A brother Of Mine, (302) Edward by name, has lately had a call to

matrimony: the virgins name was Howe. (303) He had agreed to take

her with no fortune, she him with his four children. The father

of him, to get rid of his importunities, at last acquiesced. The

very moment he had obtained this consent, he repented; and,

instead of flying on the wings of love to

notify it, he went to his fair One, owned his father had

mollified, but hoped she would be so good as to excuse him.

You cannot imagine what an entertaining fourth act of the

opera we had the other night. Lord Vane, (304) in the middle of

the pit, making love to my lady. The Duke of Newcastle (305) has

lately given him three-score thousand pounds, to consent to cut

off the entail of the Newcastle estate. The fool immediately

wrote to his wife, to beg she would return to him from Lord

Berkeley; that he had got so much money, and now they might live

comfortably: but she will not live

comfortably: she is at Lord Berkeley's house, whither go

divers after her. Lady Townshend told me an admirable

history; it is of our friend Lady Pomfret. Somebody that

belonged to the Prince of Wales said, they were going to

Court; it was objected that they ought to say, going to

Carlton House; that the only Court is where the king resides.

Lady P. with her paltry air of significant learning and

absurdity, said, "Oh Lord! is there no Court in England, but the

king's? sure, there are many more! There is the Court of

Chancery, the Court of Exchequer, the Court of King's Bench,

etc." Don't you love her? Lord Lincoln does her dauhter: he is

come over, and met her the other night: he turned pale, spoke to

her several times in the evening, but not long, and sighed to me

at going away. He came over all alive; and not only his

uncle-duke, but even majesty is fallen in love with him. He

talked to the king at his levee, without being spoken to. That

was always thought high treason; but I don't know how the gruff

gentleman liked it; and then he had been told that Lord Lincoln

designed to have made the campaicn, if we had gone to war; in

short, he says, Lord Lincoln (306) is the handsomest man in

England

I believe I told you that Vernon's birthday passed quietly, but

it was not designed to be pacific; for at twelve at night, eight

gentlemen, dressed like sailors, and masked, went round Covent

Garden with a drum, beating up for a volunteer mob, but it did

not take; and they retired to a great supper that was prepared

for them at the Bedford Head, and ordered by

Whitehead (307) the author of Manners. It has been written into

the country that Sir R. has had two fits of an apoplexy, and

cannot live till Christmas; but I think he is recovered to be as

well as ever. To-morrow se'nnight is the Day! (308) It is

critical. You shall hear faithfully.

The opera takes: Monticelli (309) pleases almost equal to

Farinelli: Amorevoli is much liked; but the poor, fine

Viscontina scarce at all. (310)I carry the two former to-night to

my Lady Townshend's.

Lord Coventry (311) has had his son thrown out by the party: he

went to Carlton House; the prince asked him about the

election. "Sir," said he, "the Tories have betrayed me, as they

will you, the first time you have occasion for them." The

merchants have petitioned the King for more guardships. My lord

president, (312) referred them to the Admiralty; but they bluntly

refused to go, and said they would have redress from the King

himself.

I am called down to dinner, and cannot write more now. I will

thank dear Mr. Chute and the Grifona next post. I hope she and

you liked your things. Good night, my dearest child! Your

brother and I sit upon your affairs every morning.

Yours ever.

(302) Second son of Sir Robert Walpole. He was clerk of the

pells, and afterwards knight of the Bath. [Sir Edward died

unmarried, in 1784, leaving three natural daughters; Laura,

married to the Hon. and

Rev. Frederick Keppel, afterwards Bishop of Exeter; maria,

married, first to the Earl of Waldegrave, and, secondly to the

Duke of Gloucester; and Charlotte, married to the

Earl of Dysart.]

(303) Eldest sister of the Lord Viscount Howe. She was soon

after this married to a relation of her own name. [John

Howe, Esq. of Hanslop, Bucks.]

(304) William, second Viscount Vane, in Ireland. His "lady" was

the too-celebrated Lady Vane, first married to

Lord William Hamilton, and secondly to Lord Vane; who has

given her own extraordinary and disreputable adventures to the

world, in Smollett's novel of "Peregrine Pickle," under the title

of "Memoirs of a Lady of Quality." She is also

immortalized in different ways, by Johnson, in his ,Vanity of

Human Wishes," and by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, in one of his

Odes.-D. [She was the daughter of Mr. Hawes, a South Sea

director, and died in 1788. Lord Vane died in 1789. Boswell

distinctly states, that the lady mnentioned in Johnson's

couplet "was not the celebrated Lady Vane, whose Memoirs were

given to the public by Dr. Smollett, but Ann Vane, who was

mistress to Frederick Prince of Wales, and died in 1736, not long

before Johnson settled in London." See Boswell's

Johnson, vol. i. p. 226, ed. 1835.]

(305) Uncle of Lord Vane, whose father, Lord Barnard, had

married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Gilbert Holles, Earl of

Clare, and sister and coheir of John Duke of Newcastle.

(306) Henry Clinton, ninth Earl of Lincoln, succeeded as

Duke of Newcastle in 1768, on the death of his uncle, the

minister.

(307) Paul Whitehead, a satirical poet of bad character, was the

son of a tailor, who lived in Castle-yard, Holborn. He wrote

several abusive poems, now forgotten, entitled "The

State Dances," "Manners," "The Gymnasiad," etc. In "Manners,"

having attacked some members of the House of Lords, that assembly

summoned Dodsley, the publisher, before them, (Whitehead having

absconded,) and subsequently imprisoned him. In politics,

Whitehead was a follower of Bubb Dodington; in private life be

was the friend and companion of the profligate Sir Francis

Dashwood, Wilkes, Churchill, etc. and, like them, was a member of

the Hell-fire Club, which held its orgies at Mednam Abbey, in

Bucks. The estimation in which he was held even by his friends

may be judged of by the lines in which Churchill has damned him

to everlasting fame:

"May I (can worse disgrace on mankind fall?)

Be born a Whitehead and baptized a Paul."

Paul Whitehead died in 1774.-D. [The proceedings in the

House of Lords against the author of "Manners" which took

place in February, 1739, was, in the opinion of Dr. Johnson,

"intended rather to intimidate Pope, than to punish

Whitehead."]

(308) The day the parliament was to meet.

(309) His voice was clear, sweet, and free from defects of every

kind. He was a chaste performer, and never hazarded any

difficulty which he was not certain of executing with the utmost

precision. He was, moreover, an excellent actor, so that nothing

but the recent remembrance of the gigantic

talents of Farinelli, and the grand and majestic style of

Senesino, could have lefl an English audience any thing to

wish.-E.

(310) Amorevoli was an admirable tenor. "I have heard,"

says Dr. Burney, "better voices of his pitch, but

never, on the stage, more taste and expression. The

Visconti had a shrill flexible voice, and pleased more in

rapid songs than those that required high colouring and

pathos."-E.

(311) William, fifth Earl of Coventry. He died in 1751.-D.

(312) Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, a man of moderate

abilities, but who had filled many great offices. He died in

1743, when his titles extinguished.-D.

191 Letter 43

To Sir Horace Mann.

Nov. 26, 1741.

I don't write you a very long letter, because you will see the

inclosed to Mr. Chute. I forgot to thank you last post for the

songs, and your design on the Maltese cats.

It is terrible to be in this uncertainty about you! We have not

the least news about the Spaniards, more than what you told us,

of a few vessels being seen off Leghorn. I send

about the post, and ask Sir R. a thousand times a-day.

I beg to know if you have never heard any thing from Parker about

my statue: (313) it was to have been finished last june. What is

the meaning he does not mention it? If it is done, I beg it may

not stir from Rome till there is no more danger of Spaniards.

If you get out of your hurry, I will trouble you with a new

commission: I find I cannot live without Stosch's (314)

intaglio of the Gladiator, with the vase, upon a granite. You

know I offered him fifty pounds: I think, rather than not have

it, I would give a hundred. What will he do if the Spaniards

should come to Florence? Should he be driven to straits,

perhaps he would part with his Meleager too. You see I am as

eager about baubles as if I were going to Louis at the Palazzo

Vecchio! You can't think what a closet I have fitted up; such a

mixture of French gaiety and Roman virtu! you would be in love

with it: I have not rested till it was finished: I long to have

you see it. Now I am angry that I did not buy the

Hermaphrodite; the man would have sold it for twenty-five

sequins: do buy it for me; it was a friend of Bianchi. Can you

forgive me'! I write all this upon the hope and

presumption that the Spaniards go to Lombardy. Good night.

Yours, ever.

(313) A copy of the Livia Mattei, which Mr. W. designed for a

tomb of his mother: it was erected in Henry VII.'s Chapel, in

Westminster Abbey, in 1754.

(314) He gave it afterwards to Lord Duncannon, for procuring him

the arrears of his pension.

192 Letter 44

To Sir Horace Mann.

Downing Street, Dec. 3, 1741, O. S.

Here I have two letters from you to answer. You cannot

conceive my joy on the prospect of the Spaniards going to

Lombardy: all advices seem to confirm it. There is no telling

you what I have felt, and shall feel, till I am certain you are

secure. You ask me about Admiral Haddock; you must not wonder

that I have told you nothing of him: they know nothing of him

here. He had discretionary powers to act as he should judge

proper from his notices. He has been keeping in the Spanish

fleet at Cales. (315) Sir R. says, if he had let that go out, to

prevent the embarkation, the Tories would have

complained, and said he had favoured the Spanish trade, under pre

tence of hindering an expedition which was never designed. It

was strongly reported last week that Haddock had shot

himself; a satire on his having been neutral, as they call it.

The parliament met the day before yesterday, and there were four

hundred and eighty-seven members present. They did no business,

only proceeded to choose a speaker, which was,

unanimously, Mr. Onslow, moved for by Mr. Pelham, (316) and

seconded by Mr. Clutterbuck. But the Opposition, to flatter his

pretence to popularity and impartiality, call him their own

speaker. They intend to oppose Mr. Earle's being chairman of the

committee, and to set up a Dr. Lee, a civilian. To- morrow the

King makes his speech. Well, I won't keep you any longer in

suspense. The Court will have a majority of forty-a vast number

for the outset: a good majority, like a good sum of money, soon

makes itself bigger. The first great point will be the

Westminster election; another, Mr. Pultney's (317) election at

Heydon; Mr. Chute's brother is one of the

petitioners. It will be an ugly affair for the Court, for

Pultney has asked votes of the courtiers, and said Sir R. was

indifferent about it; but he is warmer than I almost ever saw

him, and declared to Churchill, (318) of whom Pultney claims a

promise, that he must take Walpole or Pultney. The Sackville

finally were engaged too, by means of George Berkeley, brother to

Lady Betty Germain, (319) whose influence with the Dorset I

suppose you know; but the King was so hot with his grace about

his sons, that I believe they will not venture to follow their

inclinations **** to vote (320) for Pultney, though he has

expressed great concern about it to Sir R.

So much for politics! for I suppose you know that Prague is taken

by storm, in a night's time. I forgot to tell you that Commodore

Lestock, with twelve ships, has been waiting for a wind this

fortnight, to join Haddock. (321)

I write to you in defiance of a violent headache, which I got

last night at another of Sir T. Robinson's balls. There were six

hundred invited, and I believe above two hundred there. Lord

Lincoln, out of prudence, danced with Lady Caroline

Fitzroy, and Mr. Conway, with Lady Sophia; the two couple were

just mismatched, as every body soon perceived, by the

attentions of each man to the woman he did not dance with, and

the emulation of either lady: it was an admirable scene. The

ball broke up at three; but Lincoln, Lord Holderness, Lord Robert

Sutton, (322) Young Churchill (323) and a dozen more grew 'oily,'

stayed till seven in the morning, and drank

thirty-two bottles.

