The autobiographies of Edward Gibbon. Printed verbatim from hitherto unpublished mss.

Front matter

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

Appendix to Mbmoik F 96

MEMOIR B. 104

From his birth till the eve of his journey into Italy in 1764.

MEMOIR C. 211

(Written about 1789) ; from his birth tiJI 1772, when, two years after his father's death, he let the farm of Buritou, and removed to London.

MEMOIR E 293

From the early history of the family to July, 1789.

MEMOIR A 353

The earliest sketch ; written in 1788-9. From the early records of the family down to the death of Mr. Wm. Law in 1761.

MEMOIR D 391

From his bii'th to his father's death. Written 1790-91 ; not hitherto published.

Memoranda and Pbagments 416

Will op Edward Gibbon made in 1788 420

Index 425

THE AUTOBIOGEAPHIES OF

EDWARD GIBBON^.

CHAPTER L*

Throughout these autobiographies the portions hitherto unpublished are inserted in [ J.

Mt family is originally derived from the County of Kent,^ whose inhabitants have maintained from the earliest antiquity ^ a provincial character of civility, courage, and freedom. The southern district of the coimtry, which borders on Sussex and the sea, was formerly overspread with the great forest Anderida,' and even now retains the denomination of the Weald, or Woodland. In this district, and in the hundred and parish of Eolvenden, the Gibbons were possessed of lands in the year one thousand three hundred and twenty-six; and the elder

^ Cambden in Kent, masterly work — style and spirit pictoresque — LatinEdition — original text — my Edition, 1607.

* From Caesar, Will, of Malm. John Sarisb. — provincial marks lost — progress of Society— isle of Sky superior to Old Kent.

' Anderida — Cambden finds that Newenden-sea has retired.f

* Memoir F, the latest and most perfect. Written in 1702-3, brought down to 1753.

t See Appendix, 1, p. 96.

B branch of the family, without much encrease or diminution of property, still adheres to its native soil. Fourteen years after the first appearance of his name, John Gibben is recorded as the Marmorarius, or Architect, of King Edward the Third ; the strong and stately castle of Queenborough,* which guarded the entrance of the Medway, was a monument of his skill ; and the grant of an hereditary toll on the passage from Sandwich to Stonar, in the Isle of Thanet, is the reward of no vulgar artist. In the visitations of the Heralds, the Gibbons are frequently mentioned : they held the rank of Esquire in an age when that title was less promiscuously assumed : one of them, under the reign of Queen Elizabeths was Captain of the militia of Kent ; and a free school in the neighbouring town of Benenden proclaims the charity and opulence of its founder.* But time, or their own obscurity, has cast a

* Canon JoyjViear of Benenden, in Benenden, called Sarnden, cornhas kindly ftirnished me with par- pitted at 70 acres, for the mainteticulars of the benefactions of the nance of an Usher for the School. Gibbon family :— " 1699. The FeoflEees by Sale of

"1602. Edmund Gybbon of Timber off the said Farm, pur-

Benenden, Esq"', gave a Free chased a house and lands, esti-

School, house, and lands near the mated at 16 acres, near the Beacon

Beacon Hill, estimated at 80 acres, Hill, for an additional maintenance

towards the maintenance of the for the Usher,

master of the School. " 1713. John Gybbon of Hole,

« In the wall of the S. Chantry Esq", gave an Exchequer annuity

Chapel (evidently not in situ) is a of £14 per annum out of the excise

small brass with the following in- of beer, etc., which will expire in

scription: 'Under this stone doeth 1791, for a further augmentation

lye buried y body of Edmond to the Schoolmaster, provided he

Gibbon, late of this Pish of Ben- be neitherVicar, Curate, or Reader,

ninden, who dyed y' last of January and if he be, then for the use of

in Anno Dni. 1607, who was y" poor Girls."

prineipall founder of Free Scole of The school founded by Edmund

Benninden, and gave the living Gibbon in 1602 is still (1896) the

that thereto belongeth.' boys' school.

