A Tour Through the Batavian Republic/Letter II
LETTER II.
I SHOULD speak of our accommodations on board the commodore, which indeed are elegant and convenient, had not his politeness and incessant attention to our wants paramount claims on my notice. He omits nothing to render our stay with him agreeable, and has entirely succeeded in making us forget whatever is unpleasant, in idea or reality, in being brought hither against our inclination, and detained as prisoners. The captain of another ship of war, a veteran of approved courage, whose countenance is full of expressions of honesty and philanthropy, is equally assiduous to contribute to our pleasures; and as they both speak either English or French with considerable fluency, we find no difficulty in communicating our ideas. They are both men of good information, and well read in English and French literature. But I shall pass over their mental acquirements, which are truly respectable, to introduce you to one of the most extraordinary persons I ever met with, the first officer of the commodore's ship. A learned sailor seems to border upon the marvellous, but nearly the whole of this man's life was spent at sea, and the extent of his reading is such as is rarely obtained by those who pass their lives in the tranquil cultivation of letters. I have not often seen a man better acquainted with ancient authors than he is; but for his intimate knowledge of the whole circle of modern literature he stands unrivalled. I was not able to name an English author of reputation with whose works he was not critically acquainted. He had read the most difficult of our poets with an attention which could not have been bestowed on them, had he not been sensible of their beauties; and his intimacy with the novels of Smollet and Fielding, shewed the great progress he had made towards conquering the difficulties of our language. His acquaintance with French literature had not debauched his taste; his veneration for Shakspeare was unweakened by the flimsy cavils of Voltaire, and he readily assigned the palm of heroic excellence to the illustrious Milton. My knowledge of German letters is confined to the authors whom I have read through the medium of translation, and with these, and others whose names have not reached me, he is familiar; but this ought not to excite much surprise, as the Dutch language has a great affinity to the German, and the literary poverty of his own country probably first led him to cultivate the learning of a people whose manners and genius approximate to those of his own nation. I feel some diffidence in praising his acquirements in French and Italian literature, because the narrow compass of my own knowledge leads me to distrust my judgment; but he discoursed without caution or vanity on all the authors in either language which I had read, and displayed an extent of reading, which, but for the simplicity and openness of his character, I should have been induced to suspect.
Yet with this variety of reading, and most singular powers of memory, his conversation is dull, I had almost said unprofitable. He has retained every thing which he has read, but digested not one particle: he has collected most amply, but made no arrangement of his stores. His mind seems like a vast repository of furniture, where the elegancies of the drawing-room and the necessaries of the kitchen are promiscuously crowded together; every thing is there which can minister to your wants, or contribute to your pleasures, but all is in disorder and confusion. The principal fault of this person is, that he is utterly unacquainted with his own powers; and to this I attribute his almost total want of imagination and arrangement. I, as it were, obliged him to converse with me, and he is fond of speaking English, or the laudable pride of superior attainments would not lead him to display his acquisitions.Yesterday a party from the shore dined with the commodore in compliment to us, and in the evening we had a little concert. Our harmony, however, had near been interrupted by a Dutch colonel, a furious patriot, who was enraged to the last degree of indignation, that the commodore should heap civilities on the bitter foes of the Batavian republic. Every Englishman was a dangerous person; and those very circumstances which precluded suspicion, ought to awaken the most vigilant caution. If we were not actually spies, situation and opportunity might make us; and he did me the honour to insinuate, that the more than common share of curiosity and observation which I appeased to possess, alarmed him greatly. The illiberality of this person was not confined to the insinuations which I have already mentioned; or virulent abuse of the English nation through the medium of French and Dutch ballads, but he attempted to wound us where the means of defence were less in our power — by drawing a conclusion destructive of female character, from the circumstance that I wore mourning, when ——— was dressed in colours. ——— I am heartly vexed to say, because it implies a censure on persons whom I really value and respect, that the ridiculous fears and violent prejudices of this Batavian have done us some disservice. I have learnt that he is a person of authority in the Briel — one of the municipality; and that kind of difficulty has occurred to prevent us from taking the walk on shore this morning which we proposed, that I shall not ask the same favour again.
The post is arrived which we thought would bring us passports from the Hague; but, a pest on Dutch tardiness, which under every form of government I believe will remain the same, we are disappointed. This mortification is the more distressing, as it is altogether dubious whether it will be determined that we must return by the first conveyance to England, or permission will be granted us to view the republic. The former would be extremely unpleasant to me, as there are many places in the United Provinces which I have an eager curiosity to see; but principally because I am anxious to obtain complete information respecting the present state of the country, and the influence which the conquest of the French has had on the character of the people. I have heard complaints that the former government was arbitrary, and perhaps they were well founded; but the present I suspect is both oppressive and arbitrary, and without energy or dignity. I am desirous to see what are the effects of French principles on a nation so sober and phlegmatic as the Dutch have always been represented; whether those theories of liberty which pleased me when a youth, and which I still most fervently admire, are, when reduced to practice, as delightful and invaluable as an ardent and unsuspicious mind conceived them to be.
There is something in confinement, call it detention, or by a milder term, which I revolt at; and I think that confinement on ship-board is worse than in a prison or a lazaretto, though I do not speak from personal experience. I never knew a person of sentiment and delicacy who could endure a ship, unless indeed they have been early habituated to a seafaring life, and in a like manner reconciled to its disgusting circumstances, as custom leads us to admire, those tastes which the unsophisticated palate cannot tolerate.
Our friendly commodore has been at Helvoetsluys, to confer with the admiral, his commanding officer, respecting us, and we are offered a cartel to return immediately to England; but we cannot go on shore until permission is obtained from the higher authorities. It is told me, that application to the French minister at the Hague, as we were captured by a privateer of his nation, would be the readiest method to procure passports, but I should submit with pleasure to the mortification of a longer detention than it is probable we shall have, rather than wound, in the slightest degree, the feelings of those under whose generous protection we are. The exercise of few of the prerogatives which belong to an independent nation is permitted to the Dutch; and I believe we should immediately be released, were it not apprehended that such a measure might be offensive to the persons employed by the French government in Holland. I mean no censure here on the character of M. Simonville the French ambassador, who is represented to me as a person of the greatest liberality and candour, and an utter stranger to arrogance or prejudice; but the persons to whom I allude are the inferior servants of the French republic — men tainted with too many of the vices of the revolution.