I will take great care to send the knee-buckles and

pocket-book; I have got them, and Madame Pucci's silks, and only

wait to hear that Tuscany is quiet, and then I will

convey them by the first ship. I would write to them

to-night, but have not time now; old Cibber, (324) plays

to-night, and all the world will be there.

Here is another letter from Amorevoli, who is out of his wits at

not hearing from his wife. Adieu! my dearest child. How happy

shall I be when I know you are in peace;

Yours, ever.

(315) Cadiz.

(316) The Right Hon. Henry Pelham, so long in conjunction with

his brother, the Duke of Newcastle, one of the principal

rulers of this country. He was a man of some ability, and a

tolerable speaker. The vacillations, the absurdity, the

foolish jealousy of the duke, greatly injured the stability and

respectability of Mr. Pelham's administration. Mr. Pelham was

born in 1696, and died in 1754.-D.

(317) William Pulteney, afterwards Earl of Bath, whose

character and history are too well known to require to be here

enlarged upon.-D.

(318) General Charles Churchill, groom of the bedchamber to the

King.

(319) Lady Betty Berkeley, married to the notorious adventurer

and gambler, Sir John Germain, who had previously married the

divorced Duchess of Norfolk, (Lady Mary Mordaunt,) by whose

bequest he became possessed of the estate of Drayton, in

Northamptonshire, which he left on his own death to Lady

Betty, his second @wife. Lady Betty left it to Lord George

Sackville, third son of Lionel first Duke of Dorset. Sir John

Germain was so ignorant, that he is said to have left a legacy to

Fair Matthew Decker, as the author of St. Matthew's

Gospel.-D.

(320) sic, in the manuscript.-D.

(321) But for this circumstance, and the junction of the

French squadron, Haddock would certainly have destroyed the

Spanish fleet, and thereby escaped the imputation which was

circulated with much industry, that his hands had been tied up by

a neutrality entered into for Hanover; than which nothing could

be more false. These reports, though ostensibly

directed against Haddock, were, in reality, aimed at Sir

Robert Walpole, a general election being at hand, and his

opponents wishing to render him as unpopular with the people as

possible.-E.

(322) Second son of John, third Duke of Rutland. He took the

name of Sutton, on inheriting the estate of his maternal

grandfather, Robert Sutton, Lord Lexington.-D.

(323) Natural son of General Charles Churchill, afterwards

married to Mary, daughter of Sir Robert Walpole.-D.

(324) Colley Cibber, the celebrated dramatic author and actor.

He had left the stage in 1731; but still occasionally acted, in

spite of his age, for he was now seventy.-D. [For those

occasional performances he is said to have had fifty guineas per

night. So late as 1745, he appeared in the character of

Pandulph, the pope's legate, in his own tragedy, called "Papal

Tyranny." He died in 1757.]

194 letter 45

To Sir Horace Mann.

Somerset House, (for I write to you wherever I find myself,) Dec.

10, 1741.

I have got no letter from you yet, the post should have

brought it yesterday. The Gazette says, that the cardinal (325)

has declared that they will suffer no expedition against Tuscany.

I wish he had told me so! if they preserve this

guarantee, personally, I can forgive their breaking the rest.

But I long for your letter; every letter now from each of us is

material. You will be almost as impatient to hear of the

parliament, as I of Florence. The lords on Friday went upon the

King's speech; Lord Chesterfield made a very fine speech against

the address, all levelled at the House of Hanover. Lord

Cholmley, they say, answered him well. Lord Halifax

(326) spoke Very ill, and was answered by little Lord Raymond,

(327) who always will answer him. Your friend Lord Sandwich

(328) affronted his grace of Grafton, (329) extremely, who was

ill, and sat out of his place, by calling him to order; it was

indecent in such a boy to a man of his age and rank: the

blood of Fitzroy will not easily pardon it. The court had a

majority of forty-one, with some converts.

On Tuesday we had the Speech; there were great differences among

the party; the Jacobites, with Shippen (330) and Lord Noel

Somerset at their head, were for a division, Pultney and the

Patriots against one; (332) the ill success in the House of lords

had frightened them; we had no division, but a very warm battle

between Sir. R. and Poltney. The latter made a fine speech,

very personal, on the state of affairs. Sir R. with as much

health, as much spirits, as much force and

command as ever, answered him for an hour; said, He hadbeen taxed

with all our misfortunes; but did he raise the war in Germany? or

advise the war with Spain? did he kill the late Emperor or King

of Prussia?' did he counsel this King? or was he first minister

to the King of Poland? did he kindle the war betwixt Muscovy and

Sweden?" For our troubles at home, he said, "all the grievances

of this nation were owing to the Patriots." They laughed much at

this; but does he want proofs of it? he said, They talked much

of an equilibrium in this parliament, (333) and of what they

designed against him; if it was so, the sooner he knew it the

better; and there-fore if any man would move for a day to examine

the state of the

nation, he would second it." Mr. Pultney did move for it; Sir R.

did second it, and it is fixed for the twenty-first of

January. Sir R. repeated some words of Lord Chesterfield's in

the House of Lords, that this was a time for truth, for plain

truth for English truth, and hinted at the reception (334) his

lordship had met in France. After these speeches of such

consequence, and from such men, Mr. Lyttelton (335) got up to

justify, or rather to flatter Lord Chesterfield, though every

body then had forgot that he had been mentioned. Danvers

(336) who is a rough, rude beast, but now and then mouths out

some humour, said, "that Mr. P. and Sir R. were like two old

bawds, debauching young members."

That day was a day of triumph, but yesterday (Wednesday) the

streamers of victory did not fly so gallantly. It was the day of

receiving petitions; Mr. Pultney presented an immense

piece of parchment, which he said he could but just lift; it was

the Westminster petition, and is to be heard next Tuesday, when

we shall all have our brains knocked out by the mob; so if you

don't hear from me next post, you will conclude my head was a

little out of order. After this we went upon a cornish petition,

presented by Sir William Yonge, (337) which drew on a debate and

a division, when lo! we were but 222 to 215-how do you like a

majority of seven? The Opposition triumphs

highly, and with reason; one or two such victories, as

Pyrrhus, the member for Macedon, said, will be the ruin of us. I

look upon it now, that the question is, Downing Street or the

Tower; will you come and see a body, if one should happen to

lodge at the latter? There are a thousand pretty things to amuse

you; the lions, the Armoury, the crown, and the axe that beheaded

Anna Bullon. I design to make interest for the room where the

two princes were smothered; in long winter evenings, when one

wants company, (for I don't suppose that many people will

frequent me then,) one may sit and scribble verses

against Crouch-back'd Richard, and dirges on the sweet babes. If

I die there, and have my body thrown into a wood, I am too old to

be buried by robin redbreasts, am not I?

Bootle, (338) the prince's chancellor, made a most long and

stupid speech; afterwards, Sir R. called to him, "Brother

Bootle, take care you don't get my old name." "What's that?"

"Blunderer."

You can't conceive how I was pleased with the vast and

deserved applause that Mr. Chute's (339) brother, the lawyer,

got: I never heard a clearer or a finer speech. When I went

home, "Dear Sir," said I to Sir R. "I hope Mr. Chute will

carry his election for Heydon; he would be a great loss to you."

He replied. "We will not lose him." I, who meddle with nothing,

especially elections, and go to no committees,

interest myself extremely for Mr. Chute.

Old Marlborough (340) is dying-but who can tell! last year she

had lain a great while ill, without speaking; her physicians

said, "She must be blistered, or she will die." She called out,

"I won't be blistered, and I won't die." If she takes the same

resolution now, I don't believe she will. (341)

Adieu! my dear child: I have but room to say, yours, ever.

(325) Cardinal Fleury, first minister of France.

(326) George Montague Dunk, second Earl of Halifax, of the last

creation. Under the reign of George III., he became

secretary of state, and was so unfortunate in that capacity as to

be the opponent of Wilkes, on the subject of General

Warrants, by which he is now principally remembered.-D.

(327) Robert, second Lord Raymond, only son of the chief

justice of that name and title.-D.

(328) John Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich, passed through a

long life of office, and left behind him n indifferent

character, both in public and private He was, however, a man of

some ability.-D.

(329) Charles Fitzroy, second Duke of Grafton, and grandson of

Charles II., was a person of considerable weight and influence at

the court of George II., where he long held the post of

chamberlain of the household.

(330) "Honest Will Shippen," as he was called, or ,Downright

Shippen," as Pope terms him, was a zealous Jacobite member of

parliament, possessed of considerable talents, and a vehement

opposer of Sir Robert Walpole's government. He, however, did

justice to that able minister, for he was accustomed to say,

"Robin and I are honest men; but as for those fellows in long

perriwigs" (meaning the Tories of the day,) " they only want to

get into office themselves." He was the author of a

satirical poem, entitled, "Faction Displayed," which possesses

considerable merit.-D. [Shippen was born in 1672, and died in

1743. Sir Robert Walpole repeatedly declared, that he would not

say who was corrupted, but he would say who was not

corruptible-that man was Shippen. His speeches generally

contained some pointed period, which he uttered with great

animation. He usually spoke in a low tone of voice, with too

great rapidity, and held his glove before his mouth.]

(331) Lord Charles Noel Somerset, second son of Henry, second

Duke of Beaufort. He succeeded to the family honours in 1746,

when his elder brother, Henry, the third duke, died without

children.-D. [After the death of Sir William Wyndham, which

happened in 1740, Lord Noel Somerset was considered as the rising

head of the Tory interest. "He was," says Tindal, "a man of

sense, spirit, and activity, unblameable in his morals, but

questionable in his political capacity." He died in 1756.)

(332) Mr. Pulteney declared against dividing; observing, with a

witticism, that "dividing was not the way to multiply."

(333) In speaking of the balance of power, Mr. Pulteney had said,

,He did not know how it was abroad, not being in

secrets, but congratulated the House, that he had not, for these

many years, known it so near an equilibrium as it now was

there."-E.

(334) Lord Chesterfield had been sent by the party, in the

preceding September, to France, to request the Duke of Ormond (at

Avignon,) to obtain the Pretender's order to the

Jacobites, to vote against Sir R. W. upon any question

whatever; many of them having either voted for him, or

retired, on the famous motion the last year for removing him from

the, King's councils. [Lord Chesterfield's biographer, Dr. Maty

states that the object of his lordship's visit to France was the

restoration of his health, which required the assistance of a

warmer climate. The reception he met with during his short stay

at Paris, is thus noticed in a letter from Mr. Pitt, of the 10th

of September:-" I hope you liked the court of France as well as

it liked you. The uncommon distinctions I hear the Cardinal

(Fleury) showed you, are the best proof that, old as he is, his

judgment is as good as

ever. As this great minister has taken so much of his idea, of

the men in power here, from the person of a great

negotiator who has left the stage, (Lord Waldegrave,) I am very

glad he has, had an opportunity, once before he dies, of forming

an idea of those out of power from my Lord

Chesterfield." See Chatham Correspondence, vol. i. p. 3.]

(335) George Lyttelton, afterwards created Lord lyttelton.-D.

(336) Joseph Danvers, Esq. of Swithland, in the county of

Leicester, at this time member for Totness. In 1746 he was

created a baronet. He married Frances, the daughter of thomas

babington, Esq. of Rothley Temple, Leicestershire.-E.

