202
NOTES ANC QUERIES. [12 s. HI. MABOH n. 1917.
great Swiss physiognomist, John Caspar
Lavater. whose reading was sent over in
French from Lausanne, and is quoted in
Maria Josepha's letters:
" The Physiognomy of an unknown person presented to me by M. le Chevalier Macpherson struck me at once as one of the most decisive that I have ever seen. It is a head fundamentally well organized, endowed with an immense memory, the glance wide and just, a firm and profound judgment. The eyes are not as well expressed as the brow required, but equally marked by a quite peculiar penetration. The nose alone is worth a hundred ordinary noses. I am as sure of it, as of my existence, that it is the nose of a man of the utmost foresight ( " prudentissime ") ; the mouth is rather just than good. I should not like to appear before him as a malefactor." Character of Lord Sheffield, by Lavater, Zurich, Oct. 25, 1791, from ' The Girlhood of Maria Josepha Holrpyd, Lady Stanley of Alderley,' 1896, where is also given a portrait of Lord Sheffield by Dowflman (1780), in which he bears something of a likeness to his friend and fellow-farmer, Arthur Young. *
To justify these statements the biographer must go not only to the eulogies scattered through the letters of his friend Gibbon, but to the numerous pamphlets and reports issued by Holroyd throughout his long life of 86 years. The pamphlet not yet dis- credited as it later became in France when Paul Louis Courier had sung its swan-song in his famous ' Pamphlet des Pamphlets,' and their writers had been categoried and faintly damned in Musset's verse as " pales pamphletaires " was still, as in Junius's day, the political or factious firebrand, which might fire to fever or white heat a nation's blood at the bidding of a Swift, a Francis, or a Burke ; while Foote showed off its Aristophanic paces in low comedy and buffoonery. To no such incendiary'f purpose was it ever put by John Baker Holroyd, whose mental and moral equi- librium remained at his own or his country's disposal throughout his well-paced career trained not only to the gallop, but to the stop.
- Sheffield was also painted by Sir Martin
Shee for New Brunswick, and it would be in- teresting to compare these two portraits with Downnnan's in later life.
t Courier declares that the words " vil pam- phletaire," applied to him by counsel before the Cour d'assises, came upon him like a light- ning stroke, and that the words roused against him judges, witnesses, jury, and the whole assembly. When he discussed the subject outside the Court with his friend M. Arthur Bertrand, one of the jury, the latter admitted that without having read the pamphlet in question he had condemned it, because every pamphlet must be " full of poison." Courier's comment is of the finest irony.
In Gibbon's opinion, Sheffield's pamph-
lets were by no means " trifles light as air,"
for we find him in 1786 thanking his friend
for " three pamphlets pamphlets, I cry
you mercy ; three weighty treatises almost
as useful as an inquiry into the state of the
primitive Church " viz., on the American
Trade (which is said to have turned the tide
against Lord Shelburne, who proposed re-
laxing the Navigation Laws in favour of the
triumphant Americans), on Ireland, and on
French Commerce ; but the last - named,
' Observations on the French Treaty and
Commerce,' according to a note by Sheffield,
was never published.
The letter runs as follows :
LORD SHEFFIELD TO LORD AUCKLAND (in later ink).
Sheffield Place,
Deer. 27th, 93.
Alas ! the Capture of Gen 1 O'Hara is but too> true. Yet he does not seem to be quite so much to blame as I first imagined. The Indiscipline of our Army is intolerable. In the other Sorties exactly the same bad Conduct was exhibited. But we neglect our Army both in Peace & War, & never sufficiently encourage steady,, strict Officers. You will recollect I never had a very favorable opinion of the Toulon Business^ I could not conceive that an Impression could be made with Advantage from thence . To- keep it, appeared to me a Matter of great Expence & Difficulty, & it seemed to me that the Immense Fleet of English, Spaniards, &c., between Spain, Corsica, & the Coast of Genoa, might completely block up the South of France. To be sure, I should like to conduct the French Ships of War from Toulon to Gibraltar.
I heartily wish you were within my Range or that we were within a more moderate dis- tance of Beckenham.
Our Christmas Party is somewhat deranged by the absence of Fred: North, who is laid up with the Gout in London, & by a feverish Disposition in the Gibbon, who is confined to his Room.
A Gentleman who is just come here from Lausanne reports nothing new in that Quarter. The miserable Troops of the King of Sardinia seem, to be completely driven from Savoy. The Accounts from Lyons are ten times worse than those given in the Newspapers.
I am rather entertained with a Letter from M. de Luc, of Geneva, which he desired might be shewn to me, as a Man of great Weight & Importance. It recommends that all Englishmen should give a fourth, even a third of their whole property towards the carrying on a War, which, is to avert the Miseries of France.
I wish it may be possible to create a Diversion in Brittany & Normandy. It seems the only part where we can reasonably expect to do any thing ; I shall rejoice indeed if Col: Mack should. return to the Army I never had an Opinion, of the P. de Cobourg.
With the very best Remembrances to the Lady*
I am ever Most Faithfully Yours
SHEFFIELD.
