LETTER: Autograph letter signed, to the Marquis of Lally-Tollendal.
RARE BURNEY LETTER
Burney, Fanny. Autograph letter signed, “F. d’Arblay—nee Burney,” to the Marquis of Lally-
Tollendal, n.d. (early 19th c.); bifolium leaf, four pages.
Burney, British novelist, diarist, and playwright whose writing is known for its satire, feminist slant, and
sympathy toward social justice and equality, writes to a friend, the Marquis of Lally-Tollendal – a French
politician who played an important role in the French Revolution; in part:
Your protege...M. Sevastopulo...I received him immediately...The history he detailed of his
sufferings & his injuries must have made a friend of his Hearer...at a period of so much general,
as well as potential distress...I join in your opinion that this is a cause for unanimity of Christian
suffrage, & Christian charity & I see, with great pleasure, an undoubtedly reciprocal feeling in
this point in the well turned & acknowledged ‘measured words’ of Mr. Canning; who, in his
highly responsible station, could not go further, either in phrase or in parse, without an apparent
menace of public hostility which no Minister can wish...The same can be said of the Sovereign,
who, in this case, cannot act from private benevolence, because, though the injured individual has
nothing to do with politics—with which he has assured me he had never meddled,—the story of
wrongs which constitute his claims, involves a National accusation against the whole Empire of
his abominable oppressors. I am well aware you told that the consequence, i. e. War against the
Irish, is but just & desirable. Sincerely I think so too...There are only two English Bishops who
positively favored the cause of Catholic Emancipation, Norwich & Rochester, but not to such
alone is confined the welfare of your protege, since amongst his subscribers stands the Duke of
York himself!
Burney further mentions Kings Louis XVI and and XVIII, who both played an important role in -
Tolledal’s life.
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