" 1677. Edmund Gybbon of t Cf. Memoir A, p. 358. Hole, Esq", gave a house and lands

EARLY HISTOEY OP THE GIBBON FAMILY. 3

veil of oblivion over the virtues and vices of my Kentish

ancestors : their character or station confined them to the

labours and pleasures of a rural life; nor is it in my

power to follow the advice of the poet in an enquiry after

a name —

" Go ! search it there, where to be bom, and dye Of rich and poor makes all the history " — '

So recent is the institution of our parish registers.^* In the beginning of the seventeenth century a younger branch of the Gibbons of Eolvenden migrated from the Country to the city, and from this branch I do not blush to descend. The law requires some abilities; the Church imposes some restraints, and before our army and navy, our Civil establishments and Indian Empire, had opened so many paths of fortune, the mercantile profession was more frequently chosen by youths of a liberal race and education who aspired to create their own independence. Our most respectable families have not disdained the counting-house or even the shop ; their names are enrolled in the livery and companies of London; and in England, as well as in the Italian commonwealths, heralds have been compelled to declare that Gentility is not degraded by the exercise of trade.

The armorial ensigns which in the times of Chivalry adorned the crest and shield of the soldier are now

» Pope, M. E. ill. 287.

" Eegister^ first Lord Cromwell, 1538. Anderson. Vol.i. p. 367 — few so old — series broken.*

* An Historical and Chronological the disBolution of MonasterieB, every

JOeductionof the Origin of Commerce incumbent minister in all the

from the earlieet accounts to the parishes in England was compelled

Present time, by Adam Anderson, to keep a register of all Weddings,

london, 1764. "By order of Christenings, and Burials."— Vol. i.

Thomas Cromwell, Enrl of Essex, p. 367. "Vicar-General of Henry VIIL, upon

4 GIBBON'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [Memoie,F.

become an empty decoration, which every man who "has money to build a carriage may paint, according to his fancy, on the pannels. My family arms are the same which were borne by the Gibbons of Kent in an age when the College of Heralds religiously guarded the distinctions of blood and name: a Lyon, rampant, gardant, hetioeen three scallop-shells. Argent on a field Azure." I should not, howerer, have been tempted to blazon my coat of arms, the most useless of all coats, were it not connected with a whimsical anecdote. About the reign of James the First, the three harmless scallop-shells were changed by Edmund Gibbon, Esq., into three Ogresses, or female cannibals, with the design of stigmatizing three ladies, his kinswomen, who had provoked him by an unjust law-suit.* But this singular mode of revenge, for which he obtained the sanction of Sir William Segar, King-at-arms, soon expired with its author ; and on his own monument in the Temple Church, the Monsters vanish, and the three scallop-shells resume their proper and hereditary place.

[Our alliances by marriage it is not disgraceful to mention. Blue-mantle Poursuivant, who will soon be introduced to the reader's acquaintance, enumerates the Phillips de la Weld in Tenterden, the Whetnals of East-

* Arms. In Latin by G . f

* Those who are acquainted for scallops, Edmund Gibbon was with heraldry are aware that the guilty of a delicate heraldic pun word ogress is a, synonym for a which his descendant would appear pellet or rowidle. These roundles to have taken in a literal, not «, are supposed to represent little techniciil sense (cf. p. 360). coloured cakes or wafers used in t The father of Lord Chancellor the Crusades, and according to Hardwicke married an heiress of their colour they are in English this family of Gibbon. The Chanheraldry termed: Bezants (gold), cellor's escutcheon in the Temple Plates (silver), Fomeis (green), Hall quarters the arms of Gibbon Torteaux (red), Golpes (purple), as does also that, in Lincoln's Inu Guzes (sanguine), and Pellets Hall, of Charles Yorke, Chancellor (black). In substituting pellets ia 1770.— Sheffield.

