less of a coquette, but all will do very well. The ladies desire to be particularly remembered to you. Miss Fox took all the pains possible with her brother's guardians to get them to buy your library for him. We all beg to be affectionately remembered to the Bishop of Chartres. Is he a Non-juror? If so I hope he will come and spend some time with us at Bowood."[1]
The King's speech on the 31st of January 1792 spoke the language of confidence, and announced a reduction in the naval and military establishments. The cause of reform continued to advance; the law of libel with the unanimous consent of all parties in the State was altered in the manner for which Shelburne had vainly contended in 1772. It is curious that the proceedings, which were the immediate cause of this much needed alteration, originated with Mr. Fitzmaurice, Lord Lansdowne's brother, who had abandoned political life and was now living in Wales, where he commenced the memorable proceedings against the Dean of St. Asaph's, by preferring a bill of indictment against him for the publication of "the Dialogue between a Scholar and a Farmer," a pamphlet showing the defects which existed in the representation of the people in Parliament.[2]
"From the wisdom and temper," Lord Lansdowne wrote a short time after the death of Mirabeau, "which has been shown by the Assembly in their late proceedings, it may be expected that they may still find means of uniting all parties. No concessions can be too great provided they do not affect the great landmarks of the Revolution.
"Nothing is to be apprehended from within, but what is in the power of the Representatives to prevent or overcome. In the English Revolution of 1688, a great majority of the people of Great Britain were attached to King James, and continued so for three reigns, those of William III., Anne, and George I. I have myself
- ↑ Lord Lansdowne to Morellet, July 10th, November 13th, 17895 March 26th, 1790; February 13th, 1791. On the 2nd November 1789, the National Assembly passed an Act declaring the property of the Church to belong to the State. On the 17th of March 1790, it ordered the sale of national property up to a value of 400,000,000 francs.
- ↑ See supra, p. 309.
