became Foreign Minister with the title of Lord Grenville, Mr. Dundas becoming Home Secretary.
Important however as were the events that were passing in the East, their interest was soon entirely lost in the great changes that had begun in the West, especially in France. Lord Lansdowne's connection with the literary and philosophical classes in France had naturally led him to look with favour on the opening stages of the popular movement in that country. As he had already frequently declared, he did not believe in the old doctrine that England and France were natural enemies, but, on the contrary, considered that if free institutions existed in both and free trade united their material interests, a greater security would thereby be obtained for peace, progress, and reform than could be afforded by all the protective tariffs and continental alliances of the old system. During 1789 and 1790 he was kept carefully informed of everything that passed in Paris, not only by his old correspondent, Morellet, but by his eldest son Lord Wycombe,[1] by Benjamin Vaughan, who made more than one journey at this period to the French capital, and by Dumont, who had gone thither to be by the side of his friend Mirabeau, and to assist him with his own invaluable political knowledge, during the crisis of French liberty.[2] How much the latter valued his presence, may be seen by the following letter which he addressed to Lord Lansdowne, the day after the capture of the Bastille.
"My Lord,—Vous me rendrez bien la justice de croire que le respect et la haute considération que je professe pour vous, sont moins fondés sur les bontés dont vous m'avez comblé en Angleterre, et sur les marques honorables d'estime dont vous avez daigné me faire passer plus d'une fois le précieux témoignage, que sur les grandes vues d'homme d'état et de philanthropie
- ↑ By his first marriage with Lady Sophia Carteret. He succeeded his father in 1805, and in the same year married Mary, the widow of Sir Duke Gifford of Castle Jordan, Ireland. He died in 1809.
- ↑ A letter from Vaughan describing the Fête de la Fédération will be found in the Appendix II. B.