LORD SAY AND SELE. 5

Peckham, the Edgars of Suffolk, the Cromers, the Bercleys of Beaustou, the Hextalls, the EUenbriggs, the Calverleys, the Whetnalls of Cheshire— modestly checking his pen lest he should seem to indulge the pride of pedigree : "nam genus et proavos," etc. As such pride would be ridiculous, it would be scarcely less ridiculous to disclaim it; and I shall simply observe that the Gibbons have been immediately or remotely connected with several worthy families of the old gentry of England. The Memoirs of the Count de Grammont,'' a favourite book of every man and woman of taste, immortalize the Whetnalls or Whitnells of Peckham: "la blanche Whitnell et le triste Peckham." But the insipid charms of the lady, and the dreary solitude of the mansion, were sometimes enlivened by Hamilton and love ; and had not our alliance preceded her marriage, I should be less confident of my descent from the Whetnalls of Peckham. The Cromers in the fifteenth century. were twice Sheriffs of Kent and twice Lord Mayors of London. But] the chief honour of my ancestry is James Piens, Baron Say and Seale, and Lord High Treasurer of England in the reign of Henry the Sixth, from whom, by the Phelips, the Whetnalls, and the Cromers, I am lineally descended in the eleventh degree. His dismission and imprisonment in the Tower were insufficient to appease the popular clamour ; and the Treasurer, with his son-inlaw Cromer,* was beheaded (1450), after a mock tryal, by the Kentish insurgents. The black list of his offences,

' Grammont, C. — Court at Tunbridge — merry times.']'

* Cade. " Go take him away, I and strike off his head, and brinf?

say, and strike off his head pre- them both upon two poles thither."

sently : and then break into his son- — 2 Henry VI., iv. 7.

jn-law's honse, Sir James Cromer, t See Appendix, 2, p. 96.

as it is exhibited in Shakespeare, displays the ignorance and envy of a plebeian tyrant. Besides the Tague reproaches of selling Maine and Normandy to the Dauphin, the Treasurer is specially accused of luxury for riding on a foot-cloth, and of treason for speaking Prench, the language of our enemies. "Thou has most traitorously corrupted the youth of the Eealm " (says Jack €ade to the unfortunate Lord), " in erecting a grammar school: and, whereas, before, our fore-fathers had no other books than the score and the tally, thou hast ■caused printing to be used ; and, contrary to the King, Hs Crown, and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill. It ■will be proved to thy face, that thou hast men about thee, who usually talk of a noun and a verb, and such abominable words as no Christian ear can endure to hear." * Our dramatic Poet is generally more attentive to character than to history ; and I much fear that the art of printing was not introduced into England till several years after Lord Say's death : ^ but of some of these meritorious crimes I should hope to find my ancestor guilty ; and a man of letters may be proud of his descent from a Patron and martyr of learning.

In the beginning of the last century, Eobert Gibbon, Esq., of Eolvenden in Kent, who died in 1618, had a

° Caxton, 1471 — ^Westminster. Those who believe in Harlem and Corselis cling to Sh. and allow Lord Say an experiment. Origin of printing, I helieve, by Nichols, 1776, pp. 19, 20, 2nd ed. 8vo. after 25.*

* 2 Benry VI., iv. 7. On this land (before the time of Caxton)