(337) the Right Hon. Sir William Yonge, Bart., secretary at war,

to which office he had succeeded in May, 1735. Walpole, who

tells us (Memoires, i. p. 20,) that " he was vain,

extravagant, and trifling; simple out of the House, and too ready

at assertions in it," adds, "that his vivacity and

parts, whatever the cause was, made him shine, and he was

always content with the lustre that accompanied fame, without

thinking of what was reflected from rewarded fame-a convenient

ambition to ministers, who had few such disinterested

combatants. Sir Robert Walpole always said of him 'that

nothing but Yonge's character could keep down his parts, and

nothing but his parts support his character.'" That these parts

were very great is shown by the fact, that Sir Robert Walpole

often, when he did not care to enter early into the debate

himself, gave Yonge his notes, as the latter came late into the

House, from which be could speak admirably and

fluently, though he had missed the preceding discussion. Sir

William, who had a proneness to poetry, wrote the epilogue to

Johnson's tragedy of "Irene." 'When I published the plan for my

Dictionary," says the Doctor, "Lord'Chesterfield told me that the

word great should be pronounced so as to rhyme to state; and Sir

William Yonge sent me word, that it should be pronounced so as to

rhyme to seat, and that none but an

Irishman would pronounce it great. Now, here were two men of the

highest rank, the one the best speaker in the House of Lords, the

other the best speaker in the House of Commons, differing

entirely." See Boswell's Johnson,vol.iii.p.191.

(338) Sir Thomas Bootle, chancellor to the Prince of Wales; a

dull, heavy man, and who is, therefore, ironically called, by Sir

C. H. Williams, "Bright Bootle,"-D.

(339) Francis Chute, an eminent lawyer, second brother of

Anthony Chute, of the Vine, in Hampshire, had, in concert with

Luke Robinson, another lawyer, disputed Mr. Pultney's borough of

Heydon with him at the general elections and been returned but on

a petition, and the removal of Sir R. W. they were

voted out of their seats, and Mr. Chute died soon after.-E.

(340) Sarah, Dowager Duchess of Marlborough.

(341) Nor did she, Her grace survived the date of this letter

nearly three years. She died on the 18th of October 1744, being

then eighty-four years of age.-E.

197 Letter 46

To Sir Horace Mann.

Wednesday night, eleven o'clock, Dec. 16, 1741.

Remember this day.

Nous voil`a de la Minorit`e! entens-tu cela! h`e! My dear child,

since you will have these ugly words explained, they just mean

that we ar-- metamorphosed into the minority. This was the night

of choosing a chairman of the committee of elections. Gyles

Earle, (342) (as in the two last parliaments) was named by the

Court; Dr. Lee, (343) a civilian, by the Opposition, a man of a

fair character. (344) Earle was formerly a dependent on the Duke

of Argyle,(345) is of remarkable covetousness and wit, which he

has dealt out largely against the Scotch and the Patriots. It

was a day of much expectation, and both sides had raked together

all probabilities: I except near twenty who are in town, but stay

to vote on a second question, when the majority may be decided to

either party. have you not read of such in story?

Men, who would not care to find themselves on the weaker side,

contrary to their intent. In short, the determined sick were

dragged out of their beds; zeal came in a great coat. There were

two vast dinners at two taverns, for either-party; at six we met

in the House. Sir William Yonge, seconded by my uncle Horace,

(346) moved for Mr. Earle: Sir Paul Methuen (347) and Sir Watkyn

Williams (348) proposed Dr. Lee-and carried him, by a majority of

four: 242 against 238-the greatest number, I believe, that ever

lost a question. You have no idea of their huzza! unless you can

conceive how people must triumph after defeats of twenty years

together. We had one vote shut out, by coming a moment too late;

one that quitted us, for having been ill used by the Duke of

Newcastle but yesterday-for which in all probability, he will use

him well to-morrow-I mean, for quitting us. Sir Thomas

Lowther,(349) Lord Hartington's (350) uncle, was fetched down by

him and voted against us. Young Ross,(351) son to a commissioner

of the customs, and saved from the dishonour of not liking to go

to the West Indies when it was his turn, by Sir R.s giving him a

lieutenancy, voted against us; and Tom Hervey,(352) who is always

with us, but is quite mad; and being asked why he left us,

replied, "Jesus knows my thoughts; one day I blaspheme, and pray

the next." so, you see what accidents were against us, or we had

carried our point. They cry, Sir R. miscalculated: how should he

calculate, when there are men like Ross, and fifty others he

could name! It was not very pleasant to be stared in the face to

see how one bore it-you can guess at my bearing it, who interest

myself so little about any thing. I have had a taste of what I

am to meet from all sorts of people. The moment we had lost the

question, I went from the heat of the house into the Speaker's

chamber, and there were some fifteen others of us-an under

door-keeper thought a question was new put, when it was not, and,

withou@ giving us notice, clapped the door to. I asked him how

he dared lock us out without calling us: he replied insolently,

"It was his duty, and he would do it again:" one of

the party went to him, commended him, and told him he should be

punished if he acted otherwise. Sir R. is in great spirits, and

still sanguine. I have so little experience, that I shall not be

amazed at whatever scenes follow. My dear child, we have

triumphed twenty years; is it strange that fortune should at last

forsake us; or ought we not always to expect it, especially in

this kingdom? They talk loudly of the year forty-one, and

promise themselves all the confusions that began a hundred years

ago from the same date. I hope they prognosticate wrong; but

should it be so, I can be happy in other places. One reflection

I shall have, very sweet, though very melancholy; that if our

family is to be the sacrifice that shall first pamper discord, at

least the one,' the part of it that interested all my concerns,

and must have suffered from our ruin, is safe, secure, and above

the rage of confusion: nothing in this world can touch her peace

now!

To-morrow and Friday we go upon the Westminster election-you will

not wonder, shall you, if you hear the next post that we have

lost that too? Good night.

Yours, ever.

(342) Giles Earle, Esq. one of the lords of the treasury and who

had been chairman of the committees of the House of Commons from

1727 to the date of this letter. He had been successively groom

of the bedchamber to the Prince of Wales in 1718, clerk

comptroller of the King"s household in 1720, commissioner of the

Irish revenue in 1728, and a lord of the treasury in 1738. Mr.

Earle was a man of broad coarse wit, and a lively image of his

style and sentiments has been preserved by Sir C. H. Williams, in

his "Dialogue between Giles Earle and Bubb Dodington."-E.

(343) George Lee, brother to the lord-chief justice; he was

appointed one of the lords of the admiralty on the following

change, which post he resigned on the disgrace of his patron,

Lord Granville. He was designed by the Prince of Wales for his

first minister, and, immediately on the prince's death, was

appointed treasurer to the princess dowager, and soon after made

dean of the arches, a knight, and privy counsellor. He died in

1758.

(344) In a letter to Dodington, written from Spa, on the 8th of

September, Lord Chesterfield says:-"I am for acting at the very

beginning of the session. The court generally proposes some

servile and shameless tool of theirs to be chairman of the

committee of privileges. Why should not we, therefore, pick up

some Whig of a fair character, and with personal connexions, to

set up in opposition? I think we should be pretty strong upon

this point."-E.

(345) John, the great Duke of Argyle and Greenwich.-D.

(346) Horace Walpole, younger brother of Sir Robert, created. in

his old age, Lord Walpole of Wolterton. He was commonly called

"Old Horace," to distinguish him from his nephew, the writer of

these letters.-D.

(347) The son of John Methuen, Esq. the diplomatist, and author

of the celebrated Methuen treaty with Portugal. Sir Paul was a

knight of the Bath, and died in 1757.-D.

(348) Sir Watkyn Williams Wynn, Bart. the third baronet of the

family, was long one of the leaders in the House of Commons.-D.

(349) Sir Thomas Lowther, Bart. of Holker, in Lancashire. He

had married Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter of the second Duke

of Devonshire.-D.

(350) Afterwards the fourth Duke of Devonshire.

(351) Charles Ross, killed in flannders, at the battle of

Fontenoy, 1745.

(352) Thomas Hervey, second son of John, first Earl of Bristol,

'and Surveyor of the royal gardens. He was at this time writing

his famous letter to Sir Thomas Hanmer. [With whose wife he had

eloped. In the letter alluded to, he expresses his conviction

that his conduct was natural and delicate, and that, finally, in

heaven, Lady Hanmer, in the distribution of wives, would be

considered to be his. Dr. Johnson (to whom he had left a legacy

of fifty pounds, but -,afterwards gave it him in his life-time)

characterises him as "very vicious." " Alas!" observes Mr.

Croker, "it is but too probable that he was disordered in mind,

and that what was called vice was. in truth, disease, and

required a madhouse rather than a prison." He died in 1775. See

Boswell's Johnson, Vol. iii. P. 18, ed. 1835.)

(353) His mother, Catherine Lady Walpole, who died August 20,

1737.

199 Letter 47

To Sir Horace Mann.

Thursday, six o'clock. [Dec. 17, 1741.

You will hardly divine where I am writing to you-in the

Speaker's chamber. The House is examining witnesses on the

Westminster election, which will not be determined to-day; I am

not in haste it should, for I believe we shall lose it. A great

fat fellow, a constable, on their side, has just

deposed, that Lord Sundon,(355) and the high constable, took him

by the collar at the election, and threw him down stairs. Do you

know the figure of Lord Sundon? If you do, only think of that

little old creature throwing any man down stairs!

As I was coming down this morning, your brother brought me a long

letter from you, in answer to mine of the 12th of

November. You try to make me mistrust the designs of Spain

against Tuscany, but I will hope yet: hopes are all I have for

any thing I know!

As to the young man, I will see his mother the first moment I

can; and by next post, hope to give you a definite answer,

whether he will submit to be a servant or not; in every other

respect, I am sure he will please you.

Your friend, Mr. Fane,(356) would not come for us last night, nor

will vote till after the Westminster election: be is

brought into parliament by the Duke of Bedford,(357) and is

unwilling to disoblige him in this. We flattered ourselves with

better success; for last Friday, after sitting till two in the

morning we carried a Cornish election in four

divisions-the first by a majority of six, then of twelve, then of

fourteen, and lastly by thirty-six. You can't imagine the zeal

of the young men on both sides: Lord Fitzwilliam, Lord

Hartington, and my friend Coke (358) on ours, are warm as

possible; Lord Quarendon (359) and Sir Francis Dashwood (360) are

as violent on theirs: the former speaks often and well. But I am

talking to you of nothing but parliament; why,

really, all one's ideas are stuffed with it, and you yourself

will not dislike to hear things so material. The Opposition who

invent every method of killing Sir R., intend to make us sit on

Saturdays; but how mean and dirty is it, how

scandalous! when they can't ruin him by the least plausible

means, to murder him by denying him air and exercise.(361)

There was a strange affair happened on Saturday; it was

strange, yet very English. One Nourse, an old gamester, said, in

the coffee-house, that Mr. Shuttleworth, a member, only pretended

to be ill. This was told to Lord Windsor,(362) his friend, who

quarrelled with Nourse, and the latter challenged him. My lord

replied, he would not fight him, he was too old. The other

replied, he was not too old to fight with pistols. Lord Windsor

still refused: Nourse, in a rage, went home and cut his own

throat. This was one of the odd ways in which men are made.

I have scarce seen Lady Pomfret lately, but I am sure Lord

Lincoln is not going to marry her daughter. I am not

surprised at her sister being shy of receiving civilities from

you-that was English too!

