Thomas Beddoes to Davies Giddy, 8 November 1792
Novr 8 Dear Giddy
Dear Giddy
For these two or three days I have felt something like internal admonitions that it was time to answer your last letter. They wd not perhaps in two or three days more have become loud enough to command my attention, if I had not sate up the greater part or rather the whole of last night to read a novel abounding in glaring absurdities & powerful strokes of genius, & entitled Anna St Ives. In consequence of this waking, I find myself in that unsettled maudlin mood, when one is not equal to any exertion greater than that of writing a letter. – I cannot satisfy you as to the main question you propose: & knowing that it wd not be in my power soon to satisfy you, I might have written sooner in order to convince you that I wd if I cd. Reynolds says ‘he never saw engine work so well as Sadler’s model, that it worked 19 lb upon the square inch, & that he wd willingly have brought it into the market, but was prevented by Sadler’s unaccountableness’. Sadler has been these 3 months building an engine at C. Dale, which ought not to have taken above a fortnight. On the cause of the delay, you will think it perfectly in nature that there shd be a war of mutual inculpation between Sadler & the clerks. The opinions of those whom one may regard as tolerable empirical judges of the working of an engine is certainly favourable to S’s construction. He says he will make a drawing for your inspection, & you may be assured that I will transmit it as it comes to my hands. The iron ore has not been melted. –
The bones are at Reynolds’s, but not unpacked. I have strong reasons for believing that cold may be very freely & safely applied. People may, to be sure, if they will take pains, make themselves ill afterwards. But that wd be no impeachment of Saussure’s expt on heat. to place a snowball in the focus of one & the thermr in that of another concave mirror, whence it’s said that cold appears to be reflected.
France, you see, is for ever free & a REPUBLIC, the only form of govt consistent with honesty & common sense. I used to think I had some neat pretty arguments laid up in favour of monarchy, which I shd on all occasions be able to produce, when called upon. Of late I have searched my head for them to no purpose; so am inclined to believe they were never there. – But this Convention! Pray heaven it mend in its paces, as it grows older. It is very vexatious when those whom you wish to esteem will not suffer you, or when you are obliged to withdraw your esteem from those on whom you believed it well-bestowed. In the late proceedings I think I perceive more irresolution, haste & injustice than any thing else. To what purpose all this hissing, hooting & otherwise baiting Robespierre & Marat, whenever they rise? It proceeds from a right sentiment – that I believe. But it is not the right way to express it ‘Yes, citizen legislators, you ought either to accuse <these arch-assassins> or not to treat with indignity the deputies of the people. Escape from this dilemma, if you can. In the course of that debate, which by the display & contrast of strong passions & strong characters, the shuffling, smooth-tongued villainy of Robespierre; the dark, sanguinary ambition of Marat, pretending to inward illuminations & disdaining all principles avowed by others, the ardent, Provençal integrity of Barbaroux; the enlightened humanity of Vergniaux; [xxxx] [xxxx] [xxxx] [xxxx] was much more dramatic than any passage in poetry, Marat professed himself the author of an exterminating placard, & this was a sufficient ground of accusation. Marat, more just to himself than you were, expected to be accused; & conscious of no guilt, was prepared to be his own executioner. Your passing to the order of the day savoured of the weakness of your predecessors; which weakness called into importance the Commons of Paris & gave free scope to the bloody villainy of intriguers. Timidity in you will bring other days of blood over Paris; an event even more perhaps to be deprecated, because it will confirm the vulgar opinion of the sanguinary spirit of the friends of freedom than on acct of its own horror. I do not regret my not being able to discover among you the oratory of Mirabeau; that was well in its day, when prejudices were to be eradicated & principles established. But Mirabeau besides cd look both Despotism & Anarchy in the face when armed in all their terrors. Would you had but a portion of the same intrepid spirit – However I do not yet despair of you; the Star of last night brings some signs of amendment. Then again the self-denying ordinance – to convince the Kings of Europe that the F Revolution is not upheld mainly by a handful of factious men – as if the logic of Dumouriez, Custine &c &c had not impressed kings & people with a much more lively conviction of this truth than any decree cd possibly do. Pity! They had not condemned themselves each to spend the remainder of his days in a separate cell for the heinous sin of having been deputed to save their country. – Then again the decree that levels timidity, perhaps prudence, with guilt, & for ever banishes women, the infirm, the aged, even those who fled, when the Parisians were perpetrating greater cruelties agt each other than wd have been perpetrated by an enemy, had the city been taken by storm. Add to this the levity of displacing such a man as Montesquiou on a slight, unauthenticated surmise & rejoice that these men cannot now endanger their country, though they do their worst.