passage BJackstone writes: "Mr. by Frederic Corsellis, a workmau

Moerman in his Origines Typo- from Haerlem in the time of Henry

graphics: hath availed himself VI." The whole question is fully

of this passage in Shakespeare discussed in Timperlev's Encyclo-

to support his hypothesis that piedia of Literary and Typographi-

printing was introduced into Eng- cal Anecdote, 1842, pp. 144, et leq

JOHN GIBDON. 7

son of the same name of Eobert, wlio settled in London in trade and became a member of the Cloth-workers' Company. His wife was a daughter of the Edgars, who flourished above four hundred years in the County of Suffolk, and produced an eminent and wealthy Serjeant-at-law, Sir Gregory Edgar, in the reign of Henry the Seventh. Of the sons of Eobert Gibbon who died in 1643, Matthew did not aspire abovfe the station of a linnendraper in Leadenhall Street, in the Parish of St. Andrew's, but John has given the Public some curious Memorials of his existence, his character, and his family. He was born the third of November, in the year 1629 ; his education was liberal, at a grammar-school, and afterwards in Jesus College at Cambridge, and he celebrates the retired content which he enjoyed at AUesborough in Worcestershire, ia the house of Thomas Lord Coventry, where John Gibbon was employed as domestic tutor, [the same office which Mr. Hobbes exercised in the Devonshire family .^*3 But the spirit of my kinsman soon emerged into more active life ; he visited foreign countries as a soldier and a traveller ; acquired the knowledge of the French and Spanish languages ; passed some time in the Isle of Jersey ; crossed the Atlantic; and resided upwards of a twelfmonth (1659) in the rising Colony of Virginia. In this remote province his taste, or rather passion, for Heraldry found a singular gratification at a War-dance of the native Indians. As they moved in measured steps, brandishing their Tamahawks, his curious eye contemplated their little shields of bark,

'^ The comparison is his own — quotes the words of Mr. nobbes.*

• Cf. Memoir A, p. 367.

8 GIBBON'S AUTOBIOGEAPHT. [Memoik F.

and their naked bodies, which were painted with the colours and symbols of his favourite science. " At which I exceedingly wondered; and concluded that Heraldry was ingrafted naturally into the sense of humane race. If so, it deserves a greater esteem than now-a-days is put upon it." His return to England, after the restoration, was soon followed by his marriage, his settlement in an house in St. Catherine's cloyster near the Tower, which devolved to my grandfather, and his introduction into the Heralds College (in 1671), by the style and title of Bluemantle Poursuivant at arms. In this office he enjoyed near fifty years the rare felicity of uniting in the same pursuit his duty and inclination; his name is remembered in the college, and many of his letters are still preserved.' Several of the most respectable characters of the age. Sir William Dugdale, Mr. Ashmole, Dr. John Betts, and Dr. Nehemiah Grew were his friends ; and in the society of such men, John Gibbon may be recorded without disgrace as the member of an Astrological Club. The study of hereditary honours is favourable to the Koyal prerogative ; and my kinsman, like most of his family, was a high Tory in Church and State. In the latter end of the reign of Charles the Second, his pen was exercised in the cause of the Duke of York ; ^^ the Republican faction he most

" Mr. Brooks Lancaster Herald.* '" Moral verses.f

* There never has been a Mr. the large amount of work done

Brooks,LanoasterHerald, but from by his kinsman at the College of

a passage in Memoir A (p. 356) Arms, and of the high estimation

it is evident that Mr. John Charles in which that work was held — an

Brooke, who was Bouge Croix in estimation which survives to the

1773 and Somerset Herald in 1778, present time.

is meant. It is very probable f This refers to the verses seatthat Gibbon heard from him of tered through the other works of

JOHN GIBBON THE HERALD. 9

cordially detested ; and as each animal is conscious of its proper arms, the Herald's revenge was emblazoned on a most Diabolical scutcheon.^^ But the triumph of the Whig Grovernment checked the preferment of Blue- Mantle ; and he was even suspended from his ofiBce till his tongue could learn to pronounce the oath of abjuration. His life was prolonged to the age of ninety, and in the expectation of the inevitable though uncertain hour, he wishes to preserve the blessings of health, competence, and virtue. In the year 1682 he published at London his Introductio ad Latinam Blasoniam, an original attempt which Cambden had desiderated to define, in the Koman idiom, the terms and attributes of a Grothic institution. His manner is quaint and affected ; his order is confused ; but he displays some wit, more reading, and still more enthusiasm, and if an enthusiast be often absurd, he is never languid. An English text is perpetually interspersed with Latin sentences in prose and verse ; but in his own poetry he claims an exemption from the laws of prosody. Amidst a profusion of genealogical knowledge, my kinsman could not be forgetful of his own name ; and to him I am indebted for almost the