Say a great deal for me to the Chutes. How I envy your snug

suppers! I never have such suppers! Trust me, if we fall, all the

grandeur, all the envied grandeur of our house, will not cost me

a sigh: it has given me no pleasure while we have it, and will

give me no pain when I part with it. My liberty, my ease, and

choice of my own friends and company, will

sufficiently counterbalance the crowds of Downing-street. I am so

sick of it all, that if we are victorious or not, I propose

leaving England in the spring,. Adieu!

Yours, ever and ever.

(355) William clayton, Lord Sundon, in Ireland, so created in

1735. His wife was a favourite of Queen Caroline, to whom she

was mistress of the robes.

(356) Charles Fane, Only son of Lord Viscount Fane, whom he

succeeded, had been minister at Florence.

(357) John Russell, fourth Duke of Bedford.-D.

(358) Edward, Lord Viscount Coke, only son of the Earl of

Leicester. He died in 1753.

(359) George Henry Lee, Lord Viscount Quarendon, eldest son of

the Earl of Lichfield, whom he succeeded in that title.

(360) Sir Francis Dashwood, Bart., afterwards Lord Le

Despencer. Under the administration of Lord Bute he was, for a

short time, chancellor of the exchequer.-D.

(361) Sir Robert always went every Saturday to Newpark,

Richmond, to hunt. (From his early youth, Sir Robert was fond of

the diversions of the field. He was accustomed to hunt in

Richmond Park with a pack of beagles. On receiving a packet of

letters, he usually opened that from his gamekeeper first.]

(362) Herbert Windsor Hickman, second Viscount Windsor in

Ireland, and Baron Montjoy of the Isle of Wight. [His lordship

died in 1758, when all his honours, in default of male issue,

became extinct.]

201 Letter 48

To Sir Horace Mann.

Christmas eve, 1741.

My dearest child, if I had not heard regularly from you, what a

shock it would have given me! The other night at the opera, Mr.

Worseley, with his peevish face, half smiling through

ill-nature, told me (only mind!) by way of news, "that he

heard Mr. Mann was dead at Florence!"' How kind! To entertain one

with the chitchat of the town, a man comes and tells one that

one's dearest friend is dead! I am sure he would have lost his

speech if he had had any thing pleasurable to tell. If ever

there is a metempsychosis, his soul will pass into a vulture and

prey upon carcases after a battle, and then go and bode at the

windows of their relations. But I will say no more of him; I

will punish him sufficiently, if sufficiently there be, by

telling him you are perfectly well: you are, are you not? Send me

certificate signed by Dr. Cocchi,(363) and I will choke him with

it: another's health must be venomous to him.

Sir Francis Dashwood too,-as you know all ill-natured people hear

all ill news,-told me he heard you was ill: I vowed you was grown

as strong as the Farnese Hercules. Then he desires you will send

him four of the Volterra urns, of the

chimney-piece size; send them with any of my things; do, or he

will think I neglected it because he is our enemy; and I would

not be peevish, not to be like them. He is one of the most

inveterate; they list under Sandys,(364) a parcel of them with no

more brains than their general; but being malicious they pass for

ingenious, as in these countries fogs are reckoned warm weather.

Did you ever hear what Earle said of Sandys? "that he never

laughed but once, and that was when his best friend broke his

thigh."

Last Thursday I wrote you word of our losing the chairman of the

committee. This winter is to be all ups and downs. The next day

(Friday) we had a most complete victory. Mr. Pultney moved for

all papers and letters, etc. between the King and the Queen of

Hungary and their ministers. Sir R. agreed to give them all the

papers relative to those transactions, only desiring to except

the letters written by the two sovereigns themselves. They

divided, and we carried it, 237 against 227. They moved to have

those relations to France, Prussia, and Holland. Sir R. begged

they would defer asking for those of Prussia till the end of

January, at which time a negotiation would be at an end with that

King, which now he might break off, if he knew it was to be made

public. Mr. Pultney

persisted; but his obstinacy, which might be so prejudicial to

the public, revolted even his own partisans, and seven of them

spoke against him. We carried that question by

twenty-four; and another by twenty-one, against sitting on the

next day (Saturday). Monday and Tuesday we went on the

Westminster election. Murray (365) spoke divinely; he Was their

counsel. Lloyd (366) answered him extremely well: but on summing

up the evidence on both sides, and in his reply, Murray was in

short, beyond what was ever heard at the

bar.That day (Tuesday) we went on the merits of the cause, and at

ten at night divided, and lost it. They had 220, we 216; so that

the election was declared void. You see four is a fortunate

number to them. We had forty-one more members in town, who would

not, or could not come down. The time. is a touchstone for

wavering consciences. All the arts, money, promises, threats,,

all the arts of the. former year 41, are applied; and

self-interest, in the shape of Scotch

members-nay, and of English ones, operates to the aid of their

party, and to the defeat of ours. Lord Doneraile,(367) a

young Irishman, brought in by the court, was petitioned

against, though his competitor had but one vote. This young man

spoke as well as ever any one spoke in his own defence insisted

on the petition being heard, and concluded with

declaring, that, "his cause was his Defence, and Impartiality

must be his support." Do you know that, after this, he went and

engaged if they would withdraw the petition, to vote with them in

the Westminster affair! His friends reproached him so strongly

with his meanness, that he was shocked, and went to Mr. Pultney

to get off; Mr. P. told him he had given him his honour, and he

would not release him, though Lord Doneraile declared it was

against his conscience: but he voted with

them, and lost us the next question which they put (for

censuring the High Bailiff) by his single vote; for in that the

numbers were 217 against 215: the alteration of his vote would

have made it even; and then the Speaker, I suppose,

would have chosen the merciful side, and decided for us.

After this, Mr. Pultney, with an affected humanity, agreed to

commit the High Bailiff only to the serjeant-at-arms. Then, by a

majority of six, they voted that the soldiers, who had been sent

for after the poll was closed, to save Lord Sundon's (368) life,

had come in a military and illegal manner, and influenced the

election. In short, they determined, as Mr. Murray had dictated

to them, that no civil magistrate, on any pretence whatsoever,

though he may not be able to suppress even a riot by the

assistance of the militia and constables, may call in the aid of

the army. Is not this doing the work of the Jacobites? have

they any other view than to render the riot act useless? and then

they may rise for the Pretender whenever they please. Then they

moved to punish Justice

Blackerby for calling in the soldiers; and when it was desired

that he might be heard in his own defence, they said he had

already confessed his crime. Do but think on it! without

being accused, without knowing, or being told it was a crime, a

man gives evidence in another cause, not his own, and then they

call it his-own accusation of himself, and would condemn him for

it. You see what justice we may expect if they

actually get the majority. But this was too strong a pill for

one of their own leaders to swallow: Sir John Barnard(369 did

propose and persuade them to give him a day to be heard. In

short we sat till half an hour after four in the morning; the

longest day that ever was known. I say nothing of myself, for I

could but just speak when I came away; but Sir Robert was as well

as ever, and spoke with as much spirit as ever, at four o'clock.

This way they will not kill him; I Will not answer for any other.

As he came out, Whitehead,(370) the author of Manners, and agent

with one Carey, a surgeon, for the

Opposition, said "D-n him, how well he looks!" Immediately after

their success, Lord Gage (371) went forth, and begged there might

be no mobbing; but last night we had bonfires all over the town,

and I suppose shall have notable mobbing at the new election;

though I do not believe there will be any

opposition to their Mr. Edwin and Lord Perceval.(372) Thank God!

we are now adjourned for three weeks. I shall go to

Swallowfield (373) for a few days: so for one week you will miss

hearing from me. We have escaped the Prince'S (374)

affair hitherto, but we shall have it after the holidays. All

depends upon the practices of both sides in securing or

getting new votes during the recess. Sir Robert is very

sanguine: I hope, for his sake and for his honour, and for the

nation's peace, that he will get the better: but the moment he

has the majority secure, I shall be very earnest with him to

resign. He has a constitution to last some years, and enjoy some

repose; and for my own part (and both my brothers agree with me

in it), we wish most heartily to see an end of his ministry. If

I can judge of them by myself, those who want to be in our

situation, do not wish to see it brought about more than we do.

It is fatiguing to bear so much envy and ill-will

undeservedly.-Otium Divos rogo; but adieu, politics, for three

weeks!

The Duchess of Buckingham, (375) who is more mad with pride than

any merchant's wife in Bedlam, came the other night to the opera

en princesse, literally in robes, red velvet and ermine. I must

tell you a story of her: last week she sent for Cori,(376) to pay

him for her opera-ticket; he was not at

home, but went in an hour afterwards. She said, "Did he treat

her like a tradeswoman? She would teach him to respect women of

her birth; said he was in league with Mr. Sheffield (377) to

abuse her, and bade him come the next morning at nine." He came,

and she made him wait till eight at night, only sending him an

omlet and a bottle of wine, "as it was Friday, and he a Catholic,

she supposed he did not eat meat." At last she

received him in all the form of a princess giving audience to an

ambassador. "Now," she said, "she had punished him."

In this age we have some who pretend to impartiality: you will

scarce guess how Lord Brook (378) shows his: he gives one vote on

one side, one on the other, and the third time does not vote at

all, and so on, regularly.

My sister is ,up to the elbows in joy and flowers that she has

received from you this morning and begs I will thank you for her.

You know, or have heard of, Mrs. Nugent, Newsham's mother; she

went the other morning to Lord Chesterfield to beg "he would

encourage Mr. Nugent (379) to speak in the house; for that really

he was so bashful, she was afraid his abilities would be lost on

the world." I don't know who has encouraged him; but so it is,

that this modest Irish converted Catholic does talk a prodigious

deal of nonsense in behalf of English

liberty.

Lord Gage (380) is another; no man would trust him in a wager,

unless he stakes, and yet he is trusted by a whole borough with

their privileges and liberties! He told Mr. Winnington the other

day, that he would bring his son into parliament, that he would

not influence him, but leave him entirely to himself. "D-n it,"

said Winnington, "so you have all his

lifetime."

Your brother says you accuse him of not writing to you, and that

his reasons are, he has not time, and next, that I tell you all

that can be said. So I do, I think: tell me when I begin to tire

you, or if I am too circumstantial; but I don't believe you will

think so, for I remember how we used to want such a correspondent

when I was with you.

I have spoke about the young man who is well content to live with

you as a servant out of livery. I am to settle the

affair finally with his father on Monday, and then he shall set

out as soon as possible. I will send the things for

Prince Craon etc. by him. I will write to Madame Grifoni the

moment I hear she is returned from the country.

The Princess Hesse (381) is brought to bed of a son. We are

going into mourning for the Queen of Sweden;(382) she had

always been apprehensive of the small-pox, which has been very

fatal in her family.

You have heard, I suppose, of the new revolution (383) in

Muscovy. The letters from Holland to-day say, that they have put

to death the young Czar and his mother, and his father too:

which, if true,(384) is going very far, for he was of a sovereign

house in another country, no subject of Russia, and after the

death of his wife and son, could have no pretence or interest to

raise more commotions there.

We have got a new opera, not so good as the former; and we have

got the famous Bettina to dance, but she is a most

indifferent performer. The house is excessively full every

Saturday, never on Tuesday: here, you know, we make every

thing a fashion.

I am happy that my fears for Tuscany vanish every letter. There!

there is a letter of twelve sides! I am forced to page it, it is

SO long, and I have not time to read it over and look for the

mistakes.

Yours, ever.

