John Talbot Dillon - Authorship

Authorship

On his return from the continent he published his ‘Travels in Spain,’ in which he incorporated with his own the observations of the eminent Spanish naturalist, William Bowles, whose ‘Introduction to the Natural History and Physical Geography of Spain’ had appeared in 1775, and to these he says himself the book is largely indebted for any value and interest it possesses. It passed through four or five editions, was translated into German in 1782, and to a certain extent is still an authority on the condition of Spain in the reign of King Charles III. It was followed the next year by his ‘Letters from an English Traveller in Spain in 1778, on the Origin and Progress of Poetry in that Kingdom,’ a book to which Ticknor has done some injustice in a note printed in the catalogue of his library (Boston, 1879), in which he says ‘large masses of it are pilfered from Velazquez's “Origenes de la Poesía Castellana,” and I doubt not much of the rest from Sarmiento's and Sedano's prefaces.’ He must have overlooked Dillon's preface, where his ‘particular obligations’ to these very three writers are expressly and fully acknowledged. It does not profess to be anything more than a mere outline sketch of the literary history of Spain, but, though not of unimpeachable accuracy any more than the authorities on which it relies, it is in the main correct, and is, moreover, written in a pleasant, lively style. It was translated, with additions, into French in 1810, under the title ‘Essai sur la Littérature Espagnole.’

During the next few years Dillon produced several works: ‘A Political Survey of the Sacred Roman Empire,’ dealing with the constitution and structure of the empire rather than with its history; ‘Sketches on the Art of Painting,’ a translation from the Spanish of Mengs's letter to Antonio Ponz; a ‘History of the Reign of Pedro the Cruel,’ which was translated into French in 1790; ‘Historical and Critical Memoirs of the General Revolution in France in the year 1789;’ a treatise on ‘Foreign Agriculture,’ translated from the French of the Chevalier de Monroy; ‘Alphonso and Eleonora, or the Triumphs of Valour and Virtue,’ which last is a history of Alfonso VIII of Castile (or, as he, for some reason of his own, reckons him, IX), in which, among other things, he endeavours to exonerate his hero from the charge generally brought against him of having risked the disastrous battle of Alarcos single-handed, out of jealousy of his allies, the kings of Leon and Navarre.

Of these the most interesting now is the ‘Memoirs of the French Revolution,’ not only as a collection of original documents, but as giving the views of a contemporary while the revolution was yet in its first stage. Dillon was an ardent advocate of religious liberty, and an uncompromising enemy of intolerance in every shape. His admiration of the Germanic empire was mainly due to the spirit of toleration that pervaded it. He was a firm believer in the moderation of the revolution. With all his enthusiasm for liberty, however, he was not disposed to extend it to the negroes in the West Indies. ‘God forbid,’ he says, ‘I should be an advocate for slavery as a system;’ but in their particular case he regarded it as a necessary evil, and believed that upon the whole they were far better off as slaves than they would be if set free.