord Marischal and Helvétius agree, that with all this strange character, he was no bigot; but rather had learned from the philosophers at Paris to affect a contempt of all religion. You must know that both these persons thought they were ascribing to him an excellent quality. Indeed, both of them used to laugh at me for my narrow way of thinking in these particulars. However, my dear Sir John, I hope you will do me the justice to acquit me.
| p 275 |
I doubt not but these circumstances will appear curious to Lord Hardwicke, to whom you will please to present my respects. I suppose his Lordship will think this unaccountable mixture of temerity and timidity, in the same character, not a little singular.
I am, Yours very sincerely,
DAVID HUME.