seen her. He told me, at the same time, that he had very lately taken upon himself to remonstrate upon this want of curiosity, and having suggested to his excellency how possible it was for him to order his equipage to the door, and permit him to introduce him to this fair creature, whom he knew only by report, and the bills she had drawn upon his treasurer, the duke graciously consented to my friend's proposal, and actually set out with him for the gallant purpose of taking a cup of chocolate with his hitherto invisible mistress, who had notice given her of the intended visit. The distance from the house of the grandee to the apartments of the gypsy was not great, but the lulling motion of the huge state-coach, and the softness of the velvet cushions had rocked his excellency into so sound a nap, that when his equipage stopped at the lady's door, there was not one of his retinue bold enough to undertake the invidious task of troubling his repose. The consequence was, that after a proper time was passed upon the halt for this brave commander to have waked, had nature so ordained it, the coach wheeled round, and his excellency having slept away his curiosity, had not, at the time when I left Madrid, ever cast his eyes upon the person of the incomparable Tiranna. I take for granted, my friend Pietra Santa drank the chocolate, and his excellency enjoyed the nap. I will only add, in confirmation of my anecdote, that the good Abbe Curtis, who had the honour of having educated this illustrious sleeper, verified the fact." Time passed on in the alternate amusements of beholding this extraordinary actress, and the company which frequented his evening circle, when the period of his recall arrived, and he prepared to obey the mandate of his sovereign. The letter from Lord Hillsborough, which communicated this command, is an accurate specimen of courtly politeness and studied coldness of address to an unsuccessful agent, and shall be here transcribed: "Sir, "St. James's, Feb. 14, 1781. "I am sorry to find from your last letter, No, 19, and from that written from Count de Florida Blanca to Mr. Hussey, which the latter received at Lisbon, that an entire stop is put to the pleasing expectation, which had been formed from your residence in Spain. Had I been as well informed of the intentions of the court of Madrid, when you went abroad, as I now am, you would certainly not have had the trouble and fatigue of so long a voyage and journey, "There remains nothing now for me but to acquaint you, that I am commanded by the king to signify to you his majesty's pleasure, that you do immediately return to England; when I say immediately, it is not intended that your departure should have the appearance of resentment, or that you should be deprived of the opportunity of ex pressing a just sense of the marks of civility and attention which Mr. Cumberland has received since his arrival in Madrid. "I am, with great truth and regard, "Sir, "Your most obedient "Humble servant, (Signed) "HILLSBOROUGH." Whether the failure of Cumberland's negociation was to be attributed to himself, to the insincerity of the ministry, or to whatever other cause, cannot, as I have already observed, be with certainty known, while we have the testimony of only one person. In delivering this opinion I do not mean to infer the slightest suspicion of Cumberland's veracity; but there is, as Lord Shaftesbury has justly observed, "more of innocent delusion than voluntary imposture in the world, and they who have most imposed on mankind have been happy in a certain faculty, of imposing first upon themselves." This sort of delusion, it is natural to suppose, every man is in danger of, when he reviews his own conduct, and seeks to justify his proceedings against the aspersions or insinuations of others. The operations of self-love are so subtle and so incessant, that we are in equal peril of submitting to their influence from their imperceptible and from their habitual action. To silence the voice of reproof within our own bosoms, is an art which we are all willing to practise; and that conduct which the eye of the world beholds with anger or disdain, we know how to trick forth in our imaginations, so as to make it acceptable to ourselves. Every man is conscious that he has sometimes employed this kind of sophistry, and hence, whatever credibility is due to an individual, in testifying facts foreign to himself, the greatest caution may be justly used in receiving those by which his own proceedings are to be pronounced censurable, or otherwise. All the rough asperities are then softened down with admirable dexterity, and to ourselves we explain how events happened, why they were frustrated, and how they might have succeeded, with a disregard of truth, blameless only so far as it is unintentional. Thus, in reading Cumberland's own account of his transactions in Spain, we find him doing every thing that could be done, yet failing, and incurring only the displeasure of his employers. Neither failure, however, nor the disapprobation of those under whom we act, are infallible criteria of right and wrong; for the best schemes, however skilfully planned and conducted, may end in disappointment, and in the gratitude of the great we have no security for justice towards our actions. It too commonly happens, indeed, that we estimate the value of most things by their degrees of success, not reflecting how much merit may have been displayed on occasions which terminate unfavourably. "As the most just and honourable enterprises," observes the sagacious Fletcher, of Saltoun, "when they fail, are accounted in the number of rebellions; so all attempts, however unjust, if they succeed, always purge themselves of all guilt and suspicion." Though the truth of this maxim, however, may be extended to humbler events than rebellions, it does not hence follow that success alone can justify any measure; nor, by a parity of reasoning can want of success be always a proof of want of judgment or of merit. We do not, indeed, find mankind uniformly judging so, and therefore, when a man fails in what he undertakes, while they who employed him, knowing the means he had of succeeding, consider his failure as the fit object of reproof, it would be at least rational to conclude, in the absence of all testimony on one side, and with only the unsupported affirmations of the accused on the other, that some grounds for displeasure actually existed familiar enough to those who were best able to know them. Thus cautiously I wish to deliver my opinion upon the question of Cumberland's mission to Spain. He has himself discussed it with some degree of mystery; its precise object is no where distinctly avowed, though it seems to have had some reference to a separate peace between that country |