" Diabolical blazon — defence of false heraldry.*

Vertues of Holy Edward the Con- trisBimus Dux Jacobus, quem Stel-

f essor, Bevived in the sacred Majesty lam Boiealem ante multoB annos

of King James II., published 1688 ; pisedixSre Vates ; et unlversa Stops

and Preswmptive made one, 1680; monarchies.: Quibus Symbolum et

Day Fatality, or some observations Insigne est, Bellua multoium Capi-

iind Published whilst His present in Campo sanguineo (Armes pour

Majesty the most Serene King enquerir, ut dicimus Gallioe)." —

James II. was Dulee of Yorh, 1678. Gibbon, Introductio Ad Latinam

* " Tutus sit Augnstissimus Rex; Masonian, p. 165 (cf. p. 371}.

whole of my information concerning the Gibbon family.

From this small work, a duodecimo of one himdred and

sixty-five pages, the author expected immortal fame;

and at the conclusion of his labour, he sings in a strain

of self^exultation —

Such are the hopes of authors ! In the failure of those hopes, John Gibbon has not been the first of his profession, and very possibly may not be the last of his name.^^ His brother, Matthew Gibbon, the linnendraper of Leadenhall Street, had one daughter and two sons ; my grandfather Edward, who was born in the year 1666, and Thomas, afterwards Dean of Carlisle. According to the mercantile creed that the best book is a profitable ledger, the writings of John the herald would be much less precious than those of his nephew Edward: but an author professes, at least, to write for the public benefit ; and the slow balance of trade can only be pleasing to those persons to whom it is advantageous. The svxccessful industry of my grandfather raised him above the level of his immediate ancestors; he appears to have launched into various and extensive dealings : even his opinions were subordinate to his interest, and I find him in Flanders cloathing King William's troops ; while he

^^ Oblivion— From Wolfenbuttel to Lausanne.*

* This memorandum is ex- Gibbon died in 1718, iet. 89, and plained by a passage in Memoir A, is buried in St. Mary Aldermary p. 356; cf. C, p. 214. John Bow Lane.

would have contracted with more pleasure, though not, perhaps, at a cheaper rate, for the service of King James. During his residence abroad, his concerns at home were managed by his mother Hester, an active and notable woman. Her second husband was a widower of the name of Acton ; they united the children of their first nuptials : after his marriage with the daughter of Kichard Acton, Goldsmith, in Leadenhall Street, he gave his own sister to Sir Whitmore Acton, of Aldenham; and I am thus connected by a triple alliance with that ancient and loyal family of Shropshire Baronets. It consisted, about that time, of seven brothers, all of Gigantic stature ; one of whom, a pygmy of six feet two inches, confessed himself the last and least of the seven : adding in the true spirit of party, that such men were not born since the Eevolution. Under the Tory administration of the four last years of Queen Anne (1710-1714), Mr, Edward Gibbon was appointed one of the Commissioners of the Customs; he sat at that board with Prior; but the merchant was better qualified for his station than the poet, since Lord Bolingbroke has been heard to declare, that he had never conversed with a man who more clearly understood the commerce and finances of England. In the year 1716 he was elected one of the Directors of the South-sea company; and his books exhibited the proof that, before his acceptance of this fatal office, he had acquired an independent fortune of sixty thousand pounds.

