not gone further, and followed the example of the treaty which had been recently negotiated by Franklin between the United States and Prussia, under the terms of which even the merchant vessels of belligerents were exempted from capture.[1]
Nor were these the only subjects on which the views of Lord Lansdowne were far in advance of those of his contemporaries. In the conversation already quoted with Pitt he is found pointing out to the Minister the impossibility of placing the finances of the country on a really satisfactory basis in keeping with the newest financial ideas, without having recourse to an income tax, and in a letter to Dr. Price he enlarges upon the necessity of more attention being given in education to modern as compared with ancient languages, and of shortening the length of the vacations of the English universities and of introducing public examinations.[2] Prejudices however like other mortals Lord Lansdowne had, and of one in particular, notwithstanding all his philosophy, he never could free his mind. This was his hatred of the Scotch. "I can scarce conceive," he writes to Price in words almost worthy of Dr. Johnson when dictating on the same subject, "a Scotchman capable of liberality, and capable of impartiality. That nation is composed of such a sad set of innate cold-hearted impudent rogues that I sometimes think it a comfort that when you and I shall walk together in the next world (which I hope we shall as well as in this) we cannot possibly then have any of them sticking to our skirts. In the meantime it's a melancholy thing that there is no finding any other people that will take pains, or be amenable even to the best purposes."[3]
Amongst other visitors at Bowood at this period were Mirabeau and Romilly. Lord Lansdowne's attention had been called to Romilly partly by the praises of
- ↑ A closer examination of the actual words of this treaty may however render it doubtful whether the treaty went as far as Lord Lansdowne supposed, though it has often been quoted to the same effect since.
- ↑ Lord Lansdowne to Morellet, May 22nd, 1785. October 11th, 1786. September 9th, 1787. Lord Lansdowne to Price, September 21st, November 22nd, November 29th, 1786. Parl. Hist. xxvii. 874.
- ↑ Lord Lansdowne to Price, November 29th, 1786.
