The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 - Online Library of ...
The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 - Online Library of ...
The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 - Online Library of ...
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<strong>Online</strong> <strong>Library</strong> <strong>of</strong> Liberty: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Diary</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Letters</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Gouverneur</strong> <strong>Morris</strong>, <strong>vol</strong>. 2<br />
[Back to Table <strong>of</strong> Contents]<br />
CHAPTER XXXIV.<br />
<strong>Morris</strong> passes the winter <strong>of</strong> 1796 in London. News <strong>of</strong> the armistice on the Rhine.<br />
Letter to Washington. Chosen honorary member <strong>of</strong> the Highl<strong>and</strong> Society. Dines with<br />
the Duke <strong>of</strong> Argyll. <strong>The</strong> King’s drawing-room. Goes to the House <strong>of</strong> Commons. <strong>The</strong><br />
Princess <strong>of</strong> Wales, Mr. Adams. Pitt speaks in the House <strong>of</strong> Commons. Fox. Sheridan.<br />
Letter to Washington. Letter to Alex<strong>and</strong>er Hamilton. Mrs. Montague’s drawing-room.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Queen’s drawing-room. French victory in Italy. View <strong>of</strong> St. Paul’s. Dines with<br />
Pitt at Lord Gower’s. <strong>The</strong> House <strong>of</strong> Lords. Dines with Mrs. Vassal.<br />
<strong>The</strong> winter <strong>of</strong> 1796 <strong>Morris</strong> passed in London, watching the progress <strong>of</strong> events on the<br />
Continent, <strong>and</strong> enjoying the society <strong>of</strong> his many friends among the émigrés. <strong>The</strong><br />
hospitality <strong>of</strong> numbers <strong>of</strong> English friends <strong>and</strong> acquaintances was always<br />
acknowledged in his diary, which daily records an opera-party, a dinner, or a supper.<br />
Foreign affairs naturally comm<strong>and</strong>ed the larger share <strong>of</strong> his attention, <strong>and</strong> rumors<br />
concerning the movements <strong>of</strong> the armies, as well as facts, are to be found in the pages<br />
<strong>of</strong> the diary. “<strong>The</strong>re is nothing new,” says the entry for January 8th, “but I find the<br />
people in the City are getting <strong>of</strong>f their high but false opinion <strong>of</strong> the French plan <strong>of</strong><br />
finance. <strong>The</strong> gazette (the London Times? ) announces an armistice between the French<br />
<strong>and</strong> Austrians on the Rhine, the account <strong>of</strong> which reached town at one o’clock, by<br />
way <strong>of</strong> Paris, to-day.”<br />
“Some mails are arrived from Hamburg [January 11th]. <strong>The</strong> news <strong>of</strong> the armistice on<br />
the Rhine st<strong>and</strong> confirmed, but no particulars are, it would seem, contained in the<br />
letters received.”<br />
À propos <strong>of</strong> the measures taken in France to establish their finances, <strong>Morris</strong> wrote to<br />
Washington on the 11th <strong>of</strong> January:<br />
“<strong>The</strong>se measures may perhaps be announced in America as the perfection <strong>of</strong> human<br />
wisdom, but also as inevitably productive <strong>of</strong> the best effects; in which respect they<br />
would differ from those perfections <strong>of</strong> wisdom heret<strong>of</strong>ore exhibited on that theatre.<br />
Our experience in America could have proved (had pro<strong>of</strong> been necessary) that the<br />
natural effect <strong>of</strong> paper money is to consume all the personal property <strong>of</strong> a country.<br />
<strong>The</strong> assignats were going on in their natural progression, when, after the re<strong>vol</strong>ution <strong>of</strong><br />
the 10th <strong>of</strong> August, measures <strong>of</strong> increasing cruelty were successively adopted to force<br />
property out <strong>of</strong> the h<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> its owners, or at least to render the possession <strong>of</strong> it highly<br />
dangerous. At the same time the total suspension <strong>of</strong> foreign commerce shut up all<br />
remaining commodities within the country, <strong>and</strong> the permission to export was only<br />
granted in exchange for articles wanted by the government, which gave its paper for<br />
those things which it obliged the owner to sell, <strong>and</strong> which all but its agents were<br />
prohibited from buying, by the very same means which compelled the sale. Mankind<br />
were pretty generally the dupes <strong>of</strong> these appearances, <strong>and</strong> although they were going<br />
on to increase the nominal amount <strong>of</strong> their paper to more than the fee simple <strong>of</strong> the<br />
whole country was worth, people whose habits <strong>and</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>ession should have taught<br />
them better persisted in the absurd idea that all that mass <strong>of</strong> paper would be paid<br />
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