Briefwisseling en aantekeningen. Deel 1

LXXIV.
Willem Bentinck aan de gravin van Portland.

[B.M., Eg. 1713]

Den Haag, 5 Febr. 1744.

Now I am at liberty to name people¹⁾, I must tell you plainly that our friend Count Wassenaer²⁾ puts me daily, and that not of late but a long while since, in the greatest perplexity, because I can neither break with him, nor go on. He has been now in business near forty year, and has not the experience of one that had been in his circumstances half the time with observation, and an unprejudiced mind. He is known to have so little firmness in any thing he undertakes, and so little steadiness in any thing undertaken against him, that all those in the same college with him, make constant jokes about it, and tho' he appear ever so hot, if he has time to cool

1) In een brief van de vorige dag kondigt Bentinck aan dat hij vertrouwelijke zaken schrijven zal in een brief die een Engelsch koopman te Delft, Thornbury, zal overbrengen.

2) De naam is uitgeschrapt, maar nog te ontcijferen.

[p. 91]

they are sure to get the better of him. His wit, his birth, and keeping out the Prince of Orange, are the three things he has constantly in his eye.

As to the two first, I don't trouble my head about 'em, but am forced every day to see him ridiculed upon 'em. And as to the last point, he is so passionate, that all his notions of common justice are at an end, when any thing happens that can have the most distant relation to the Prince. If Jack never told you the story that past between our Friend and an apothecary at Deventer at Mme Tork's¹⁾ house, pray write to Jack or to Lady Margaret²⁾ about it. It is worth your while I assure you. He has always suspected me of being of another opinion than he, on that point. Which he attributes to prejudice of education, and to other principles which he never dared speak to me of; but on which I know he has explained himself in a very unhandsome manner behind my back as he is very free to do with anybody who is not of his opinion, which he is sure is the rule of right and wrong. In his politicks he mixes all his notions fetched out of his own head, thinks everybody damned that is in military employment³⁾, and out of Christian charity, for the good of their souls, would avoid a war, and venture the loss of the whole country, rather than change his opinion or alter the principle, from which he draws his conclusions; which principle must be false, since the necessary conclusions of them are.

I must, en passant, tell you, - - not to pass for precipitate in your mind - - that there is not one member of our Government, who does not own that we are in a perfect anarchy, that is, that there is no conclusive nor executive power, without both which no government at all can subsist. But if you go on upon that principle, and ask what will be the consequence and the end of it, the answer of the most moderate is a shrug, and others fly into a passion. The ministers and men of experience de-

1) Vermoedelijk de vrouw van F.W. Torck, Jacoba Maria van Wassenaer van Duivenvoorde.

2) Lady Margaret Cadogan, Charles Bentincks vrouw.

3) Vgl. P. Geyl, Een opvoeding in de achttiende eeuw, Bijdr. voor Vad. Gesch., 1922, blz. 260.

[p. 92]

plore our dangerous, and melancholy situation. The good old Greffier, the wisest man in Europe without any dispute, or without wronging anybody, agrees fairly with anybody that will talk to him of it, that the great spring or weight is wanting in the clock - - by which he means a stadholder - -. Now opinion for opinion, or judgment for judgment, I cannot but follow my own, and authority for authority, I believe that of the Greffier will abundantly counter balance that of our friend. This affair is not a point of mere speculation nor consider'd as such. For it comes every day in deliberation in one shape or other, either with relation to the great possessions the Prince has in the jurisdiction of the States General, or to those who depend on him by their places or employments, or who are his friends. And in every one of these occasions, I cannot forbear seeing the greatest partiality, and cannot act contrary to my principles of honour to favour a party which I am not, nor never will be of. This provokes the gentleman I am speaking of, and makes him interpret everything I say or do, as if it had relation to that.

To give you now the true reason why I went to Loo I must tell you first that our last augmentation¹⁾ of troops was effectuated by the fear the Magistrates of Amsterdam were in of their mobb. Mr. Haren's Leonidas had raised the spirits so high at Amsterdam - - where this little poem was read loud upon the bridges and in the publick places and almost got by heart by the mobb - - that the Magistrates dreaded the consequence. And at the same time apples being dear at Amsterdam, two or three hundred oyster wenches, and other women of the lowest sort came one day in a tumultuous manner to the Town-House, to desire the Magistrates to fix a price upon the apples. This adventure and the great effect of the Leonidas, put the Magistrates in such a fright that they came into the augmentation of troops, for which there was an universal cry. This is not a guess of mine. I know it in an authentick manner to be true. For Mr.

1) Waartoe Amsterdam en Dordt 1 Maart 1742 na lange tegenstand hun consent verleenden.

[p. 93]

Van de Poll, the son of the Burgomaster¹⁾, was sent to me, to desire me to persuade Monsieur Haren not to publish another piece they had heard he had ready; and upon my enquiring what were the reasons of this message, and their meaning he told me the consternation the Magistrates had been in, and the whole story I have told you, representing in the most lively colours their baseness and cowarding, tho' that was not his intention.

This procured us the last augmentation; and what had till then withheld the consent of Amsterdam, was, that Mr. Munter²⁾, the Bourguemaitre, whose son has marry'd the daughter of Pels, the famous Banker, and carrys on that commerce with his father and whole family, had advanced to the Court of France for Germany, Sweden &c. no less than fifteen millions guilders, I say fifteen millions, which he was afraid of loosing if Amsterdam disobliged France by consenting in the augmentation. And yet the fear was so great, that it was thought more adviseable to venture that loss, than venture all being knock'd on the pate; and they consented. They are afraid of a war, which they own the reasons for, because they fear a change in the Government.

But to come back to my visit to Loo. My reason for it was that somebody must be the first to shew the way. And I was sure that many would approve of it, who dare not yet follow the same example. Among others I was sure it could do me no harm among those with

1) Mr. Jan van de Poll, 1668-1745, die een groot aantal malen burgemeester geweest is, o.a. ook in 1741, '42 en '44. Elias, Vroedschap van Amsterdam, I, blz. 445, vermeldt twee zoons van hem, Mr. Harman Hendrik en Mr. Pieter.

2) Mr. Willem Munter, 1682-1759; burgemeester o.a. 1741, 1743, 1744. Bentinck is met de preciese familieverhoudingen in de war. Burgemeester Munter was zelf getrouwd met Catharina Pels, dochter van Andries, 1655-1731, ‘de allervoornaamste en rijkste koopman, reeder, bankier en assuradeur van zijn tijd te Amsterdam’, vgl. Elias, a.w., II, blz. 813. Zijn zoons Jean Lucas en Pieter waren 7 Jan. en 1 Febr. 1741 ook reeds, en kinderloos, gestorven. Wie de firma Andries Pels en Zonen na hun dood voortzetten, blijkt bij Elias niet.

[p. 94]

whom I have the strictest liaisons. And it appears by the event I have not been mistaken. For nobody of these have avoided me; quite contrary. And our friend nor his brother nor Cloë¹⁾ have dared speak to me of it. Others approve it, and I am persuaded that it will do good by the notion it will create, and I know the conclusions that have already been drawn, which are precisely those I had foreseen and wish'd.

The answers I have reveived from the D. of Newcastle, and Ld. Chancellor are very obliging, but promise nothing positive. I have no answer from Ld. Carteret.

1) Vermoedelijk een schuilnaam. Misschien Wassenaers zuster?