But his fortune was overwhelmed in the shipwreck of the year twenty, and the labours of thirty years were blasted in a single day. Of the use or abuse of the South-sea scheme, of the guilt or innocence of my

12 GIBBON'S AUTOBIOGEAPHY. [Mejioik F.

grandfather and his brother-Directors, I am neither a competent nor a disinterested Judge. Yet the equity of modern times must condemn the violent and arbitrary proceedings which would have disgraced the cause of Justice, and would render injustice still more odious.^^ No sooner had the nation awakened from its golden dream, than a popular and even a parliamentary clamour demanded their victims ; but it was acknowledged on all sides that the South-sea Directors, however guilty, could not be touched by any known laws of the land. The speech of Lord Molesworth, the author of the state of Denmark, may shew the temper, or rather the intemperance, of the House of Commons." " Extraordinary crimes," exclaimed

'^ Tindal and Anderson * — a private narrative — negociations — false hopes to the last.

" Molesworth in B. B., his Denmark, erroneous, partial, and arising from personal pique.f

* Adam Anderson was chief derland, and iGlO.OOO each to the

clerk of the Stock and Annuities Duchess ofKendal and the Countess

to the South Sea Company. He of Platen, Mr. Gibbon being one of

yirote an important work, An His- the distributors. torical and Chronological Deduc- f Kobert, first Viscount Moles-

tion of the Origin of Commerce worth (1656-1725), Envoy Extra-

from the Earliest Accounts to the ordinary to Court of Denmark,

Present Time. Died 1765. 1692, where his conduct gave con-

The History of England, ly M. siderable oifence to the authorities.

Sapin de Thoyrat. Continued by He sat in the Irish, and subse-

N. Tindal, M.A. Vol. iv. pt. ii. quently in the English Parliament,

1747. Pp. 630-649 contain a full and in all his actions showed a

account of the proceedings of the strong controversial spirit. His

Houses of Parliament in the wind- Account of the State of Denmark

ing-up of the affairs of the South as it was in the Year 1892 was

Sea Company. On January 21, published in 1694. On the meet-

1720, Mr. Gibbon, along with ing of Parliament at the close of

several of his co-directors, was, by 1720, the House as well as the

order of the Committee of the Lords, country was iu a ferment in conse-

taken into custody, and his papers quenoe of the collapse of the South

were seized. Among other charges, Sea Scheme. Shippen moved an

it appeared that a fictitious stock, amendment to the address in a

amounting to £574,000, had been violent speech, and in secondins

disposed of by the directors to tlie motion Molesworth used the

tacihtate the passing of the South words quoted. Cf. Memoir A

Sea Act m Parliament. Of this, i>. 376 '

£50,000 went to the Earl of Sun-

THE SOUTH-SEA COMPANY. 13

that ardent Whig, " call aloud for extraordinary remedies. The Koman lawgivers had not foreseen the possible existence of a parricide. But as soon as the first monster appeared, he was sewed in a sack, and cast headlong into the river; and I shall be content to inflict the same treatment on the authors of our present ruin." His motion was not literally adopted; but a bill of pains and penalties was introduced — a retroactive statute to punish the offences which did not exist at the time they were committed. Such a pernicious violation of liberty and law can only be excused by the most imperious necessity ; nor could it be defended on this occasion by the plea of impending danger or useful example. The Legislature restrained the persons of the Directors, imposed an exorbitant security for their appearance, and marked their characters with a prsevious note of ignominy ; they were compelled to deliver upon oath the strict value of their estates, and were disabled from making any transfer or alienation of any part of their property. Against a bill of pains and penalties it is the common right of every subject to be heard by his counsel at the bar : they prayed to be heard, their prayer was refused, and their oppressors, who required no evidence, would listen to no defence. It had been at first proposed that one eighth of their respective estates should be allowed for the future support of the Directors ; but it was speciously urged, that in the various shades of opulence and guilt, such an equal proportion would be too light for many, and for some might possibly be too heavy. The character and conduct of each man were separately weighed ; but instead of the calm solemnity of a judicial enquiry, the fortune and honour of three and thirty