(363) Antonio Cocchi, a learned physician and author, at

Florence; a particular friend of Mr. Mann. [The following

favourable character of Dr. Cocchi is contained in a letter from

the Earl of Cork to Mr. Duncombe, dated Florence,

November 29, 1754. "Mr Mann's fortunate in the friendship, skill,

and care of his physician, Dr. Cocchi. He is a man of most

extensive learning; understands, reads, and speaks all the

European languages; studious, polite, modest, humane, and

instructive. He is always to be admired and beloved by all who

know him. Could I live with these two gentlemen only, and

converse with few or none others, I should scarce desire to

return to England for many years."]

(364) Samuel Sandys, a republican, raised on the fall of Sir

R.'W. to be chancellor of the exchequer, then degraded to a peer

and cofferer, and soon afterwards laid aside. [In 1743, he was

raised to the peerage by the title of Lord Sandys,

Baron of Omberley in the county of Worcester, and died in

1770. Dr. Nash, in his history of that county, states him to

have been "a very useful, diligent senator-a warm, steady

friend-a good neighbor, and a most hospitable country

gentleman and provincial magistrate."]

(365) William Murray, brother of Lord- Stormont, and of Lord

Dunbar, the Pretender's first minister. He is known by his

eloquence and the friendship of Mr. Pope. He was soon

afterwards promoted to be solicitor-general. (Afterwards the

celebrated chief-justice of the King's Bench, and Earl of

Man's'field.-D.)

(366) Sir Richard Lloyd, advanced in 1754 to be

solicitor-general, in the room of Mr. Murray, appointed

attorney-general. [And in 1759, appointed one of the Barons of

the exchequer.]

(367) Arthur St. Leger, Lord Doneraile, died in 1750, being lord

of the bedchamber to the Prince of Wales.

(368) Lord Sundon and Sir Charles Wager had been the Court

candidates for Westminster at the late election against

Admiral Vernon and Charles Edwin, Esq.-D.

(369) A great London merchant, and one of the members for the

City. His reputation for integrity and ability gave him much

weight in the House of Commons.-D. (Lord Chatham, when mr. Pitt,

frequently calls him the Great Commoner. In 1749, he became

father of the City; when, much against his will, the merchants

erected a statue of him in the Royal Exchange. He died in 1764.]

(370) Paul Whitehead, an infamous but not despicable poet. [See

ante, p. 190, Letter 42.]

(371) Thomas Lord Viscount Gage had been a Roman Catholic, and

was master of the household to the Prince. [Lord Gage, in

1721, was elected for the borough of Tewksbury; which he

represented till within a few months of his death, in 1754. He

was a zealous politician, and distinguished himself, in 1732, by

detecting the fraudulent sale of the Derwentwater estates.]

(372) John Perceval, second Earl of Egmont, in Ireland,

created, in 176@, Lord Lovel and Rolland in the peerage of Great

Britain. He became, in 1747, a lord of the bedchamber to

Frederick Prince of Wales, and in the early part of the reign of

George III. held successively the offices of

postmaster-general and first lord of the admiralty. He was a man

of some ability and a frequent and fluent speaker, and was the

author of a celebrated party pamphlet of' the day,

entitled "Faction Detected." His excessive love of ancestry led

him, in Conjunction with his father, and assisted by

Anderson, the genealogist, to print two thick octavo volumes

respecting his family, entitled "History of the House of

Ivery;" a most remarkable monument of human vanity.-D.

[Boswell was not of this opinion. "Some have affected to

laugh," he says, "at the History of the House of Ivery: it would

be well if many others would transmit their pedigrees to

posterity, with the same accuracy and generous zeal with which

the noble lord who compiled that work has honoured and

perpetuated his ancestry. Family histories, like the imagines

majorum of the ancients, excite to virtue." See "Life of

Johnson," vol viii. p. 188.]

(373) Swallowfield, in Berkshire, the seat of John Dodd, Esq.

(374) A scheme for obtaining a larger allowance for the Prince of

Wales.

(375) Catherine, Duchess Dowager of Buckingham, natural

daughter of King James II. (Supposed to be really the

daughter of Colonel Graham, a man of Gallantry of the time, and a

lover of her mother, Lady Dorchester.-D.) [This

remarkable woman was extravagantly proud of her descent from

James the Second, and affected to be the head of the Jacobite

party in England. She maintained a kind of royal state, and

affected great devotion to the memory of her father and

grandfather. On the death of her son, the second Duke of

Buckingham of the Sheffield family (whose funeral was

celebrated in a most extraordinary manner), she applied to the

old Duchess of Marlborough, who was as high spirited as

herself, for the loan of the richly-ornamented hearse which had

conveyed the great duke to his grave. "Tell her," said Sarah, "it

carried the Duke of Marlborough, and shall never carry any one

else." "My upholsterer," rejoined Catherine of Buckingham in a

fury, "tells me I can have a finer for twenty pounds."-" This

last stroke," says the editor of the Suffolk Correspondence, "

was aimed at the parsimony of their Graces of Marlborough, which

was supposed to have been visible even in the funeral; but the

sarcasm was as unjust as the original request of borrowing the

hearse was mean and unfeeling."-E.]

(376) Angelo Maria Cori, prompter to the Opera.

(377) Mr. Sheffield, natural son of the late Duke of

Buckingham, with whom she was at law.

(378) Francis, Baron, and afterwards created Earl Brooke.

(379) Robert Nugent, a poet, a patriot, an author, a lord of the

treasury, (and finally an Irish peer by the titles of Lord Clare

and Earl Nugent. He seems to have passed his long life in

seeking lucrative places and courting rich widows, in both of

which pursuits be was eminently successful.-D.) [He married the

sister and heiress of Secretary Craggs, and his only

daughter married the first Marquis of Buckingham. A volume of

his ,Odes and Epistles" were published anonymously in 1733. He

died in 1788.)

(380) Lord Gage was one of those persons to whom the

privileges of parliament were of extreme consequence, as their

own liberties were inseparable from them.

(381) Mary, fourth daughter of King George II.

(382) Ulrica, Queen of Sweden, sister of Charles XII.

(383) This relates to the revolution by which the young Czar John

was deposed, and the Princess Elizabeth raised to the throne.

(384) This was not true. The Princess Anne of Mecklenburgh died

in prison at Riga, a few years afterwards. Her son, the young

Czar, and her husband, Prince Antony of Brunswick

Wolfenbuttle, were confined for many years.

206 Letter 49

To Sir Horace Mann.

London, Dec. 29, 1741.

I write to YOU two days before the post goes out, because

to-morrow I am to go out of town; but I would answer your

letter by way of Holland, to tell you how much you have

obliged both Sir Robert and me about the Dominichini;(385) and to

beg you to thank Mr. Chute and Mr. Whithed-but I cannot leave it

to you.

"My dear Mr. Chute, was ever any thing so kind! I crossed the

Giogo (386) with Mr. Coke,(387) but it was in August, and I

thought it then the greatest compliment that ever was paid to

mortal; and I went with him too! but you to go only for a

picture, and in the month of December: What can I say to you? You

do more to oblige your friend, than I can find terms to thank you

for. If I was to tell-it here, it would be believed as little as

the rape of poor Tory (388) by a wolf. I can only say that I

know the Giogo, its snows and its inns, and consequently know the

extent of the obligation that I have to you and Mr. Whithed."

Now I return to you, my dear child: I am really so much

obliged to you and to them, that I know not what to say. I read

Pennee's letter to Sir. R., who was much pleased with his

discretion; he will be quite a favourite of mine. And now we are

longing for the picture; you know, of old, my

impatience.

Your young secretary-servant is looking out for a ship, and will

set out in the first that goes: I envy him.

The Court has been trying but can get nobody to stand for

Westminster. You know Mr. Doddington has lost himself

extremely by his new turn, after so often changing sides: he is

grown very fat and lethargic; my brother Ned says, "he is grown

of less consequence, but more weight."(389)

One hears of nothing but follies said by the Opposition, who grow

mad on having the least prospect. Lady Carteret,(390) who, you

know, did not want any new fuel to her absurdity, says, "they

talk every day of making her lord first minister, but he is not

so easily persuaded as they think for." Good night.

Yours, ever.

(385) A celebrated picture of a Madonna and Child by

Dominichino, in the palace Zembeccari, at Bologna, now in the

collection of the Earl of Orford, at Houghton, in Norfolk.

(Since sent to Russia with the rest of the collection.-D.)

(386) The Giogo is the highest part of the Apennine between

Florence and Bologna.

(387) Son of Lord Lovel, since Earl of Leicester. [In 1744, Lord

Lovel was created Viscount Coke of Holkham and Earl of Leicester.

His only son Edward died before him, in 1753,

without issue; having married Lady Mary, one of the co-heirs of

John Duke of Argyle and Greenwich.]

(388) A black spaniel of Mr. Walpole's was seized by a wolf on

the Alps, as it was running at the head of the chaise-horses, at

noonday. [See ante, p. 139 letter 14.]

(389) George Bubb Dodington had lately resigned his post of one

of the lords of the treasury, and gone again into

opposition. [In Walpole's copy of the celebrated Diary of this

versatile politician, he had written a "Brief account of George

Bubb Doddington, Lord Melcombe," which the noble editor of the

"Memoires" has inserted. It describes him, "as his Diary shows,

vain, fickle, ambitious, and corrupt,' and very lethargic; but

gives him credit for great wit and readiness." Cumberland, in

his Memoirs, thus paints him:-"Dodington,

lolling in his chair, in perfect apathy and self-command,

dozing, and even snoring, at intervals, in his lethargic way,

broke out every now and then into gleams and flashes of wit and

humour." In 1761, he was created Lord Melcombe, and died in the

following year.]

(390) Frances, daughter of Sir Robert Worseley, and first wife of

John Lord Carteret, afterwards Earl of Granville.

207 Letter 50

To Sir Horace Mann.

London, Jan. 7, 1741-2, O. S.

I must answer for your brother a paragraph that he showed me in

one of your letters: "Mr. W.'s letters are full of wit; don't

they adore him in England?" Not at all-and I don't

wonder at them: for if I have any wit in my letters, which I do

not at all take for granted, it is ten to one that I have none

out of my letters. A thousand people can write, that cannot

talk; and besides, you know, (or I conclude so, from the little

one hears stirring,) that numbers of the English have wit, who

don't care to produce it. Then, as to adoring; YOU now See Only

my letters, and you may be sure I take care not to write you word

of any of my bad qualities, which other people must see in the

gross; and that may be a great

hindrance to their adoration. Oh! there are a thousand other

reasons I could give you, why I am not the least in fashion. I

came over in an ill season: it is a million to one that

nobody thinks a declining old minister's son has wit. At any

time, men in opposition have always most; but now, it would be

absurd for a courtier to have even common sense. There is not a

Mr. Stuart, or a Mr. Stewart, whose names begin but with the

first letters of Stanhope,(391) that has not a better chance than

I, for being liked. I can assure you, even those of the same

party would be fools, not to pretend to think me one. Sir Robert

has showed no partiality for me;(392) and do you think they would

commend where he does not? even supposing they had no envy,

which by the way, I am far from saying they have not. Then. my

dear child, I am the coolest man of my party, and if I am ever

warm, it is by contagion; and where violence passes for parts,

what will indifference be called? But how could you think of such

a question '! I don't want money, consequently Do old women pay

me for my wit; I have a very flimsy constitution, consequently

the young women won't taste my wit, and it is a long while before

wit makes its own way in the world; especially, as I never prove

it, by assuring people that I have it by me. Indeed, if I were

disposed to brag, I could quote two or three half-pay officers,

and an old aunt or two, who laugh prodigiously at every thing I

say; but till they are allowed judges, I will not brag of such

authorities.

