He Seems To Me Not To Be More Than One-And-
Twenty.
This same Pitt is now minister, and even Chancellor of the
Exchequer.
It is shocking to a foreigner, to see what violent satires on men,
rather than on things, daily appear in the newspapers, of which they
tell me there are at least a dozen, if not more, published every
day. Some of them side with the Ministry, and still more I think
with the Opposition. A paper that should be quite impartial, if
that were possible, I apprehend would be deemed so insipid as to
find no readers. No longer ago than yesterday, it was mentioned in
one of these newspapers, that when Fox, who is fallen, saw so young
a man as Pitt made the minister, he exclaimed with Satan, who, in
"Paradise Lost," on perceiving the man approved by God, called out,
"O hateful sight!"
On Thursday the king went with the usual solemnity to prorogue the
Parliament for a stated time. But I pass this over as a matter that
has already been so often described.
I have also, during this period, become acquainted with Baron
Grothaus, the famous walker, to whom I had also a letter of
recommendation from Baron Groote of Hambro'. He lives in
Chesterfield House, not far from General Paoli, to whom he has
promised to introduce me, if I have time to call on him again.
I have suffered much this week from the violent cough I brought with
me from the hole in Derbyshire, so that I could not for some days
stir; during which time Messrs. Schonborn and Leonhardi have visited
me very attentively, and contributed much to my amendment.
I have been obliged to relate as much about my journey out of London
here as I probably shall in Germany of all England in general. To
most people to whom I give an account of my journey, what I have
seen is quite new. I must, however, here insert a few remarks on
the elocution, or manner of speaking, of this country, which I had
forgot before to write to you.
English eloquence appears to me not to be nearly so capable of so
much variety and diffusion as ours is. Add to this, in their
Parliamentary speeches, in sermons in the pulpit, in the dialogues
on the stage; nay, even in common conversation, their periods at the
end of a sentence are always accompanied by a certain singular
uniform fall of the voice, which, notwithstanding its monotony has
in it something so peculiar, and so difficult, that I defy any
foreigner ever completely to acquire it. Mr. Leonhardi in
particular seemed to me, in some passages which he repeated out of
Hamlet, to have learnt to sink his voice in the true English manner;
yet any one might know from his speaking that he is not an
Englishman. The English place the accent oftener on the adjectives
than they do on the substantive, which, though undoubtedly the most
significant word in any sentence, has frequently less stress laid on
it than you hear laid on mere epithets.
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