in the same prison, and even in the same room, as Mrs. Grace Dalrymple Elliott. He cried the whole time, and was terrified to death, as she told Lord Malmesbury in 1796, though in her posthumous book she represents him as going to bed at dusk to save candles, getting up at four to read Helvetius or Locke, and waking her at seven to try and argue her into materialism.[1] Malmesbury found him living in Paris, still harping on his philosophy, anxious but unable to get away. He had Malmesbury's secretaries to witness his will: one of them was the future Earl Granville, whom he had professionally attended, refusing fees; and he died, over eighty, in 1800, leaving the bulk of his property to Huskisson.
Gem had brought over both Huskisson and his brother, the sons of his favourite niece, in 1783, on their father's second marriage. He meant them to be doctors, but the future Chancellor of the Exchequer had no turn for medicine, entered Boyd
- ↑ In the Paris Temps, May 23, 1888, M. Anatole France describe Mrs. Elliott as sponging Gem's tear-stained face, and asking why the prospect of death should terrify him, whereas she herself remains cheerful. He replied: "Madam, you are young, rich, healthy, and handsome, and you certainly lose much in losing life, but being incapable of reflection, you do not know what you lose. As for me, I am poor (!), old, and ill, so that to deprive me of life is not depriving me of much; but I am philosopher and a doctor; I am concious of being it, which you are not, and I know exactly what I lose. This accounts, madam, for my being melancholy while you are cheerful." There may be some foundation for this anecdote, but an inquiry as to the source of it elicited no reply.
