Chapter XXII: Part 22

I have not yet thanked you for your letter of September 18th, with the accounts of the Genoese treaty and of the Pretender's quarrel with the Pope--it is a squabble worthy a Stuart. Were he here, as absolute as any Stuart ever wished to be, who knows with all his bigotry but he might favour us with a reformation and the downfall of the mass? The ambition of making a Duke of York vice-chancellor of holy church would be as good a reason for breaking with holy church, as Harry the Eighth's was for quarrelling with it, because it would not excuse him from going to bed to his sister, after it had given him leave.

I wish I could tell you that your brother mends! indeed I don't think he does; nor do I know what to say to him; I have exhausted both arguments and entreaties, and yet if I thought either would avail, would gladly recommence them. Adieu!

(718) This was the battle of Lowositz, gained by the King of Prussia over the Austrians, commanded by Marshal Brown, on the first of October, 1756.-D.

(719) Brother of the Earl Marshal.

(720) The King of Prussia was said to have fled from the first battle, though it proved a victory.

(721) He had procured copies of all Count Bruhl's despatches by bribing a secretary.

(722) The second wife of the Dauphin was daughter of Augustus King of Poland.

(723) John Stuart, Earl of Bute, who played so conspicuous a part in the succeeding reign.-D.

(724) Upon this appointment Edward Wortley Montagu thus writes to lady Mary:--"I have something to mention that I believe will be agreeable to you: I mean some particulars relating to Lord Bute. He stood higher in the late Prince Of Wales's favour than any man. His attendance was frequent at Leicester-house, where this young Prince has resided, and since his father's death has continued without intermission, till new officers were to be placed under him. It is said that another person was to be groom of the stole, but that the Prince's earnest request was complied with in my lord's favour. It is supposed that the governors, preceptors, etc. who were about him before will be now set aside, and that my lord is the principal adviser, This young Prince is supposed to know the true state of the country, and to have the best inclinations to do all in his power to make it flourish."-E.

(725) The Duke of Newcastle.

(726) "Oct. 19. Mr. Pitt was sent for to town, and came. He returned, rejecting all terms, till the Duke of Newcastle was removed." Dodington, p. 346-E.

(727) The Right Hon. John Ponsonby, brother of Lord Besborough.-D.

344 Letter 199 To George Montagu, Esq. Arlington Street, Oct. 28, 1756.

Can you recommend one a first minister? We want one so much, that we do not insist upon his having a character from his last place: there will be good vails.--But I forget; one ought to condole with you: the Duke of Newcastle is your cousin, and as I know by experience how much one loves one's relations, I sympathize with you! But, alas! all first ministers are mortal; and, as Sir Jonathan Swift said, crowned heads and cane heads, good heads and no heads at all, may all come to disgrace. My father, who had no capacity, and the Duke of Newcastle, who has so much, have equally experienced the mutability of this world. Well-a-day, well-a-day! his grace is gone! He has bid adieu to courts, retires to a hermitage, and Will let his beard grow as long as his Duchess's.

so you are surprised! and the next question you will ask will be, who succeeds? Truly that used to be a question the easiest in the world to be resolved upon change of ministers. It is now the most unanswerable. I can only tell you that all the atoms are dancing, and as atoms always do, I suppose. will range themselves into the most durable system imaginable. Beyond the past hour I know not a syllable; a good deal of' the preceding hours--a volume would not contain it. There is some notion that the Duke of Bedford and your cousin Halifax are to be the secretaries of state--as Witwould says, they will sputter at one another like roasted apples.

The Duchess of Hamilton has brought her beauty to London at the only instant when it would not make a crowd. I believe we should scarce stare at the King of Prussia, so much are we engrossed by this ministerial ferment.

I have been this morning to see your monument;(728) it IS not Put together, but the parts are admirably executed; there is a helmet that would tempt one to enlist. The inscription suits wonderfully, but I have overruled the golden letters, which not Only are not lasting, but would not do at all, as they are to be cut in statuary marble. I have given him the arms, which certainly should be in colours: but a shield for your sister's would be barbarous tautology. You see how arbitrary I am, as you gave me leave to be. Adieu!

(728) To the memory of his sister, Miss Harriet Montagu.-E.

345 Letter 200 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Nov. 4, 1756.

I desired your brother last week to tell you that it was in vain for me to write while every thing was in such confusion. The chaos is just as far from being dispersed now; I only write to tell you what has been its motions. One of the Popes, I think, said soon after his accession, he did not think it had been so easy to govern. What would he have thought of such a nation as this, engaged in a formidable war, without any government at all, literally, for above a fortnight! The foreign ministers have not attempted to transact any business since yesterday fortnight. For God's sake, what do other countries say of us?--but hear the progress of our inter-ministerium.