If you have a mind to know who is adored and has wit, there is

old Churchill has as much God-d-n-ye wit as ever-except that he

has lost two teeth. There are half a dozen Scotchmen who vote

against the Court, and are cried up by the Opposition for wit, to

keep them steady. They are forced to cry up their parts, for it

would be too barefaced to commend their honesty. Then Mr. Nugent

has had a great deal of wit till within this week; but he is so

busy and so witty, that even his own party grow tired of him.

His plump wife, who talks of nothing else, says he entertained

her all the way on the road with repeating his speeches.

I did not go into the country, last week, as I intended, the

weather was so bad; but I shall go on Sunday for three or four

days, and perhaps shall not be able to write to you that week.

You are in an agitation, I suppose, about politics: both sides

are trafficking deeply for votes during the holidays. It is

allowed, I think, that we shall have a majority of twenty-six:

Sir R. says more; but now, upon a pinch, he brags like any

bridegroom.

The Westminster election passed without any disturbance, in

favour of Lord Perceive-all (394) and Mr. Perceive-nothing, as my

uncle calls them. Lord Chesterfield was vaunting to Lord Lovel,

that they should have carried it, if they had set up two

broomsticks. "So I see," replied Lovel. But it seems we have not

done with it yet: if we get the majority, this will be declared a

void election too, for my Lord Chancellor (395) has found out,

that the person who made the return, had no right to make it: it

was the High Bailiff's clerk, the High Bailiff himself being in

custody of the sergeant-at-arms. it makes a great noise, and

they talk of making subscriptions for a Petition.

Lord Stafford (396) is come over. He told me some good

stories of the Primate.(397)

Last night I had a good deal of company to hear Monticelli and

Amorevoli, particularly the three beauty-Fitzroys, Lady

Euston, Lady Conway, and Lady Caroline.(398) Sir R. liked the

singers extremely: he had not heard them before, I forgot to tell

you all our beauties there was Miss Hervey,(399) my

lord's daughter, a fine, black girl, but as masculine as her

father should be;(400) and jenny Conway, handsomer Still,(401)

though changed with illness, than even the Fitzroys. I made the

music for my Lord Hervey, who is too ill to go to operas: yet,

with a coffin-face, is as full of his little dirty

politics as ever. He will not be well enough to go to the House

till the majority is certain somewhere, but lives shut up with my

Lord Chesterfield and Mr. Pultney-a triumvirate, who hate one

another more than any body they could proscribe, had they the

power. I dropped in at my Lord Hervey's, the other night,

knowing my lady had company: it was soon after our defeats. My

lord, who has always professed particularly to me, turned his

back on me, and retired for an hour into a

whisper with young Hammond,(402) at the end of the room. Not

being at all amazed at one whose heart I knew so well, I

stayed on, to see more of this behaviour; indeed, to rise

myself to it. At last he came up to me, and begged this

music. which I gave him, and would often again, to see how many

times I shall be ill and well with him within this month.

Yesterday came news that his brother, Captain William Hervey, has

taken a Caracca ship, worth full two hundred thousand

pounds. He was afterwards separated from it by a storm, for two

or three days, and was afraid of losing it, having but

five-and-twenty men to thirty-six Spaniards; but he has

brought it home safe. I forgot to tell you, that upon losing the

first question, Lord Hervey kept away for a week; on our carrying

the next great one, he wrote to Sir Robert, how much he desired

to see him, "not upon any business, but Lord Hervey longs to see

Sir Robert Walpole."

Lady Sundon(402) is dead, and Lady M- disappointed: she, who is

full as politic as my Lord Hervey, had made herself an

absolute servant to Lady Sundon, but I don't hear that she has

left her even her old clothes. Lord Sundon is in great grief: I

am surprised, for she has had fits of madness ever since her

ambition met such a check by the death of the Queen.(404) She

had great power with her, though the Queen pretended to

despise her; but had unluckily told her, or fallen into her power

by some secret.(405) I was saying to Lady Pomfret, to be sure

she is dead very rich!" She replied, with some warmth, She never

took money." When I came home, I mentioned this to Sir R. "No,"

said he, "but she took jewels; Lord Pomfret's place of master of

the horse to the Queen was bought of her for a pair of diamond

earrings, of fourteen hundred pounds value." One day that she

wore them at a visit at old

Marlboro's, as soon as she was gone, the Duchess said to Lady

Mary Wortley,(406) "How can that woman have the impudence to go

about in that bribe?"-,, Madam," said Lady Mary, "how would you

have people know where wine is to be sold, unless there is a sign

hung out!" Sir R. told me, that in the enthusiasm of her vanity,

Lady Sundon had proposed to him to unite with her, and govern the

kingdom together: he bowed, begged her

patronage, but said he thought nobody fit to govern the

kingdom, but the King and Queen.-Another day.

Friday morning. I was forced to leave off last night, as I found

it would be impossible to send away this letter finished in any

time. It will be enormously long, but I have prepared you for

it. When I consider the beginning of my letter, it looks as if I

were entirely of your opinion about the

agreeableness of them. I believe you will never commend them

again, when you see how they increase upon your hands. I have

seen letters of two or three sheets, written from merchants at

Bengal and Canton to their wives: but then they contain the

history of a twelvemonth: I grow voluminous from week to week. I

can plead in excuse nothing but the true reason; you desired it;

and I remember how I used to wish for such letters, when I was in

Italy. My Lady Pomfret carries this humanity still farther, and

because people were civil to her in Italy, she makes it a rule to

visit all strangers in general. She has been to visit a Spanish

Count (407) and his wife, though she cannot open her lips in

their language. They fled from Spain, he and his brother having

offended the Queen, (408) by their attachments to the Prince of

Asturias; his brother ventured back to bring off this woman, who

was engaged to him. Lord Harrington (409) has procured them a

pension of six hundred a-year. They live chiefly with Lord

Carteret and his

daughter,(410) who speak Spanish. But to proceed from where I

left off last night, like the Princess Dinarzade in the

Arabian Nights, for you will want to know what happened one day.

Sir Robert was at dinner with Lady Sundon, who hated the Bishop

of London, as much as she loved the Church. "Well," said she to

Sir R., "how does your pope do!"-"Madam," replied he, "he is my

pope, and shall be my Pope; every body has some pope or other;

don't you know that you are one! They call you Pope Joan." She

flew into a passion, and desired he would not fix any names on

her; that they were not so easily got rid of.

We had a little ball the other night at Mrs. Boothby's, and by

dancing, did not perceive an earthquake, which frightened all

the undancing part of the town.

We had a civility from his Royal Highness,(411) who sent for

Monticelli the night he was engaged here, but, on hearing it,

said he would send for him some other night. If I did not live

so near St. James's, I would find out some politics in

this-should not one?

Sir William Stanhope (412) has had a hint from the same

Highness, that his company is not quite agreeable: whenever he

met any body at Carlton House whom he did not know, he said,

"Your humble servant, Mr. or Mrs. Hamilton."

I have this morning sent aboard the St. Quintin a box for you,

with your secretary-not in it.

Old Weston of Exeter is dead. Dr. Clarke, the Dean, Dr.

Willes, the decipherer, and Dr. Gilbert of Llandaff, are

candidates to succeed him.(413) Sir R. is for Willes, who, he

says, knows so many secrets, that he might insist upon being

archbishop.

My dear Mr. Chute! how concerned I am that he took all that

trouble to no purpose. I will not write to him this post, for as

you show him my letters, this here will sufficiently employ any

one's patience-but I have done. I long to hear that the

Dominichini is safe. Good night.

Yours, ever.

(391) The name of Lord Chesterfield.

(392) On the subject of Sir Robert's alleged want of

partiality for his son, the following passage occurs in the

anecdotes prefixed to Lord Wharncliffe's edition of the works of

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu:-"Those ironical lines, where Pope says

that Sir Robert Had never made a friend in private life, And was,

besides, a tyrant to his wife,' are well

understood, as conveying a sly allusion to his good-humoured

unconcern about some things which more strait-laced husbands do

not take so coolly. In a word, Horace Walpole was

generally supposed to be the son of Carr Lord Hervey, and Sir

Robert not to be ignorant of it. One striking circumstance was

visible to the naked eye; no beings in human shape could resemble

each other less than the two passing for father and son; and

while their reverse of personal likeness provoked a malicious

whisper, Sir Robert's marked neglect of Horace in his infancy

tended to confirm it. Sir Robert took scarcely any notice of him

till his proficiency in Eton school, when a lad of some standing,

drew his attention, and proved that, whether he had or had not a

right to the name he went by, he was likely to do it Honour."

Vol. i. 1). 33.-E.

(393) General Charles Churchill. (Whose character has been so

inimitably sketched, at about the same period when this letter

was written, by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, in his poem of',

Isabella, or the Morning:"-

"The General, one of those brave old commanders,

Who served through all our glorious wars in Flanders.

Frank and good-natur'd, of an honest heart,

Loving to act the steady friendly part;

None led through youth a gayer life than he,

Cheerful in converse, smart in repartee;

But with old age, its Vices Come along,

And in narration he's extremely long;

Exact in circumstance, and nice in dates,

He each minute particular relates.

If you name one of marlbro's ten campaigns,

He gives you its whole history for your pains,

And Blenheim's field becomes by his reciting,

As long in telling as it was in fighting.

His old desire to please is still express'd,

His hat's well cock'd, his periwig's well dress'd.

He rolls his stockings still, white gloves he wears,

And in the boxes with the beaux appears.

His eyes through wrinkled corners cast their rays,

Still he looks cheerful, still soft things he says,

And still remembering that he once was young,

He strains his crippled knees, and struts along."-D.)

(394) Vide an account of the erection of Lord Perceval and one

Edwin, in that Lord's History of the House of Ivery.

(395) Philip Yorke, Lord, and afterwards Earl of Hardwicke, for

twenty years Lord Chancellor of England.-D.

(396) William mathias Howard, Earl of Stafford.

(397) The Primate of Lorrain, eldest son of Prince Craon, was

famous for his wit and vices of all kinds.

(398) Lady Dorothy Boyle, eldest daughter of Lord Burlington;

Isabella, wife of Francis Lord Conway, and Caroline,

afterwards married to Lord Petersham, were the daughter-in-law

and daughters of Charles Fitzroy, Duke of grafton, lord

chamberlain.

(399) Lepel, eldest daughter of John Lord Hervey, afterwards

married to Mr. Phipps. (Constantine Phipps, in 1767 created Lord

Mulgrave.]

(400) The effeminacy of Lord Hervey formed a continual subject

for the satire of his opponents. Pope's bitter lines on him- are

well remembered. The old Duchess of Marlborough, too, in her

"Opinions," describes him as having "certainly parts and wit; but

he is the most wretched profligate man that ever was born,

besides ridiculous; a painted face, and not a tooth in his head."

on which the editor of that curious little book, Lord Hailes,

remarks, "Lord Hervey, having felt some attacks of the epilepsy,

entered upon and persisted in a very strict regimen, and thus

stopped the progress and prevented the

effects of that dreadful disease. His daily food was a small

quantity of asses' milk and a flour biscuit. Once a week he

indulged himself with eating an apple; he used emetics daily.