14 GIBBON'S AUTOBIOGEAPHY. [Memoib F.

Englishineii were made the topic of hasty conversation, the sport of a lawless majority ; and the basest member of the committee, by a malicious word or a silent vote, might indulge his general spleen, or personal animosity. Injury was aggravated by insult, and insult was embittered by pleasantry. Allowances of twenty pounds or one shilling were facetiously moved. A vague report that a Director had formerly been concerned in another project, by which some unknown persons had lost their money, was admitted as a proof of his actual guilt. One man was ruined because he had dropt a foolish speech, that his horses should feed upon gold ; another, because he was grown so proud, that, one day at the Treasury, he had refused a civil answer to persons much above him. All were condemned, absent and unheard, in arbitrary fines and forfeitures which swept away the greatest part of their substance. Such bold oppression can scarcely be shielded by the omnipotence of Parliament; and yet it may be seriously questioned whether the Judges of the South-sea Directors were the true and legal representatives of their country. The first Parliament of George the First had been chosen (1715) for three years: the term had elapsed; their trust was expired; and the four additional years (1718-1722) during which they continued to sit, were derived, not from the people, but from themselves; from the strong measure of the septennial bill, which can only be paralleled by il serrar di Comiglio of the Venetian history.^^ Yet candour will

'° In 1298, 470 annually chosen at Michaelmas : voted perpetual and hereditary for all the actual, and of the last years, if they had 12 votes in the Quarantia — Families broken, new ones added — Stability of Venice — Amelot de la Houssaye sur le Gouv. de Venise, Tom. i. pp. 3, 4, 6

SENTENCE ON EDWARD GIBBON. 15

own that to the same Parliament every Englishman is deeply indebted: the Septennial Act, so vicious in its origin, has been sanctioned by time, eiperiencei and the national consent; its first operation secured the house of Hanover on the throne, and its permanent influence maintains the peace and stability of Government. As often as a repeal has been moved in the house of Commons, I have given in its defence a clear and conscientious vote.

My grandfather could not expect to be treated with more lenity than his companions. His Tory principles and connections rendered him obnoxious to the rulins powers : his name is reported in a suspicious secret ; and his well-known abilities could not plead the excuse of ignorance or error. In the first proceedings against the South-sea Directors, Mi-. Gibbon is one of the few who were taken into custody; and in the final sentence the measure of his fine proclaims him eminently guilty. The total estimate which he delivered on oath to the house of commons amounted to one hundred and six thousand five hundred and forty-three pounds five shillings and sixpence, exclusive of antecedent settlements. Two different allowances of fifteen and of ten thousand pounds were moved for Mr. Gibbon ; but, on the question being put, it was carried without a division for the smaller sum; £and as a Philosopher I should mention, without a sigh, the irreparable loss of above ninety-six thousand poimds, of which, in a single moment, and by an arbitrary vote, I have been ultimately deprived. The provision

Supineness of Dand. and Sluratori — a Genoese galley more important ? *

16 GIBBON'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [Memoie F.

reserved for his wife could not be very considerable; but the valuable gift which he afterwards received from his friend and companion, Mr. Francis Acton, was imderstood in the family to be the restitution of an honourable trust. Against irresistible rapine the use of fraud is almost legitimate; in the dexterous anticipation of a conveyance some fragments of property might escape; debts of honour will not be annulled by any positive law, and the frequent imposition of oaths had enlarged and fortified the Jacobite conscience.] On these ruins, with the skill and credit of which Parliament had not been able to despoil him, my grandfather, at a mature age, erected the edifice of a new fortune: the labours of sixteen years were amply rewarded, and I have reason to believe that the second Temple was not much inferior to the first. [A large stock of money was vested in the funds, and in trade, and his warehouses at Cadiz were replenished with naval stores for which he had contracted to supply the Court of Madrid.] But he had realized a very considerable property in Sussex, Hampshire, Buckinghamshire, and the New River Company, and had acquired a spacious house, with gardens and lands at Putney,^* in Surrey, where he resided