When Mr. Fox had declared his determination of resigning great offers were sent to Mr. Pitt; his demands were much greater, accompanied with a total exclusion of the Duke of Newcastle. Some of the latter's friends would have persuaded him, as the House of Commons is at his devotion, to have undertaken the government against both Pitt and Fox; but fears preponderated. Yesterday his grace declared his resolution of retiring with all that satisfaction of mind which must attend a man whom not one man of sense, will trust any longer. The King sent for Mr. Fox, and bid him try if Mr. Pitt would join him. The latter, without any hesitation, refused. In this perplexity the King ordered the Duke of Devonshire to try to compose some ministry for him, and sent him to Pitt, to try to accommodate with Fox.(729) Pitt, with a list of terms a little modified, was ready to engage, but on condition that Fox should have no employment in the cabinet. Upon this plan negotiations have been carrying on for this week. Mr. Pitt and Mr. Legge, whose whole party consists of from twelve to sixteen persons, exclusive of Leicester-house, (of that presently,) concluded they were entering on the government as secretary of state and chancellor of the exchequer;@ but there is so great unwillingness to give it up totally into their hands, that all manner of expedients have been projected to get rid of their proposals, or to limit their power. Thus the case stands at this instant: the Parliament has been put off for a fortnight, to gain time; the Lord knows whether that will suffice to bring on any sort of temper! In the mean time the government stands still; pray Heaven the war may too! You will wonder how fifteen or sixteen persons can be of such importance. In the first place, their importance has been conferred on them, and has been notified to the nation by these concessions and messages; next, Minorca is gone; Oswego gone; the nation is in a ferment; some very great indiscretions in delivering a Hanoverian soldier from prison by a warrant from the secretary of state have raised great difficulties; instructions from counties, boroughs, especially from the city of London, in the style of 1641, and really in the spirit of 1715(730) and 1745, have raised a great flame; and lastly, the countenance of Leicester-house, which Mr. Pitt is supposed to have,(731) and which Mr. Legge thinks he has, all these tell Pitt that he may command such numbers without doors as may make the majorities within the House tremble.

Leicester-house is by some thought inclined to more pacific measures. Lord Bute's being established groom of the stole has satisfied. They seem more Occupied in disobliging all their new court than in disturbing the King's. Lord Huntingdon, the new master of the horse to the Prince, and Lord Pembroke, one of his lords, have not been spoken to. Alas! if the present storms should blow over, what seeds for new! You must guess at the sense of this paragraph, which it is difficult, at least improper to explain to you; though you could not go into a coffee-house here where it would not be interpreted to you. One would think all those little politicians had been reading the Memoirs of the minority of Louis XIV.

There has been another great difficulty: the season obliging all camps to break up, the poor Hanoverians' have been forced to continue soaking in theirs. The country magistrates have been advised that they arc not obliged by law to billet foreigners on public-houses, and have refused. Transports were yesterday ordered to carry away the Hanoverians! There are eight thousand men taken from America; for I am sure we can spare none from hence. The negligence and dilatoriness of the ministers at home, the wickedness of our West Indian governors, and the little-minded quarrels of the regulars and irregular forces, have reduced our affairs in that part of the world to a most deplorable state. Oswego, of ten times more importance even than Minorca, is so annihilated that we cannot learn the particulars.

My dear Sir, what a present and future picture have I given you! The details are infinite, and what I have neither time, nor, for many reasons, the imprudence to send by the post: your good sense will but too well lead you to develop them. The crisis is most melancholy and alarming. I remember two or three years ago I wished for more active times, and for events to furnish our correspondence. I think I could write you a letter almost as big as my Lord Clarendon's History. What a bold man is he who shall undertake the administration! How much shall we be obliged to him! How mad is he, whoever is ambitious of it! Adieu!

(729) "The Duke of Devonshire advised his Majesty to comply with Pitt's demands, whereupon the administration was formed; on which account the Duke was unjustly censured by some unreasonable friends; for he joined Pitt rather than Fox, not from any change of friendship, or any partiality in Pitt's favour, but because it was more safe to be united with him who had the nation of his side, than with the man who was the most unpopular; a reason which will have its proper weight with most ministers." Waldegrave's Memoirs, p. 87.-E.

(730) Meaning that the Jacobites excited the clamour.

(731) Lord Temple, in a letter to Mr. Pitt of the 11th, says, "Lord Bute used expressions so transcendently obliging to me, and so decisive of the determined purpose of Leicester-house towards us, in the present or any future day, that your own lively imagination cannot suggest to you a wish beyond them." Chatham correspondence, vol. i. p. 191.-E.

347 Letter 201 To George Montagu, Esq. Arlington Street, November 6, 1756.

After an inter-MinisteriUm of seventeen days, Mr. Pitt has this morning, accepted the government as secretary of state; the Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Fox being both excluded. The Duke of Devonshire is to be at the head of the treasury. the Chancellor(732) retires; the seals to be in commission. Remnants of both administrations must be preserved, as Mr. Pitt has not wherewithal to fill a quarter of their employments. Did you ever expect to see a time when he would not have cousins enough? It will take some days to adjust all that is to follow. You see that, unless Mr. Pitt joins with either Fox or Newcastle, his ministry cannot last six months; I would bet that the lightness of the latter emerged first. George Selwyn, hearing some people at Arthur's t'other night lamenting the distracted state of the country, joined in the discourse, with the whites of his eyes and his prim mouth, and fetching a deep sigh, said, "Yes, to be sure it is terrible! There is the Duke of Newcastle's faction, and there is Fox's faction, and there is Leicester-house! between two factions and one faction we are torn to pieces!"

