Author: ELGIN Thomas Bruce 7th Earl of Elgin (1766-1841) :
Title: Autograph letter, undated (1792), adressed to J.Drugman, Pensionnaire de la Ville de Bruxelles.
Description: Holograph letter, 2 pp in-4° , written in French, signed Elgin. Thomas Bruce Elgin had a diplomatic function in Brussels in 1792. His correspondent was a member of the Breda Committee, which under the presidency of Van der Noot organised the first overthrow of the Austrian Habsburg regime in the Southern Low Countries. In this undated letter Elgin tells of the different rumours in Flanders concerning the advance of the French troops. He speaks of the lifting of the siege of Ypres by the French. This lifting took place immediately after the capture of Courtrai by the French marshal Luckner (18th June 1792) so one can assume that the letter was written at the end of June 1792. Added is letter by the same in which he tries to organise a meeting with his correspondant. (the ink of this letter is very faded). Interesting letter from the man chiefly remembered for the Elgin Marbles which he brought over from Athens to the British Museum, written to a lawyer who took an active part in the Brabant Revolution and who is reported by Frenchs agents as protesting against the French occupation of Belgium after their victory at Jemappes (6th November 1792). (See E.Cruyplants; Dumouriez... pp.199; on Drugman see e.g. Polasky; Revolution in Brussels pp.229). .

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