Mr. Pope and he were once friends; but they quarrelled, and

persecuted each other with virulent satire. Pope, knowing the

abstemious regimen which Lord Hervey observed, was so

ungenerous as to call him "mere cheese-curd of asses' milk!" Lord

Hervey used paint to soften his ghastly appearance. Mr. Pope

must have known this also; and therefore it was

unpardonable in him to introduce it into his "celebrated

portrait." It ought to be remembered, that Lord Hervey is very

differently described by Dr. Middleton; who, in his dedication to

him of "The History of the Life of Tully," praises him for his

strong good sense, patriotism, temperance, and

information.-E.

(401) Jane, only daughter of Francis, the first Lord Conway, by

his second wife, Mrs. Bodens. (She died unmarried, May 5,

1749.-D.)

(402) Author of some Love Elegies, and a favourite of Lord

Chesterfield. He died this year. [Hammond was equerry to the

Prince of Wales, and member for Truro. He died in June, 1742, at

Stowe, the seat of Lord Cobham, in his thirty.second year. Miss

Dashwood long survived him, and died unmarried in 1779. " The

character," says Johnson, "which her lover gave her was, indeed,

not likely to attract courtship."]

(402) Wife of William Clayton, Lord Sundon, woman of the

bedchamber and mistress of the robes to Queen Caroline. [She had

been the friend and correspondent of Sarah Duchess of'

Marlborough; who, on the accession of George I , through Baron

Bothmar's influence, procured for her friend the place of lady of

the bedchamber to the Princess with whom she grew as great a

favourite as her colleague, Mrs. Howard, with the Prince; and

eventually, on the Princess becoming Queen, exercised an

influence over her, of which even sir Robert Walpole was

jealous.]

(404) Queen Caroline, died November 1737.-D.

(405) This is now known to have been a rupture, with which the

Queen was afflicted, and which she had the weakness to wish, and

the courage to be able, to conceal.-E.

(406) The celebrated Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, oldest

daughter of Evelyn, first Duke of Kingston, and wife of

Wortley Montagu, Esq.-D.

(407) Marquis de Sabernego: he returned to Spain after the death

of Philip V.

(408) The Princess of Parma, second wife of Philip V. King of

Spain, and consequently stepmother to the Prince of Asturias,

son of that King, by his first wife, a princess of Savoy.-D.

(409) William Stanhope, created Lord Harrington in 1729, and Earl

of the same in 1741. He held various high offices, and was, at

the time this was written, secretary of

state.-D.

(410) Frances, youngest daughter of Lord Carteret, afterwards

married to the Marquis of Tweedale. (in 1748. The marquis was an

extraordinary lord of session, and the last person who held a

similar appointment.]

(411) Frederick Prince of Wales.-D.

(412) Brother to Lord Chesterfield. This bon mot was

occasioned by the numbers of Hamiltons which Lady Archibald

Hamilton, the Prince's mistress, had placed at that court.

(413) Nicholas Clagget, Bishop of St. David's, succeeded, on

Weston's death, to the see of Exeter.-Dr. Clagget was,

however, succeeded in the see of St. David's by Dr. Edward

Willes, Dean of Lincoln and decipherer to the King; and, in the

following year, translated to the bishopric of Bath and Wells.

The art of deciphering, for which Dr. Willes was so celebrated,

has been the subject of many learned and curious works by

Trithemius, Baptista Porta, the Duke Augustus of

Brunswick, and other more recent writers. The Gentleman's

Magazine for 1742, contains a very ingenious system of

deciphering: but the old modes of secret writing having been, for

the most part, superseded by the modern system of

cryptography, in which, according to a simple rule which may be

communicated verbally, and easily retained in the memory, the

signs for the letters can be changed continually; it is the

chiffre quarr`e or chiffre ind`echiffrable, used, if not

universally, yet by most courts. None of the old systems of

deciphering are any longer available.]

212 Letter 51

To Sir Horace Mann.

Friday, Jan. 22, 1742.

Don't wonder that I missed writing to you yesterday, my

constant day: you will pity me when you hear that I was shut up

in the House of Commons till one in the morning. I came away

more dead than alive, and was forced to leave Sir R. at supper

with my brothers: he was all alive and in spirits.(414) He says

he is younger than me, and indeed I think so, in spite of his

forty years more. My head aches to-night, but we rose early; and

if I don't write to-night when shall I find a

moment to spare? Now you want to know what we did last night;

stay, I will tell you presently in its place: it was well, and of

infinite consequence-so far I tell you now. Our recess finished

last Monday, and never at school did I enjoy holidays so

much-but, les voil`a finis jusqu'au printefps! Tuesday (for you

see I write you an absolute journal) we sat on a Scotch election,

a double return; their man was Hume Campbell,(415) Lord

Marchmont's brother, lately made solicitor to the Prince, for

being as troublesome, as violent, and almost as able as his

brother. They made a great point of it, and gained so many of

our votes, that at ten at night we were forced to give it up

without dividing. Sandys, who loves persecution, even unto the

death, moved to punish the sheriff; and as we dared not divide,

they ordered him into custody, where by this time, I suppose,

Sandys has eaten him.

On Wednesday, Sir Robert Godschall, the Lord Mayor, presented the

Merchant's petition, signed by three hundred of them, and drawn

up by Leonidas Glover.(416) This is to be heard next Wednesday.

This gold-chain came into parliament, cried up for his parts, but

proves so dull, one would think he chewed

opium. Earle says, "I have heard an oyster speak as well

twenty times."

Well, now I come to yesterday: we met, not expecting much

business. Five of our members were gone to the York election,

and the three Lord Beauclercs (417) to their mother's funeral at

Windsor; for that old beauty St. Albans (418) is dead at last.

On this they depended for getting the majority, and towards three

o'clock, when we thought of breaking up, poured in their most

violent questions: one was a motion for leave to bring in the

Place Bill to limit the number of placemen in the House. This

was not opposed, because, out of decency, it is generally

suffered to pass the Commons, and is thrown out by the Lords;

only Colonel Cholmondeley (419) desired to know if they designed

to limit the number of those that have promises of places, as

well as of those that have places now. I must tell you that we

are a very conclave; they buy votes with

reversions of places on the change of the ministry. Lord Gage

was giving an account in Tom's coffeehouse of the intended

alterations: that Mr. Pultney is to be chancellor of the

exchequer, and Chesterfield and Carteret secretaries of state.

Somebody asked who was to be paymaster? Numps Edwin,(420) who

stood by, replied, "We have not thought so low as that yet."

Lord Gage harangues every day at Tom's, and has read there a very

false account of the King'S message to the Prince.(421) The

Court, to show their contempt of Gage, have given their copy to

be read by Swinny.(422) This is the authentic copy, which they

have made the bishop write from the message which he carried, and

as he and Lord Cholmondeley agree it was

given.

On this Thursday, of which I was telling you, at three

o'clock, Mr. Pultney rose up, and moved for a secret committee of

twenty-one. This inquisition, this council of ten, was to sit

and examine whatever persons and papers they should

please, and to meet when and where they pleased. He protested

much on its not being intended against any person, but merely to

give the King advice, and on this foot they fought it till ten at

night, when Lord Perceval blundered out what they had been

cloaking with so @much art, and declared that he should vote for

it as a committee of accusation. Sir Robert

immediately rose, and protested that he should not have

spoken, but for what he had heard last; but that now, he must

take it to himself. He portrayed the malice of the

Opposition, who, for twenty years, had not been able to touch

him, and were now reduced to this infamous shift. He defied them

to accuse him, and only desired that if they should,

might be in an open and fair manner: desired no favour, but to be

acquainted with his accusation. He spoke of Mr.

Doddington, who had called his administration infamous, as of a

person of great self-mortification, who, for sixteen years, had

condescended to bear part of the odium. For Mr. Pultney, who had

just spoken a second time, Sir R. said, he had begun the debate

with great calmness, but give him his due, he had made amends for

it in the end. In short, never was innocence so triumphant.

There were several glorious speeches on both sides: Mr.

Pultney's two, W. Pitt's (423) and George Grenville's,(424) Sir

Robert's, Sir W. Yonge's, Harry Fox's, (425) Mr. Chute's, and the

Attorney-General's.(426) My friend Coke, for the

first time, spoke vastly well, and mentioned how great Sir

Robert's character is abroad. ' Sir Francis Dashwood replied,

that he had found quite the reverse from Mr. Coke, and that

foreigners always spoke with contempt of the Chevalier de

Walpole. That was going too far, and he was called to order, but

got off well enough, by saying, that he knew it was

contrary to rule to name any member, but that he only

mentioned it as spoken by an impertinent Frenchman.

But of all speeches, none ever was so full of wit as Mr.

Pultney's last. He said, "I have heard this committee

represented as a most dreadful spectre; it has been likened to

all terrible things; it has been likened to the King; to the

inquisition; it will be a committee of safety; it is a

committee of danger; I don't know what it is to be! One

gentleman, I think, called it a cloud! (this was the Attorney) a

cloud! I remember Hamlet takes Lord Polonius by the hand and

shows him a cloud, and then asks him if he does not think it is

like a whale." Well, in short, at eleven at night we divided, and

threw out this famous committee by 253 to

250, the greatest number that ever was in

the house, and the greatest number that ever lost a question.

It was a most shocking sight to see the sick and dead brought in

on both sides! Men on crutches, and Sir

William Gordon (427) from his bed, with a

blister on his head, and flannel hanging out from under

his wig. I could scarce pity him for his

ingratitude. The day before the Westminster petition, Sir

Charles Wager (428) gave his son a ship, and the next day the

father came down and voted against him. The son has since been

east away; but they concealed it from the father, that he might

not absent himself. However, as we have our

good-natured men too on our side, one of his own countrymen went

and told him of it in the House. The old man, who looked like

Lazarus at his resuscitation, bore it with great

resolution, and said, he knew why he was told of it, but when he

thought his country in danger, he would not go away. As he is so

near death, that it is indifferent to him whether he died two

thousand years ago or to-morrow, it is unlucky for him not to

have lived when such insensibility would have been a Roman

virtue. (429)

There are no arts, no menaces, which the Opposition do not

practise. They have threatened one gentleman to have a

reversion cut off from his son, unless he will vote with them.

To Totness there came a letter to the mayor from the Prince, and

signed by two of his lords, to recommend a candidate in

opposition to the solicitor-general. The mayor sent the

letter to Sir Robert. They have turned the

Scotch to the best account. There is a young Oswald

(430) who had engaged to Sir R. but has voted against us. Sir R.

sent a friend to reproach him: the moment the gentleman who had

engaged for him came into the room, Oswald said, "You had liked

to have led me into a fine error! did you not tell me that Sir R.

would have the majority?"

When the debate was over, Mr. Pultney owned that he had never

heard so fine a debate on our side; and said to Sir Robert,

"Well, nobody can do what you can!" "Yes," replied Sir R., "Yonge

did better." Mr. P. answered, "It was fine, but not of that

weight with what you said." They all allow it- and now their plan

is to persuade Sir Robert to retire with honour. All that

evening there was a report about the town, that he and my uncle

were to be sent to the Tower, and people hired windows in the

city to see them pass by-but for this time I believe we shall not

exhibit so historical a parade.

The night of the committee, my brother Walpole

(431) had got two or three invalids at his house,

designing to carry them into the House by his door, as they were

too ill to go round by Westminster hall: the patriots, who have

rather more contrivances than their predecessors of Grecian and

Roman memory, had taken the precaution of stopping the keyhole

with sand. How Livy's eloquence would have been hampered, if

there had been back-doors and keyholes to the Temple of Concord!