Thank you for your exchequer-ward wishes for me, but I am apt to think that I have enough from there already: don't think my horns and hoofs are growing, when I profess indifference to my interest. Disinterestedness is no merit in me, 'It happens to be my passion. It certainly is not impossible that your two young lords may appear in the new system. Mr. Williams is just come from his niece, Lady North's, and commends her husband exceedingly. He tells me that the plump Countess is in terrors lest Lord Coventry should get a divorce from his wife and Lord Bolingbroke should marry her. 'Tis a well-imagined panic!

Mr. Mann, I trust, does not grow worse; I wish I could think he mended. Mr. B. is sitting in his chimney-corner literally with five girls; I expect him to meet me to-morrow at Strawberry. As no provision is made for the great C`u in the new arrangement, it is impossible but he may pout a little. My best compliments to your brothers and sisters. Adieu! Will this find you at Greatworth!

(732) Lord Hardwicke.

348 Letter 202 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Nov. 13, 1756.

Your brother has told me that Mr. Pitt accepts your southern province, yielding to leave Lord Holderness in the northern. I don't know what calm you at this distance may suppose this will produce; I should think little; for though the Duke of Newcastle resigned on Thursday, and Mr. Fox resigns to-day, the chief friends of each remain in place -, and Mr. Pitt accedes with so little strength that his success seems very precarious. If he Hanoverizes, or checks any inquiries, he loses his popularity, and falls that way; if he burnouts the present rage of the people, he provokes two powerful factions. His only chance seems to depend on joining with the Duke of Newcastle, who is most offended with Fox: but after Pitt's personal exclusion of his grace, and considering Pitt's small force, it may not be easy for him to be accepted there. I foresee nothing but confusion: the new system is composed of such discordant parts that it can produce no harmony. Though the Duke of Newcastle, the Chancellor, Lord Anson, and Fox quit, yet scarce one of their friends is discarded. The very cement seems disjunctive; I mean the Duke of Devonshire, who takes the treasury. If he acts cordially, he disobliges his intimate friend Mr. Fox; if he does not, he offends Pitt. These little reasonings will give you light, though very insufficient for giving you a clear idea of the most perplexed and complicate situation that ever was. Mr. Legge returns to be chancellor of the exchequer, and Sir George Lyttelton is indemnified with a peerage. The Duke of Newcastle has got his dukedom entailed on Lord Lincoln. The seals are to be in commission, if not given to a lord keeper. Your friend Mr. Doddington(733) is out again for about the hundred and fiftieth time. The rest of the list is pretty near settled; you shall have it as soon as it takes place. I should tell you that Lord Temple is first lord of the admiralty.

Being much too busy to attend to such trifles as a war and America, we know mighty little of either. The massacre at Oswego happily proves a romance: part of the two regiments that were made prisoners there are actually arrived at Plymouth, the provisions at Quebec being too scanty to admit additional numbers. The King of Prussia is gone into winter quarters, but disposed in immediate readiness. One hears that he has assured us, that if we will keep our fleet in good order, he will find employment for the rest of our enemies. Two days ago, in the midst of all the ferment at court, Coloredo, the Austrian minister, abruptly demanded an audience, in which he demanded our quotas: I suppose the King told him that whenever he should have a ministry again he would consult them. I will tell you my comment on this: the Empress-Queen, who is scrupulous on the ceremonial of mischief, though she so easily passes over the reality and ingratitude, proposes, I imagine, on a refusal which she deserves and has drawn upon her, to think herself justified in assisting France in some attempts on us from the coast of Flanders. I have received yours of October 23d, and am glad the English showed a proper disregard of Richcourt. Thank you a thousand times for your goodness to Mr. and Mrs. Dick: it obliges me exceedingly, and I am sure will be most grateful to Lady Henry Beauclerc.

I don't know what to answer to that part about your brother: you think and argue exactly as I have done; would I had not found it in vain! but, my dear child, you and I have never been married, and are sad judges! As to your elder brother's interposition, I wish he had tenderness enough to make him arbitrary. I beg your pardon, but he is fitter to marry your sister than to govern her. Your brother Gal. certainly looks better; yet I think of him just as you do, and by no means trust to so fallacious a distemper. Indeed I tease him to death to take a resolution, but to no purpose. In short, my dear Sir, they are melancholy words, but I can neither flatter you publicly nor privately; England is undone, and your brother is not to be persuaded; Yet i hope the former will not be quite given up, and I shall certainly neglect nothing possible with regard to the latter. Adieu! '

(733) Doddington, in his Diary of the 15th, says, "The Duke of Devonshire told me that he was forced by the King to take the employment he held; that his grace was ordered to go to Mr. Pitt, and know upon what conditions he would serve; that, in the arrangement Pitt and his friends made, my office was demanded--he was sorry for it--he was not concerned in it--and he behaved very civilly," etc.-E.

350 Letter 203 To George Montagu, Esq. Arlington Street, Nov. 25, 1756.

You must tell me what or whose the verses are that you demand; I know of none. I could send you reams of tests, contests, and such stupid papers, and bushels of more stupid cards. I know of nothing good; nor of any news, but that the committee of creations is not closed yet. Mr. Obrien was yesterday created Irish Earl of Thomond. Mr. Pitt is to be wrapped up in flannel, and brought to town to-morrow to see King George the Second; and I believe, to dissolve the new ministry, rather than to cement it. Mr. Fox has commenced hostilities, and has the borough of Stockbridge from under Dr. Hay, one of the new admiralty; this enrages extremely the new ministers, who, having neither members nor boroughs enough , will probably recur to their only resource, popularity.

