political communication with M. d'Avaray, etc., at present there is no harm in letting him see that this may be partly the case. Otherwise, however, he knows very well that I was going back Saturday; and was stopped only by the news of the King's approach. If Hawkesbury is in town, see him and communicate this letter, and take his instructions. But if he is in the country there is no time to be lost, then let Hammond communicate to him by messenger the substance of what I have written to you-or the letter itself, if you do not want it. But at all events you are his Ambassador as well as mine; and are to smoothe the road from the Foreign to the Home Office. If this commission drives you to despair, you may abuse Ross-his conscience will tell you why-and to punish him take him with you as a companion and interpreter (if you want one). The King, I believe, speaks English. Most sincerely yours, GEO. CANNING. P.S.-If you find them at Yarmouth it is not necessary that you should accompany them to Gosfieldonly wait at Yarmouth to see them off, and then come back the shortest way. If there are any complaints or lamentations, you will lament the want of notice, the concealment, etc., etc., attributing it all, however, either to accident, or to agents, wholly unauthorized by the King. You must turn over the Sieur Rist to the Sieur Hammond. Canning to Wilbraham. MY DEAR BOOtle, LONDON, October 30, 1807. I have been watching an opportunity for the last month of getting out of Town for a few days 1807] A WELL-EARNED HOLIDAY 253 at least to Hinckley. I have not seen my children since May, nor Mrs. C. since the end of July. Yrs., etc., G. C. P.S.-Our fleet and army are returned, both larger than they went out (for the Yeomanry have recruited far more than we lost), and I hope for an episode of three months the country will not think that the expenditure has been wholly unworthy of approbation.* * On October 21 the British fleet, with transports carrying the troops, sailed from Denmark on their return from the successful expedition to Copenhagen. It arrived at Yarmouth Roads at the end of the month, bringing as prizes seventeen ships of the line, eleven frigates, and twenty-five gunboats. This formed the subject of one of Gillray's most successful prints, in which Canning is depicted in a boat called the Billy Pitt, rowed by Lords Liverpool and Castlereagh, towing the Danish fleet into harbour. His progress is opposed by Lords St. Vincent, Howick, and Grenville in the form of a sea monster, while Napoleon is seen in the background dancing about in impotent rage amidst the smoke of the burning cities of Europe. This print is reproduced in Temperley's 'Life of Canning.' READ the inclosures in the letter to Perceval (if you have not read them) and then seal the letter and send it. Thornton is guessing as wrong as it is possible to guess, but in nothing more so, than in fancying himself fit for Spain. Cacodæmont writes to me that everybody at Stockholm blames Moore's conduct-his dureté et orgueil' with the King-though everybody *The Right Hon. Sir Edward Thornton, G.C.B. (1766-1852), had been Mr. Hammond's secretary when Minister to the United States in 1791. He went to Sweden as Minister Plenipotentiary in December, 1807, but came to England in this year, returning in 1811. He was Minister to Portugal in 1817, and again in 1823. He negotiated the Treaty with Denmark in 1818, by which Britain acquired Heligoland. f 'Cacodæmon' (evil spirit), sometimes spelt in Greek, was a nickname of Canning's for some one whose identity the editor has been unable to find out; he is also called Lacodomon, but whether that was his name or another nickname is not certain. It is possible he may have been Captain Kuckuck of the Hanoverian Legion in England, who seems to have been relied on as a British Agent, and who made reports to Lord Castlereagh on the question of sending a British force to the Continent, which ended in the Walcheren Expedition (Castlereagh's 'Letters,' vol. ii., p. 211). Sir John Moore had been sent in command of a fruitless expedition to Sweden, whence he was recalled to the Peninsula at the time when Wellesley was superseded, and reinforcements sent from England. He had quarrelled with the King of Sweden, who had put him under arrest. He had managed to get home, and was ordered to Spain under Sir Hew Dalrymple and Sir Harry Burrard, whom he considered less experienced than himself, and, on visiting Lord Castlereagh to receive his final orders, had left the room prophesying failure to the expedition in somewhat strong language. Castlereagh 1808] SIR JOHN MOORE 255 admits the King to be wrong. Observe, too, that Cacod. thinks in saying this he is saying what is disagreeable to me-therefore the more true. He thinks the K. of Sweden is proposing peace to Russia, but on grounds not likely to be accepted. I do not dislike the proposal, and I wish the acceptance of it would save us the necessity of finding an equivalent for Finland. Has Addlehead* no messenger? Has either of the Spaniards consented to go to Funen ?+ Pray look after this business at the Admlty.—that is with Pole (for I am sick of all attempts at private instigation). N.B.-I fully thought the orders now pending had been sent seven weeks ago, and pray ask also about is said to have mentioned Moore's parting remark to Canning, who expressed astonishment that an officer should be sent in command of an expedition for which he predicted failure. It is not clear whether Moore was alluding to his part of the expedition, or to that under Dalrymple and the whole plan of campaign. Sir W. Napier states that Canning wanted Castlereagh to give up Moore, and that Castlereagh 'nobly responded by a bullet,' for which there is no good evidence. The whole question is one of controversy, which is dealt with in the Diary of Sir John Moore,' vol. ii., p. 239 et seq., in connexion with the accounts in Maxwell's 'Wellington' and Stapleton's 'Canning.' Canning's meaning in the above letter, no doubt, was that it was disagreeable to him to hear that the King of Sweden was in the wrong, no doubt preferring that the blame of their quarrel should rest only on Moore; for Moore was senior to Wellesley, and consequently would interfere with the chances of Wellesley eventually having the supreme command in the Peninsula. The matter is subsequently alluded to in connexion with an article on Moore in the Quarterly Review, by Canning, in 1809. In the London Observer of July 10, 1808, there is the following: 'Private letters, and even papers from Gottenburg, talk of a curious and unexplained misunderstanding between the King of Sweden and Sir J. Moore. . . . All accounts . . . agree in this, that Sir John was at one time under arrest, and some even maintain that he left Stockholm secretly and in disguise. 'Sir John, on his arrival on board the Victory, is said to have observed to Sir J. Saumarez, that he had escaped from a prison and a madman. The King, on the other hand, repeatedly declared that "this man" (alluding to Sir J. Moore) "thwarts me in everything.” ' Adlerberg, Swedish Minister. Probably in order to try and communicate with Romana's Spanish troops in Denmark. an order to be sent to our ships cruising off the coast of France between Boulogne and Brest, to receive a man on board, and to coast with him up and down to distribute Cacodæmon's Spanish compilation. (Private.) Canning to Bagot. YARMOUTH, Tuesday, August 9, 1808, I arrived here between nine and ten this morning, fully prepared to find that the worst had happened, and that I should have only to comfort poor Mrs. Leigh and her daughters, as well as I could, under the heavy affliction of such a loss. But, though I am afraid there is little, if any, hope (the physician will not hold out any) of a favourable turn, the struggle has been infinitely longer than it was imagined possible it should be-and there appears no more symptom of immediate dissolution at the present moment than there was on Sunday morning, when the letter, which occasioned my coming, was written. A respite of eight and forty hours, so unexpected, naturally awakens feelings, which will only make the blow the heavier when it falls. It is precisely in this state of things that I find it most difficult to determine upon quitting these unhappy girls and their poor mother. I cannot help believing that by this time to-morrow something decisive must have taken place. I shall therefore wait. . . . If things should still linger here, and it should appear to be absolutely necessary I could be in Town for Thursday's Cabinet and return here the next day. . You will judge of the nature of what you send me, for you are to take notice that I cannot answer by post what I receive by post the same day-one gets out before the other arrives. I am vexed at the additional weight of trouble that |