Thomas Beddoes to Davies Giddy, 4 November 1791
Bath 4 Novr
You did not reckon on my writing to you again before I had compleated my journey: nor did I myself: & if as is very possible you are now (10 o’cl) reading my last dispatches, you will not I dare say feel any presentiment of new ones preparing for you. But I am eager to communicate some intelligence which may tend to relieve your political anxiety, and I return with great pleasure to a task which almost every body dislikes or affects to dislike. I hunted at Exeter for the Gazette Nationale & at last was fortunate enough to procure from Mr Baring several of the last numbers. You may guess with what interest I examined materials that might enable me to form some estimate of the temper & conduct of the new Assembly. I was very soon aware that our newspapers according to their established system of misrepresentation, select everything that can bring discredit upon that legislative body & suppress the rest. According to their accounts I had figured to myself the members as a Westminster election mob wanting only the rattle of the bones & cleavers. But I can assure you that there is no justness in the parallel. Excepting only one or two momentary squalls, originating in a most frivolous cause, they have observed that composure & dignity which becomes an assembly on whose movements the eyes of Europe & more than Europe are fixed. Had I been a member of the last, I shd have voted with the majority for my own exclusion from the present assembly: & the event will justify their confidence in their country to furnish & depute new representatives equal to the demands of any emergency: & why shd not such skilful architects confide in the strength of the finished building? I hope it will appear that they displayed a proper degree of courage witht infringing the dictates of providence when they judged that it wd rest firm on its own foundations & need no adventitious props. If the old assembly had acquired the habit of debate & deliberation, I can look upon this only as a very puny advantage. They had themselves easily overcome the obstacles that lay in the way to it; & such obstacles the vigour of excited genius hardly deigns to notice as it spurns them out of its path. I think I can also perceive that the talent of conceiving & recommending fit measures is beginning to assume its proper ascendancy over the minds of the deputies; & the name of Pastoret is becoming as respectable as that of any member of the former corps. His advice on the difficult questions of the emigrants & refractory priests will, I dare say, be followed. It will reconcile clemency & policy. I was glad to find a man whose mind has been too much tuned by the habit of severe reasoning to be sanguine, treat the notion of any formidable invasion in an high tone of contemptuous indignation. It appeared to me a favourable trait in the new body that they speak of their predecessors with unvarying reverence. Men of turbulent ambition or of mean spirit & capacity wd <have> exerted themselves to tarnish their reputation; they might naturally have attempted to exalt themselves at the expence of the old assembly or to reduce them to their own level. Those, I conceive, who have the sense of merit within their own breast, can afford most cordially to praise, & they can certainly best understand the merit of others. – There does not appear, & there cd hardly exist, any thing like the former distinctions of coté droite & gauche. The validity of the constitution is not disputed: & they seem individually to strive who shall make the most useful propositions. Will regular & permanent parties even form themselves in such a body? Clearly not: the just pride of independence will prevent it. Corruption in its various modes is the parent of political party: & in a country where the parent cannot thrive, the offspring will never be produced. In time, perhaps, a republican party may arise, but that will be a party of principle & not like our parties supporting one another per pas & repas. I have never heard of two distinct parties in the American Congress.
The last acct of S. Domingo in the Gaz. Nat. of Octr 28 was more favourable than I had hoped. It stated that the insurrection had been suppressed with the loss of 200 negroes and mulattoes.
My confidence that I was as good as safely arrived at home, when I was once got into the track of hurry & bustle, was very near receiving a severe check this morning. In coming down the very steep hill just on this side of Exeter, a stout young horse that had never been harnessed before, took head, & in spite of the coachman whirled the coach from one side of the road to the other with the utmost violence. He was making to a place where the fence between the road & a precipice is very weak & had drawn the south wheels fairly off the road, when the other shaft horse fell down & stopped the coach with his body & wheels <legs>. I had no apprehension of the danger till now when the coachman handed us all out. He said he had never been so terrified before. The poor animal who saved our bones & perhaps our lives fell a sacrifice; at least I imagine he must have received a mortal injury though he did not expire on the spot. We waited 2 hours for fresh horses.
At breakfast I had the gratification of hearing an acct of myself incognito. A young man, a templar I think, said I was gone to town with Mr C. Hawkins – that I had discovered 3 volcanoes in Cornwall, & was to explore Devonshire next summer. A lady asked if this was Dr B of Oxford, & if the author of the intelligence knew him. He replied in the negative. She added, ‘neither did she, but I have heard, excepting what he may know about fossils & such out of the way things that he is perfectly stupid & incurably heterodox. Besides, he is so fat & short that he might almost do for a show’. At first I encouraged the conversation, as supposing that my appearance wd ill correspond to the grave & dignified idea of a professor. But now I was afraid of being detected, especially as I had Strange on Basaltes in my hand, the plates of which they had been admiring. However it passed off and I heard a good deal more news of myself which wd not be worth repeating, if there was room for it. They mentioned something about a gentleman who had taken me into Cornwall, meaning you, though they were not acquainted with your name (which I shall reserve for you sir, if I shd remember it so long. Yours sincerely
Thomas Beddoes
Address: Davies Giddy Esqr / Tredrea / Marazion / Cornwall // single sheet
Endorsement: Doctor Beddoes / 1791/ Novr the 4th
Stamped: BATH
MS: Cornish Archives MS DG 41/41
Published [in part]: Stock, pp. 35–36