I am exceedingly obliged to the Colonel, but is that new? to whom am I so much obliged? I will not trouble him with any commissions: the little money I have I am learning to save: the times give one a hint that one may have occasion for it.

I beg my best compliments to Mr. and Mrs. Wetenhall, and Mr. John Montagu. Don't you wish me joy of my Lord Hertford's having the garter! It makes me very happy! Adieu!

350 Letter 204 To Sir Horace Mann. Strawberry Hill, November 29,

No material event has yet happened under the new administration; indeed it has scarce happened itself: your new master, Mr. Pitt, has been confined in the country with the gout, and came to town but within these two days. The world, who love to descry policy in every thing, and who have always loved to find it in Mr. Pitt's illnesses, were persuaded that his success was not perfect enough, and that he even hesitated whether he should consummate. He is still so lame that he cannot go to court--to be sure the King must go to him He takes the seals on Saturday; the Parliament meets on Thursday, but will adjourn for about ten days for the re-elections. The new ministers are So little provided with interest in boroughs, that it is almost an administration out of Parliament. Mr. Fox has already attacked their seats, and has undermined Dr. Hay, one of the new admiralty, in Stockbridge: this angers extremely. The Duke of Newcastle is already hanging out a white flag to Pitt; but there is so little disposition in that quarter to treat, that they have employed one Evans-, a lawyer, to draw up articles of impeachment against Lord Anson. On the other hand they show great tenderness to Byng, who has certainly been most inhumanly and spitefully treated by Anson. Byng's trial is not yet appointed. Lord Effingham, Cornwallis, and Stuart are arrived, and are to have their conduct examined this day se'nnight by three general officers. In the mean time the King, of his own motion, has given a red riband and an Irish barony to old Blakeney, who has been at court in a hackney-coach, with a foot soldier behind it. As he has not only lost his government, but as he was bedrid while it was losing, these honours are a little ridiculed: we have too many governors that will expect titles, if losses are pretensions! Mr. Obrien is made Earl of Thomond:(734) my Lady Townshend rejoices; she says he has family enough to re-establish the dignity of the Irish peerage, to which of late nothing but brewers and poulterers have been raised; that she expected every day to receive a bill from her fishmonger, signed Lord Mountshrimp!

I promised you a list of the changes when they should be complete. They are very conveniently ready to fill the rest of my letter.

Transcriber's note: In the print copy the following information is given in three columns: the new office-holder on the left, the office in the middle, and the previous office-holder on the right.

Duke of Devonshire, in the room of the duke of Newcastle

(P) Mr. Legge, Chancellor of exchequer, in the room of (N) Sir G. Lyttelton a peer.

(N) Mr. Nugent, Lord Duncannon, (P) Mr. J. Grenville, of the Old Treasury; in the room of Mr. Furnese, dead; (N) mr. Obrien, Irish Earl.

Mr. w. Pitt, Secretary of State, in the room of mr. Fox.

Lord Buckingham, Lord of bedchamber, in the room of Lord Fitzwilliam, dead.

(F) Mr. Edgcumbe, Comptroller of Household, in the room of Lord Buckingham.

(F) Lord Berkeley of Stratton, Captain of pensioners, in the room of the late Lord Buckingham.

(F) Lord Bateman, Treasurer of Household, in the room of Lord berkeley.

(P) Mr. G. Grenville, Treasurer of the Navy, in the room of (F) mr. dodinglton.

(P) Mr. Potter, Joint paymaster, in the room of (N) Lord Darlington

(P) mr. martin, Secretary of Treasury, in the room of (N) Mr. West.

(P) Sir r. Lyttelton, Master of jewel Office, in the room of (N) Lord Breadalbane.

(N) Lord Breadalbane, Justice in Eyre, in the room of (N) Lord Sandys.

(N) Lord Sandys, Speaker of House of Lords, in the room of (N) Lord Chancellor.

Lord chief Justice Willes, (P) Justice Wilmot, and baron smyth, Commissioners of the Great Seal, in the room of the Lord Chancellor.

(P) Lord Temple, Admiral Boscawen before, (P) Admiral West, (P) Dr. Hay, (P) Mr. Elliot, (P) Mr. Hunter, (P) John Pitt, in the room of (N) Lord Anson, Admiral (N) rowley, Lord Duncannon, (F) Lord Bateman, Lord Hyde, and (F) mr. Edgcumbe. But John Pitt is to resign again, and be made Paymaster of the Marines, to make room for Admiral Forbes.

Charles Townshend, Treasurer of the Chambers, in the room of Lord Hilsborough, English baron.

This last is not done; as Mr. Townshend cannot be rechosen at Yarmouth, he only consents to accept, provided another borough can be found for him' this does not appear very easy.

