The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 - Online Library of ...

Online Library of Liberty: The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2
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CHAPTER XXXV.
Morris goes to Switzerland in June, 1796. Lord Grenville provides him with letters.
Altona. The Duke of Orleans. Journey to Berlin. Berlin. Count de Haugwitz.
Conversation with M. Kalitchoff. Dines with Prince Ferdinand. Introduced to the
Princess Dowager of Hesse. Dines with Count Haugwitz. First of a series of letters to
Lord Grenville. Dines with the Russian minister. Long conversation. Madame de
Nadaillac. Letter to Lady Sutherland. Letter to Lord Grenville. Dinner at Lord Elgin’s.
An announcement of a victory of the French at Brescia. An evening at Prince
Ferdinand’s. Dines with Marshal Von Mollendorf. Leaves Berlin.
In June of this year Morris was suddenly called, by some “indispensable
circumstances, to take a journey into Switzerland; and my sense of propriety,” he
wrote to Washington, “induces me to make the long and inconvenient circuit of
Hamburg in preference to the short cut through France.” In this same letter he said:
“Short as this letter is, I must not close without the tedious repetition how important I
conceive it to be that you should continue in office. Would you require a very strong
reason indeed? You yourself shall give it from the last four months of our history, and
I will freely consent to your retirement when you can designate a successor who will
truly hold the sentiments and pursue the conduct mentioned in yours of December.
But even then you ought to consider that it is not given to every man to bend the bow
of Ulysses, whatever may be his wishes or intentions, and well know that weight of
character is, in arduous circumstances, quite as useful as strength of mind. God grant
you long life and good health; the rest you will take care of. Farewell. I am, ever
yours.”
Morris left London on the 7th of June for Switzerland, having previously taken leave
of the king, partaken of farewell dinners with various friends, and conversed with
Lord Grenville, “which conversation, though short,” he says, “amounts nevertheless
to a great deal in substance.” He left amply provided by Lord Grenville with letters.
After the various vicissitudes experienced at that time when crossing the North Sea
from Gravesend to Altona in a Dutch sailing-vessel—“sleeping in a so-called bed
upon a mattress about two feet too short, with no sheets and but two blankets,” with a
pretty fresh wind and “all sail left standing so as to avoid the trouble of taking them in
and setting them again,” Morris arrived safely at Altona, June 12th. “The vis inertiœ
of the Dutchman nearly cost me my horses. At four I hear them stamping and
struggling upon deck. They tumble down, break the frail stalls which had been built
for them, and such is the list of the ship that it is with difficulty they can, when clear
of the wreck, keep upon their legs. I go to my old quarters at Altona, but, alack! they
are taken, and, what is worse, my landlord is not at home, so that I know not whether
any lodgings are taken for me elsewhere. Finally, I have my baggage brought to the
King of England Hotel. Everything is, I find, become dearer since I left this place, or
else the expectations of the innkeeper are greatly raised by the concourse of strangers.
I meet M. Dumas this morning in the street; he regrets not having believed what I told
him about the assignats.”
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