Volume II Part 40 (2/2)

MR. FISHER TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Cuxhaven, Thursday, Feb. 7th, 1799.

MY DEAR LORD,

I cannot think of leaving this place without first acquainting you of our safe arrival here, after experiencing a thousand dangers and difficulties in consequence of our s.h.i.+p having run aground on the Newerk bank, at the entrance of the Elbe.

Mr. Grenville, I am delighted to be able to a.s.sure you, is in good health, notwithstanding the extreme fatigue he has undergone since Thursday last. The few hours he stays here being entirely occupied with writing letters of business, he fears he shall not have time to write to you from hence. The same reasons, my dear Lord, will deprive me of the honour of giving you, at the present moment, the details of our misfortunes. The officers and crew are all saved with the exception of thirteen seamen, and one woman and child, who were frozen to death in attempting to gain Newerk from the wreck.

We are without a change of any one article of dress, and we fear there is little probability of saving any part of our baggage. We, however, proceed on our journey in a few hours to Berlin, from whence it shall be my first care to write to you the particulars of the melancholy events of the last week. Mr. Wynne is quite well, and has on every occasion of danger and difficulty shown the greatest fort.i.tude and discretion.

I beg to be recalled to the remembrance of Lady Buckingham. Believe me, my dear Lord, to be ever, with the most grateful attachment, your Lords.h.i.+p's most obliged and most devoted servant,

EDWARD FISHER.

MR. T. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Cuxhaven, Feb. 7th, 1799.

MY DEAREST BROTHER,

The fatigue which I have undergone, added to the necessity of my writing several letters upon my arrival here, makes it impossible for me to say more to you than that I am alive and well, after a miraculous escape from the 'Proserpine,' which ran ash.o.r.e off Searhorn, and a second danger, scarcely less, yesterday morning, in a long walk to gain this place, during which we were overtaken by the tide and forced to wade for an hour, in the hardest frost I ever felt, against a strong current of tide, which was sometimes up to, and sometimes above our middle. We are all, however, well to-day, and I proceed this evening towards Berlin, as well as my fatigues will allow me. I cannot say enough to you of Mr. Fisher's behaviour in these trials of danger; his resources, his attachment, and his kind attentions in a.s.sisting our poor Henry, and lessening, where he could, the inconvenience of my situation, have ent.i.tled him and ensured to him the sincerest and warmest regard. Henry, likewise, has been a stout mariner, and has shown a fort.i.tude much beyond his years.

I find no Italian news except a report of the French having possession of Naples. They have, likewise, Ehrenbreitstein. When will they have Berlin? We have not a s.h.i.+rt in company. My loss, about 700.

G.o.d Almighty bless and preserve you.

Having arrived safely at Berlin, Mr. Grenville gives a sketch of his first impressions of the King of Prussia and his Court.

MR. T. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Berlin, Feb. 28th, 1799.

MY DEAREST BROTHER,

The journal which Mr. Fisher has shown to me, and which he proposes to send to you by this messenger, will give you a much more accurate account of our voyage than I could pretend to do if I had time to undertake it; but that is unfortunately so far from being the case, that I can with difficulty catch a short time by this opportunity to write even a few words to you.

We arrived here on the 17th, and I have scarcely yet got through the endless presentations and the weary first suppers of the Princes, which engross the whole evening from six in the evening till one in the morning. I have seen the King hitherto very little, but I am going to dine with him to-day; he is thought to be well-disposed in his general intentions, perfectly aware of all he has to fear from the great nation whom he detests and abhors; but having no original opinions of his own, nor habits of forming his own judgment, he falls unfortunately too much into the hands of the military officers, particularly the aides-de-camp with whom he lives, and their influence is, in consequence, powerful enough to weigh sometimes against the opinions of the Ministers whom he employs.

The general idea here is, that the person who has most weight with him is an aide-de-camp named Kochentz, of whose honesty there is no suspicion, but whose talents and capacity are of a very inferior description, and who is therefore open to the artifices of bad and designing men, who work powerfully through him upon the King.

Haugwiz is believed to be sincere in his apprehensions of the general danger of French republicanism, and is considered as struggling against the more immediate followers of the King, who surround him daily, and haunt him with the dreadful consequences of war to Prussia, and the old jealousies and distrusts of Austria.

If the Court of Vienna should at last act, as I am almost disposed to think they will rather than send back the Russian troops at the requisition of France, the beginning of hostilities from that Court cannot fail of producing a good effect here; the great danger is, that while each is waiting for the other to begin, the time for useful and effective exertion will pa.s.s by.

I have seen Sieyes at Court with his scarf and c.o.c.kade. What Lavater would say of his features I know not, but I have seldom seen a countenance of so bad impression. His manners, conduct and appearance here have produced nothing but disgust in all that are not of the lower ranks of life, but it is to those that his mission is considered as being chiefly addressed, and he is said to have both means and agents enough to work through upon the lower cla.s.ses of men here.

I have heard nothing from England or Ireland since I left Yarmouth, nothing of Union, and nothing of you; but how can I till the summer, if the last ten days of soft weather will not unlock the inhospitable ice of the Elbe at Cuxhaven? We are all well. G.o.d send that you and yours are so. Love to Lord B. and George and Mary. The Major is, I trust, soon expecting you in England.

G.o.d bless you, dearest brother. You will be glad to hear great part of my baggage is saved.

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