The Duke of Newcastle has advertised in all the newspapers, that he retires without place or pension: here is a list of his disinterestedness. The reversion of his dukedom for Lord Lincoln: this is the only duchy bestowed by the present King: on my father's resignation, the new ministers did prevail to have dukedoms offered to Lord Northampton and Lord Ailesbury; but both declined, having no sons. Mr. Shelley, the Duke's nephew, has the reversion of Arundel's place: Mr. West has a great reversion for himself and his son: your little waxen friend, Tommy Pelham, has another reversion in the Customs. Jones, the Duke's favourite secretary, and nephew of the late chancellor, has another. Not to mention the English barony for Sir George Lyttelton, and the Irish earldom for Mr. Obrien. The Garters are given to the Duke of' Devonshire, to Lord Carlisle, Lord Northumberland, and (to my great satisfaction) to Lord Hertford.

Oh! I should explain the marks: the (N) signifies of the Newcastle and Hardwick faction; the (P) of Pitt's; the (F) of Fox's. You will be able by these to judge a little of how strange a medley the new government is composed! consequently, how durable!

I was with your brother this morning at Richmond; he thinks himself better; I do not think him worse; but judge by your own feelings if that is enough to content me. Pray that your brother and your country may mend a little faster! I dread the winter for him, and the summer for England! Adieu!

P. S. Since I have finished this, I received yours of November 13th, with the account of Richcourt's illness. What! you are forced to have recourse to apoplexies and deaths for revolutions! We make nothing of changing our ministers at every fall of the leaf. My Lord Huntingdon (who, by the way, loves you, and does you justice,) has told me one or two very good bon-mots of the Pope:(735) I have always had a great partiality for the good old man: I desire you will tell me any anecdotes or stories of him that you know-. I remember some of his sayings with great humour and wit. You can never oblige me more than by anecdotes of particular people--but you are indeed always good in that and every other way.

(734) Percy Windham Obrien, second son of Sir William Windham, by a daughter of Charles Duke of Somerset. The Earl of Thomond, who had married another daughter, left his estate to this Mr. Windham, his wife's nephew, on condition of his taking the name of Obrien.

(735) Prospero Lambertini, called Benedict the Fourteenth.

352 Letter 205 To Sir Horace Mann. Strawberry Hill, Dec. 8, 1756.

Your poor brother desires me to write to you to-day, as he is in bed (and not able. He went to town last week, caught cold, and returned with a fever. He has been drinking tar-water since the middle of November, at the persuasion of your older brother and his Richmond friends. Indeed he had gone through the whole course of drugs to no purpose. There is a great eruption to-day in most parts of his body, which they think will be of great service to him. In my own opinion, he is so weak, that I am in great apprehensions for him. He is very low-spirited, and yet thinks himself much better to-day. Your brother Ned was surprised at my being so alarmed, as they had considered this as a most fortunate crisis-but I have much difficulty in persuading myself to be so sanguine. As we have a recess for a few days, I shall stay here till Saturday, and see your brother again, and will tell you my opinion again. You see I don't deceive you: if that is any satisfaction, be assured that nobody else would give you so bad an account, as I find all his family have new hopes of him: would to God I had

Our first day of Parliament(736) passed off harmoniously; but in the House of Lords there was an event. A clause of thanks for having sent for the Hanoverians had crept into the address of the peers--by Mr. Fox's means, as the world thinks: Lord Temple came out of a sick bed to Oppose it.(737) Next day there was an alarm of an intention of instating the same clause in our address. Mr. Pitt went angry to court, protesting that he would not take the seals, if any such motion passed: it was sunk. Next day he accepted--and the day after, Mr. Fox, extremely disgusted with the Duke of Devonshire for preferences shown to Mr. Pitt, retired into the country. The Parliament is adjourned for the reelections; and Mr. Pitt, who has pleased in the closet, is again laid up with the gout. We meet on Monday, when one shall be able to judge a little better of the temper of the winter. The Duke of Bedford is to be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland-no measure of peace! Not to mention his natural warmth, every body is sensible that he is only placed there to traverse Pitt.

Your brother and I are uneasy about your situation: when we are treated insolently at Leghorn, to what are we sunk! Can Mr. Pitt or the King of Prussia find a panacea for all our disgraces? Have you seen Voltaire's epigram?

"Rivaux du Vainqueur de l'Euphrate, L'Oncle,(738) et le Neveu;(739) L'un fait la guerre en pirate, L'autre en partie bleue."

It is very insipid! It Seems to me,(740) as if Uncle and Nephew could furnish a better epigram , unless their reconciliation deadens wit. Besides, I don't believe that the Uncle of these lines means at all to be like Alexander, who never was introduced more pompously for the pitiful end of supplying @ rhyme.

Is it true what we see in the gazettes, that the Pantheon is tumbled down? Am not I a very Goth, who always thought it a dismal clumsy performance, and could never discover any beauty in a strange mass of light poured perpendicularly into a circle of obscurity? Adieu! I wish you may hope more with your elder brother than tremble with me!

(736) "The Speech from the throne, by its style and substance, appeared to be the work of the new speech-maker: the Militia, which his Majesty had always turned into ridicule, being strongly recommended, the late administration censured, and the uncourtly addresses of the preceding summer receiving the highest commendations." Waldegrave, 88.-E.