The intrigues of Robespierre & Marat explain, I think, all that was heretofore perplexing in the Jacobin club. From this faction the applauses, justly enough, termed infernal by the apostate Fayette must have proceeded. We have just seen Marat praising the massacre of four firm patriots by the battalion of Mauconseil at the moment the battalion was expressing its abomination of the crime & giving up the murderers.
Shall the King be tried, condemned & executed? I vote for this measure – it will be a measure of salutary justice. The question whether a man because he is called King shall be allowed with impunity to practice all sorts of crimes & sport with the fate of millions, will be agitated all over Europe – & it must be rightly decided. And kings (while kings remain) as well as the people will be benefitted by the example & the reflections it will excite. The falsehoods, fabricated by ministerial hirelings, the common language held by the aristocrats, the proclamation, the addresses & twenty similar causes besides, have spread a firm persuasion among the people of the unrelenting wickedness of the French patriots & their favourers in England. This impression more than any thing else seems likely to produce popular violence in England; for you perceive how it will react, ‘these villains, intend fire, murder & every thing horrid; but we will be beforehand with them’ – so away starts the mob to pillage, burn, & do every thing done by the Birmingham mob & every thing it left undone, in mere self-defence. Precise facts even though they be flagrant abuses, have, I think, no incendiary tendency. You must either throw out ambiguous words such as will set the imagination to work, or invent enormous absurdities, such as are eagerly swallowed by untutored minds, upon which they act like a dream, or you will fail to agitate the people. The truth is innocent, though it has always been protested against as dangerous by the priesthood & by ministers <as well as by weak, well meaning men>. I know, therefore, no way of guarding the people agt the terrible effect of absurd rumours <so good> as by opening the press, the fountain of truth: nor do I think it can be so widely diffused among farmers, small tradesmen & artisans as by means of a provincial newspaper. For such reasons I have for many months <since> been extremely desirous to establish such a paper. It will be a losing project, at first; & when I solicited my democratical acquaintance to join in bearg the expence they refused for want of discrimination in this instance. They said ‘you will inflame’. It was in vain for me to reply that I shd destroy the tendency to inflammation & that what was always a [xxxx] beneficial, wd every day become a more urgent measure. They still retain the same sentiments in too great a degree. Like the popish clergy, they assert that the abuses of the British Govt ought not to be translated into the vulgar idiom. It is evident however that none but those who like the popish clergy are pampered by the profits of fraud & oppression need fear the consequences. Much is to be apprehended if the mind of the class beforementioned be not elevated a little towards the level of reform – At present, it is certain that the moral is even worse than the physical condition of the laboring poor, peasants especially. Yet not one; no, not a single idea has been pa respecting their rights or duties has been put into their hands, as it ought to be. The improvement of their condition is certainly the happiest result to be expected from a political change. And so far the necessity of such a change may be maintained by nearly the same arguments as the abolition of the slave-trade. There are two or three clever women in this neighbourhood; I mean to set them to search in the children’s friend &c for stories applicable to the poor; to print & distribute them. The first step may be to teach the poor their simplest social duties; they may then be made to comprehend more general truths: at all events, if they think right on any other points they will not be so easily misled –
T.B.
Address: Davies Giddy Esqr / Tredrea / Marazion / Cornwall // Single
Endorsement: Doctor Beddoes / 1792 / Novr the 8th
Stamped: Shefnal
MS: Cornish Archives MS DG 41/5