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Online Library of Liberty: The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 In October, 1794, however, he sent his steward Bromeling in the ship Superb to New York, “with,” as he wrote to Mr. Constable, “all my books, liquors, linens, furniture, plate, and carriages, which I presume will be admitted free of duty.” Instructions were sent that the “things, when the ship arrived, should be taken from her to Morrisania by periaugers,” and his overseer was directed to take especial care of his liquors and wines. Among the latter was a large quantity of Imperial Tokay sealed in wax with the double-headed eagle of Austria, the wedding-present of Maria Theresa to the unfortunate queen Marie Antoinette. This wine Mr. Morris had bought during the days of the Terror from a cheap grocery shop, where it was exposed for sale at twenty-five cents a bottle. The last bottle of it was opened at a wedding-party in New York in 1848. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 38 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1170
Online Library of Liberty: The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 [Back to Table of Contents] CHAPTER XXX. Morris leaves Paris and France. Resumes his diary. Thinks Monroe takes a wrong tone. Journey through France. Switzerland. Coppet. Madame de Staël. M. Necker. Malet du Pin. Berne. Basle. Hospitality of friends. Incidents en route. Scraps of news. Hamburg. Glad to have left his position in France. Letter to Washington. Extremely cold weather. Princess of Wales goes to England. Madame de Flahaut. Treaty between Prussia and France published, April, 1795. Morris becomes surety for the Duke of Orleans. Verses to Mesdames de Beaurepaire and de Flahaut. Riots at Paris. Morris helps his friends among the émigrés. History of M. d’Angivilliers’s silver plate. Power of the Jacobins broken. Distress in France. Letter to Washington. On Sunday, October 12, 1794, Morris left Paris for Sainport to make arrangements for disposing of his possessions there, and two days later he bade a final farewell to France and journeyed to Hamburg. The entries in the diary commence again on October 12th, with a description of the journey to Sainport. “I left Paris this morning at ten o’clock. Instead of four horses I have but three, and my servant mounts behind the carriage. The postmaster says that all his bidets are held at the order of the Comité de Salut Public. This I suspect to be untrue. I reach Charenton, where I find it next to impossible to find a bidet, and so go on as before. The postmaster says it is impossible to procure post-horses; that they are, moreover, very dear and very bad, etc.—all which I believe, being the natural result of a system of paper money, and, above all, of a war like the present, which cannot but exhaust the country exposed to it. “At Villeneuve, again, there are difficulties about a bidet. I agree to pay three posts for the distance to Sainport, which is more than I ought; but on all such occasions one is at the postmaster’s mercy—one among many bad consequences of doing that by exclusive privilege and minute regulation which should be left to competition and private interest. In how many different ways reflection and experience inculcate the important maxim not to govern too much. The state of husbandry in the country through which I pass is detestable: no artificial grasses, and but little natural meadow; two years of crop and one of fallow, consequently small crops and very foul with all kinds of weeds. The little experiments I have made at Sainport during the summer, upon some of the worst land in the whole country, convince me that intelligent husbandry would almost work miracles here. I am persuaded that France ought (for at least two years to come) to renounce all idea of colonies and commerce. The culture of her soil and the active pursuit of fisheries on her coast would, if she were well governed, raise her to a pitch of prosperity which can hardly be conceived. Corn, wine, oil, silk, flax, and hemp, with a sufficiency of iron, give her the first principles of wealth, and the genius of her people in converting the rude materials into various manufactures would, if well directed, accumulate again, in less than half a century, the immense property expended on the present war. The amount will not be known until after the close of it, but, if I judge rightly, she will be exhausted to a degree beyond what would have been conceived to lie within the power of any government. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 39 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1170
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[Back to Table of Contents] INDEX.
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But they are mistaken. The waves of
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