(737) "The new Lord of the Admiralty came, as he told the Lords, out of a sick bed, at the hazard of his life, (indeed, he made a most sorrowful appearance,) to represent to their lordships the fatal consequences of the intended compliment: he said, that the people of England would be offended even at the name of Hanover, or of foreign mercenaries, and added many other arguments, without mentioning the true reason of his disapprobation: namely, the Duke of Devonshire's having added this compliment without consulting him: and, having finished his oration, went out of the House, with a thorough conviction that such weighty reasons must be quite unanswerable." Ibid. p. 89.-E.

((738) George II.

(739) The King of Prussia.

(740) Mr. Walpole had had a quarrel with his uncle Horatio.

354 Letter 206 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Dec. 16, 1756.

It will be easier for you, I fear, to guess, than for me to describe, what I have felt for these last six days! Your dear brother is still alive; it is scarce possible he should be so when you receive this. I wrote to you this day se'nnight, the day after I saw him last. On that day and Friday I received favourable messages. I went myself on Saturday, as I had promised him--how shocked I was at seeing Your brother Ned and a lawyer come to the chaise: the former told me that poor Gal. had desired the lawyer to settle his affairs, which were then in agitation: you may imagine I did not choose to add the tender sensations of seeing me, to what he was then feeling? I saw our doom too plainly, though your brother Ned still had hopes. Every day confirmed my fears: but I could not bear my anxiety, and went to Richmond to-day, with as much horror as persons must go to execution yet determined to see Gal. if I found that he had expressed the leas@ desire of it.--Alas! he has scarce had moments of sense since Sunday morning--how can I bring myself to say of so dreadful a situation, that it is my greatest consolation! But I could not support the thought of his remaining sensible of death with all those anxious attentions about him which have composed his whole life! Oh! my dear child, what rash wretches are heroes, compared to this brother of yours! Nothing ever equalled his cool solicitude for his family and friends. What an instance am I going to repeat to you! His most unhappy life was poisoned by the dread of leaving his children and fortune to be torn to pieces by his frantic wife, whose settlements entitled her to thirds. On Friday, perceiving her alarmed by his danger, he had the amazing presence of mind and fortitude to seize that only moment of tenderness, and prevailed on her to accept a jointure. He instantly despatched your brother Ned to London for his lawyer, and by five o'clock on Saturday, after repeated struggles of passion on her side, the whole was finished. Dear Gal. he could not speak, but he lifted up his hands in thanks! While he had any sense, it was employed in repeated kindnesses, particularly to your brother James--he had ordered a codicil, but they have not found a sufficient interval to get it signed!

My dearest Sir, what an afflicting letter am I forced to write to you! but I flatter myself, you will bear it better from me, than from any other person: and affectionate as I know you, could I deprive you or myself of the melancholy pleasure of relating such virtues My poorest, yet best consolation is, that, though I think his obstinacy in not going abroad, and Ill management, may have hurried his end, yet nothing could have saved him; his lungs are entirely gone. But how will you be amazed at what I am going to tell you! His wretched wife is gone mad--at least your brother Ned and the physician are persuaded so--I cannot think so well of her.--I see her in so diabolic a light, that I cannot help throwing falsehood into the account--but let us never mention her more. What little more I would say, for I spare your grief rather than indulge my own, is, that I beseech you to consider me as more and more your friend: I adored Gal. and will heap affection on that I already have for you. I feel your situation, and beg of you to manage with no delicacy, but confide all your fears and wishes and wants to me-if I could be capable of neglecting you, write to Gal.'s image that will for ever live in a memory most grateful to him.

You will be little disposed or curious to hear politics; yet it must import you always to know the situation of your country, and 'It never was less settled. Mr. Pitt is not yet able to attend the House, therefore no inquiries are yet commenced. The only thing like business has been the affair of preparing quarters for the Hessians, who are soon to depart; but the Tories have shown such attachment to Mr. Pitt on this occasion, that it is almost become a Whig point to detain them. The breach is so much widened between Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox, and the latter is so warm, that we must expect great violences. The Duke of Newcastle's party lies quiet; one of the others must join it. The -new ministers have so little weight, that they seem determined at least not to part with their popularity: the new Secretary of State(741) is to attack the other, lord Holderness, on a famous letter of his sent to the mayor of Maidstone, for releasing a Hanoverian soldier committed for theft. You may judge what harmony there is!

Adieu, my dear Sir! How much I pity you, and how much you ought to pity me! Imitate your brother's firmness of Mind, and bear his loss as well as you can. You have too much merit not to be sensible of his, and then it will be impossible for you to be soon comforted.

(741) Mr. Pitt.

356 Letter 207 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Dec. 23, 1756.

I KNOW I can no more add to your concern than to my own, by giving you the last account of your dear brother, who put a period to our anxious suspense in the night between the 20th and 21st. For the five last days he had little glimmerings of amendment, that gave hopes to some of his friends, terror to me, who dreaded his sensibility coming to Itself! When I had given up his life, I could not bear the return of his tenderness! Sure he had felt enough for his friends--yet he would have been anxious for them if he had recovered his senses. He has left your brothers Edward, James, and Foote,(742) his executors; to his daughters 7500 pounds a-piece, and the entail of his estate in succession--to a name I beg we may never mention, 700 pounds a-year, 4000 pounds and his furniture, etc. Your brother James, a very worthy man, though you never can have two Gals. desired me to give you this account--' how sad a return for the two letters I have received from you this week! Be assured, my dear Sir, that nothing could have saved his life. For your sake and my own I hurry from this dreadful subject-not for the amusement of' either, or that I have any thing to tell you: my letter shall be very short, for I am stabbing you with a dagger used on myself!

Mr. Pitt has not been able to return to Parliament for the gout, which has prevented our having one long day; we adjourn to-morrow for a fortnight; yet scarce to meet then for business, as a call of the House is not appointed till the 20th of January; very late indeed, were any inquiries probable: this advantage I hope will be gained, that our new ministers will have a month's time to think of their country.

Adieu! my dear Sir, this letter was necessary for me to write- -I find it as necessary to finish it.

(742) Mr. Foote married the second sister of Mr. Mann; as his brother, a clergyman, afterwards did the third.

356 Letter 208 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, January 6, 1757.

I live in dread of receiving your unhappy letters! I am sensible how many, many reasons you have to lament your dear brother; yet your long absence will prevent the loss of him from leaving so sharp a sting as it would have done had you seen as much of him as I have of late years! When I wrote to you, I did not know his last instance Of love to you;(743) may you never have occasion to use it!

I wish I could tell you any politics to abstract your thoughts from your concern; but just at present all political conversation centres in such a magazine of abuse, as was scarce ever paralleled. Two papers, called the "Test" and "Contest," appear every Saturday, the former against Mr. Pitt, the latter against Mr. Fox, which make me recollect-,' "Fogs" and "Craftsmen" as harmless libels. The authors are not known; Doddington(744) is believed to have the chief hand in the "Test,"(745) which is much the best, unless virulence is to bestow the laurel. He has been turned out by the opposite faction, and has a new opportunity of revenge, being just become a widower. The best part of his fortune is entailed on lord Temple if he has no son; but I suppose he would rather marry a female hawker than not propagate children and lampoons. There is another paper, called "The Monitor,"(746) written by one Dr. Shebbeare, who made a pious resolution of writing himself into a place or the pillory,(747) but having miscarried in both views, is wreaking his resentment on the late Chancellor, who might have gratified him in either of his objects. The Parliament meets to-morrow, but as Mr. Pitt cannot yet walk, we are not likely soon to have any business. Admiral Byng's trial has been in agitation above these ten days, and is supposed an affair of length: I think the reports are rather unfavourable to him, though I do not find that it is believed he will be capitally punished. I will tell you my sentiments, I don't know whether judicious or not: it may perhaps take a great deal of time to prove he was not a coward; I should think it would not take half an hour to prove he had behaved bravely.

Your old royal guest King Theodore is gone to the place which it is said levels kings and beggars; an unnecessary journey for him, who had already fallen from one to the other; I think he died somewhere in the liberties of the Fleet.(748)

lord Lyttelton has received his things, and is much content with them; this leads me to trouble you with another, I hope trifling, commission; will you send me a case of the best drains for Lord Hertford, and let me know the charge?

You must take this short letter only as an instance of my attention to you; I would write, though I knew nothing to tell you.

(743) Mr. Galfridus Mann left an annuity to his brother Sir Horace, in case he were recalled from Florence.

(744) George Bubb Doddington, Esq. This report was not confirmed.

(745) "The Test" was written principally by Arthur Murphy. It forms a thin folio volume,.-E.

(746) "The "Monitor" was commenced in August 1755, and terminated in July 1759. It is said to have been planned by Alderman Beckford.-E.

(747) He did write himself into a pillory before, the conclusion of that reign, and into a pension at the beginning of the next, for one and the same kind of merit,--writing against King William and the Revolution.

(748) See an account of his death, and the monument and epitaph erected for him in Mr. Walpole's fugitive pieces; see also his letter to Sir Horace Mann of the 29th of September, in this year.-E.

358 Letter 209 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Jan. 17, 1757.

I am still, my dear Sir, waiting for your melancholy letters, not one of which has yet reached me. I am impatient to know how you bear your misfortune, though I tremble at what I shall feel from your expressing it! Except good Dr. Cocchi, what sensible friend have you at Florence to share and moderate your unhappiness?--but I will not renew it: I will hurry to tell you any thing that may amuse it--and yet what is that any thing; Mr. Pitt, as George Selwyn says, has again taken to his Lit de Justice; he has been once with the King,(749) but not at the House; the day before yesterday the gout flew into his arm, and has again laid him up: I am so particular in this, because all our transactions, or rather our inactivity, hang upon the progress of his distemper. Mr. Pitt and every thing else have been forgot for these five days, obscured by the news of the assassination of the King of France.(750) I don't pretend to tell you any circumstance of it, who must know them better than, at least as well as, I can; war and the sea don't contribute to dispel the clouds of lies that involve such a business. The letters of the foreign ministers, and ours from Brussels, say he has been at council; in the city he is believed dead: I hope not! We should make a bad exchange in the Dauphin. Though the King is weak and irresolute, I believe he does not want sense: weakness, bigotry, and some sense, are the properest materials for keeping alive the disturbances in that country, to which this blow, if the man was any thing but a madman, Will contribute. The despotic and holy stupidity(751) of the successor would quash the Parliament at once. He told his father about a year ago, that if he was King, the next day, and the Pope should bid him lay down his crown, he would. They tell or make a good answer for the father, "And if he was to bid you take the crown from me, would you!" We have particular cause to say masses for the father: there is invincible aversion between him and the young Pretender, whom, it is believed, nothing could make him assist. You may judge what would make the Dauphin assist him! he was one day reading the reign of Nero he said, "Ma foi, c'`etoit le plus grand sc`el`erat qui f`ut jamais; il ne lui manquoit que d'`etre Janseniste." I am grieving for my favourite,(752) the Pope, whom we suppose dead, at least I trust he was superannuated when they drew from him the late Bull enjoining the admission of the Unigenitus on pain of damnation; a step how unlike all the amiable moderation of his life! In my last I told you the death of another monarch, for whom in our time you and I have interested ourselves, King Theodore. He had just taken the benefit of the act of insolvency, and went to the Old Bailey for that purpose: in order to it, the person applying gives up all his effects to his creditors - his Majesty was asked what effects he had? He replied, nothing but the kingdom of Corsica--and it is actually registered for the benefit of the creditors. You may get it intimated to the Pretender, that if he has a mind to heap titles upon the two or three medals that he coins, he has nothing to do but to pay King Theodore's debts, and he may have very good pretensions to Corsica. As soon as Theodore was at liberty, he took a chair and went to the Portuguese minister, but did not find him at home: not having sixpence to pay, he prevailed on the chairman to carry him to a tailor he knew in Soho, whom he prevailed upon to harbour him; but he fell sick the next day, and died in three more.

Byng's trial continues; it has gone ill for him, but mends; it is the general opinion that he will come off for some severe censure.

Bower's first part of his reply is published; he has pinned a most notorious falsehood about a Dr. Aspinwall on his enemies, which must destroy their credit, and will do him more service than what he has yet been able to prove about himself. They have published another pamphlet against his history, but so impertinent and scurrilous and malicious, that it will serve him more than his own defence: they may keep the old man's life so employed as to prevent the prosecution of his work, but nothing can destroy the merit of the three volumes already published, which in every respect is the best written history I know: the language is the purest, the compilation the most judicious, and the argumentation the soundest.

The famous Miss Elizabeth Villiers Pitt(753) is in England; the only public place in which she has been seen is the Popish chapel; her only exploit, endeavours to wreak her malice on her brother William, whose kindness to her has been excessive. She applies to all his enemies, and, as Mr. Fox told me, has even gone so far as to send a bundle of his letters to the author of the Test, to prove that Mr. Pitt has cheated her, as she calls it, of a hundred a year, and which only prove that he once allowed her two, and after all her wickedness still allows her one. she must be vexed that she has no way of setting the gout more against him! Adieu! tell me if you receive all my letters.

(749) "The King became every day more and more averse to his new ministers. Pitt, indeed, had not frequent occasions of giving offence, having been confined by the gout the greater part of the winter; and when he made his appearance he behaved with proper respect, so that the King, though he did not like his speeches, always treated him like a gentleman." Waldegrave, p. 93.-E.

(750) Lady Hervey, in a letter of the 13th, gives the following account of Damien's attempt:--"I have barely time to tell you the news of the day, which arrived by a courier from France this morning to M. d'Abreu, the Spanish minister. The King of France was stepping into his coach to go to Bellevue, and a fellow who seemed to be gaping and looking at the coach en hayeur, took his opportunity, and taking aim at the King's heart thrust his dagger into his side,--Just over against the heart; but a lucky and sudden motion the King gave with his elbow at that moment, turned the dagger. which made only a slight wound in his ribs, as they say, which is judged not to be dangerous. The fellow was immediately secured."-E.

(751) The Dauphin, son of Louis XV., had been bred a bigot; but, as he by no means wanted sense, he got over the prejudices of his education, and before he died had far more liberal sentiments.

(752) Prospero Lambertini, by the name of Benedict XIV. For Walpole's inscription on his picture, see Works, vol. i. p. 218; and also post, letter to Sir Horace Mann of the 20th of June, in this year.-E.

(753) Sister of William Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham.

360 Letter 210 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Jan. 30, 1757.

Last night I received your most melancholy letter of the 8th of this month, in which you seem to feel all or more than I apprehended. As I trust to time and the necessary avocation of your thoughts, rather than to any arguments I could use for your consolation, I choose to say as little more as possible on the subject of your loss. Your not receiving letters from your brothers as early as mine was the consequence of their desiring me to take that most unwelcome office upon me: I believe they have both written since, though your eldest brother has had a severe fit of the gout: they are both exceedingly busied in the details necessarily fallen upon them. That would be no reason for their neglecting you, nor I am persuaded will they; they shall certainly want no incitements from me, who wish and will endeavour as much as possible to repair your loss, alas! how inadequately! Your brother James has found great favour from the Duke.(754) Your @brother Ned, who is but just come to town from his confinement, tells me that your nephew will be in vast circumstances; above an hundred thousand pounds, besides the landed estate and debts! These little details related, I had rather try to amuse you, than indulge your grief and my own; your dear brother's memory will never be separated from mine; but the way in which I shall show it, shall be in increased attention to you: he and you will make me perpetually think on both of you!