A few days ago there were lists of the officers at Port Mahon

laid before the House of Lords -. unfortunately, it appeared that

two-thirds of the regiment had been absent. The Duke of Argyll

said, "Such a list was a libel on the government;" and of all

men, the Duke of Newcastle was the man who rose up and agreed

with him: remember what I have told you once before of his union

with Carteret. We have

carried the York election by a majority of 956.

The other night the Bishop of Canterbury(432) was with Sir

'Robert, and on going away, said, "Sir, I have been lately

reading Thaunus; he mentions a minister, who having long been

persecuted by his enemies, at length vanquished them: the

reason he gives, quia se non

deseruit."

Sir Thomas Robinson is at last named to the government of

Barbadoes; he has long prevented its being asked for, by

declaring that he had the promise of it. Luckily for him, Lord

Lincoln liked his house, and procured him this government on

condition of hiring it.

I have mentioned Lord Perceval's speeches; he has a set who have

a rostrum at his house, and harangue there. A gentleman who came

thither one evening was refused, but insisting that he was

engaged to come, "Oh, Sir," said the porter, "what, are you one

of those who play at members of Parliament?"

I must tell you something, though Mr. Chute will see my

letter. Sir Robert brought home yesterday to dinner, a fat

comely gentleman, who came up to me, and said he believed I knew

his brother abroad. I asked his name; he replied, He is with Mr.

Whithed." I thought he said, It is Whithed." After I had

talked to him of Mr. Whithed, I said, There is a very

sensible man with Mr. Whithed,

one Mr. Chute." "Sir," said he, "my name is

Chute." "My dear

Mr. Chute, now I know both your brothers. You

will forgive my mistake."

With what little conscience I begin a third sheet! but it

shall be but half a one. I have received your vast packet of

music by the messenger, for which I thank you a thousand

times; and the political

sonnet, which is far from bad. Who

translated it? I like the translation.

I am obliged to you about the gladiator, etc.: the temptation of

having them at all is great, but too enormous. If I could have

the gladiator for about an hundred pounds, I would give it.

I enclose one of the bills of lading of the things that I sent

you by your secretary: he sets out tomorrow. By Oswald's

(433) folly, to whom I entrusted the putting them on board, they

are consigned to Goldsworthy, (434) but pray take care that he

does not open them. The captain mortifies me by

proposing to stay three weeks at Genoa. I have sent away

to-night a small additional box of steel wares, which I

received but to-day from Woodstock. As they are better than the

first, you will choose out some of them for Prince Craon, and

give away the rest as you please.

We have a new opera by Pescetti, but a very bad one; however, all

the town runs after it, for it ends with a charming

dance.(435) They have flung open the stage to a great length,

and made a perfect view of Venice, with the

Rialto, and numbers of gondolas that row about full of masks, who

land and dance. You would like it.

Well, I have done. Excuse me if I don't take the trouble to read

it all over again, for it is immense, as you will find. Good

night!

(414) Sir Robert Wilmot also, in a letter to the Duke of

Devonshire, written on the 12th,

Sir Robert was today observed to be more naturally gay and full

of spirits than he has been

for some time past."-E.

(415) HUme Campbell was twin brother of Hugh, third Earl of

Marchmont. They were sons of

Alexander, the second earl, who had quarrelled with Sir Robert

Walpole at the time of the excise

scheme in 1733. Sir Robert, in consequence, prevented him from

being reelected one of the sixteen

representative Scotch peers in 1734; in requital for which,

the old earl's two sons became the

bitterest opponents of the Minister. They were both

men of considerable talents; extremely similar in

their characters and dispositions, and

so much so in their outward

appearance that it was very difficult to know them apart.-D. The

estimation in which Lord Marchmont was held by his

contemporaries, maybe judged of by

the fact, that Lord Cobham gave his bust a place in the Temple of

Worthies, at Stowe, and the mention

of him in Pope's inscription in his grotto at

Twickenham;-

"Where British siglis from dying Wyndham stole,

And the bright flame was shot through Marchmont's soul."

We are told by Coxe, that Sir Robert Walpole "used frequently to

rally his sons, who were

praising the speeches of Pultney, Pitt, Lyttelton, and others, by

saying, "You may cry up their speeches if you please, but when I

have answered Sir John Barnard and

Lord Polwarth, I think I have concluded the debate."]

(416) Glover, a merchant, author of "Leonidas," a poem,

"Boadicea," a tragedy, etc.

[Glover's talent for public speaking, and information

concerning trade and Commerce,

naturally pointed him out to the merchants of London to

conduct their application to parliament on the neglect of

their trade.]

(417) Lord Vere, Lord Henry, and Lord Sidney Beauclerc, sons of

the Duchess Dowager of St. Albans, who is painted among the

beauties at Hampton Court.

(418) Lady Diana Vere, daughter, and at length sole heir, of

Aubrey de Vere, twentieth and last Earl of Oxford. She

married, in 1694, Charles, first Duke of St. Albans, natural son

of Charles II. by Nell Gwin. She died Jan. 15, 1742.

(419) Colonel James Cholmondeley, only brother of the Earl.

Afterwards distinguished himself at the battles of Fontenoy and

Falkirk, and died in 1775.-E.

(420) Charles Edwin, Admiral Vernon's unsuccessful colleague at

Westminster.-E.

(421) During the holidays, Sir R. W. had prevailed on the King to

send to the Prince of Wales, to offer to pay his debts and double

his allowance. This negotiation was intrusted to Lord

Cholmondeley on the King's, and to Secker, Bishop of Oxford, on

the Prince's side, but came to nothing, [The Prince, in his

answer, stated, that "he could not come to court while Sir Robert

Walpole presided in His Majesty's councils; that he looked on him

as the sole author of our grievances at home, and of our ill

success in the West Indies; and that the

disadvantageous figure we at present made in all the courts of

Europe was to be attributed alone to him."]

(422) Owen MacSwinny, a buffoon; formerly director of the

playhouse. [He had been a manager of Drury Lane Theatre, and was

the author of several dramatic pieces. He resided in

Italy for several years, and, on his return, was appointed keeper

of the King's Mews. He died in 1754, leaving his

fortune to the celebrated Mrs. Woffington.](

423) Afterwards the great Lord Chatham.-D.

(424) First minister in the early part of the reign of George

III.-D.

(425) Afterwards the first Lord Holland.-D.

(426) Sir Dudley Ryder.-D.

(427) Sir Robert Wilmot, in a letter to the Duke of

Devonshire, says:-,,Sir William Gordon was brought in like a

corpse. Some thought it had been an old woman in disguise,

having a white cloth round his head:

others,, who found him out, expected him to expire every moment.

Other incurables were introduced on their side. Mr. Hopton, for

Hereford, w, is carried in with crutches. Sir Robert Walpole

exceeded himself; Mr. Pelham, with the greatest decency, cut

Pultney into a thousand pieces. Sir Robert actually dissected

him, and laid his heart open to the view of the House."-E.

(428) Admiral Sir Charles Wager. He had been knighted by Queen

Anne, for his Gallantry in taking and destroying some rich

Spanish galleons. He was at this time first lord of the

Admiralty. He died in 1743.-D.

(429) Sir William died in the May following.

(430) James Oswald, afterwards one of the commissioners of trade

and plantations.

(431) Robert, Lord Walpole, afterwards Earl of Orford. He was

auditor of the Exchequer, and his house joined to the House of

commons, to which he had a door: but it was soon afterwards

locked up, by an order of the House.

(432) John Potter, Archbishop of Canterbury, translated, in 1737,

from the see of Oxford. He died in 1747.-D.

)433) George Oswald, steward to Sir R. W.

(434) Mr. Goldsworthy, consul at Leghorn, had married Sir

Charles Wager's niece, and was endeavouring to supplant Mr. Mann

at Florence.

(435) Vestris, the celebrated dancer, would have been

delighted with it; for it is related of him, that when Gluck had

finished his noble opera, "Iphigenia," Vestris was sadly

disappointed on finding that it did not end with a

"chaconne," and worried the composer to induce him to

introduce one. At length Gluck, losing all patience,

exclaimed, "Chaconne! chaconne! Had, then, the Greeks, whose

manners we are to represent, chaconnes?" "Certainly not,"

replied Vestris, "certainly not; but so much the worse for the

Greeks."-D.

218 Letter 52

To Sir Horace Mann.

London, Feb. 1741-2.

I am miserable that I have not more time to write to you,

especially as you will want to know so much of what I have to

tell you; but for a week or fortnight I shall be so hurried, that

I shall scarce know what I say. I sit here writing to you, and

receiving all the town, who flock to this house; Sir Robert has

already had three levees this morning, and the

rooms still overflowing-they overflow up to me. You will think

this the prelude to some victory! On the contrary, when you

receive this, there will be no longer a Sir Robert Walpole: you

must know him for the future by the title of Earl of

Orford. That other envied name expires next week with his

ministry! Preparatory to this change. I should tell you, that

last week we heard in the House of Commons the Chippenham

election, when Jack Frederick and his brother-in-law, Mr. Hume,

on our side, petitioned against Sir Edmund Thomas and Mr. Baynton

Holt. Both sides made it the decisive question-but our people

were not all equally true: and upon the previous question we had

but 235 against 236, so lost it by one. From that time my

brothers, my uncle, I, and some of his particular friends,

persuaded Sir R. to resign. He was undetermined till Sunday

night. Tuesday we were to finish the election, when we lost it

by 16; upon which Sir Robert declared to some particular persons

in the House his resolution to retire,(436) and had that morning

sent the Prince of Wales notice of' it. It is understood from

the heads of the party, that nothing more is to be pursued

against him. Yesterday (Wednesday) the King adjourned both

Houses for a fortnight, for time to settle

things. Next week Sir Robert resigns and goes into the House of

Lords. The only change yet fixed, is, that Lord Wilmington (437)

is to be at the head of the Treasury-but numberless

other alterations and confusions must follow. The Prince will be

reconciled, and the Whig-patriots will come in. There were a few

bonfires last night, but they are very unfashionable, for never

was fallen minister so followed. When he kissed the King's hand

to take his first leave, the King fell on his

neck, wept and kissed him, and begged to see him frequently. He

will continue in town, and assist the ministry in the

Lords. Mr. Pelham has declared that he will accept nothing, that

was Sir Robert's; and this moment the Duke of Richmond has been

here from court to tell Sir R. that he had resigned the

mastership of the horse, having received it from him,

unasked, and that he would not keep it beyond his ministry. This

is the greater honour, as it was so unexpected, and as he had no

personal friendship with the duke.

For myself, I am quite happy to be free from all the fatigue,

envy, and uncertainty of our late situation. I go every

where; indeed, to have the stare over, and to use myself to

neglect, but I meet nothing but civilities. Here have been Lord

Hartington, Coke, and poor Fitzwilliam,(438) and others crying:

here has been Lord Deskford (439) and numbers to wish me joy; in

short, it is a most extraordinary and various

scene.(440)

There are three people whom I pity much; the King, Lord

Wilmington, and my own sister; the first, for the affront, to be

forced to part with his minister, and to be forced to

forgive his son; the second, as he is too old, and (even when he

was young,) unfit for the burthen: and the poor girl,(441) who

must be created an earl's daughter, as her birth would deprive

her of the rank. She must kiss hands, and bear the flirts of

impertinent real quality

I am invited to dinner to-day by Lord Strafford (442) Argyll's

son-in-law. You see we shall grow the fashion.

My dear child, these are the most material points: I am

sensible how much you must want particulars; but you must be

sensible, too, that just yet, I have not time.

Don't be uneasy; your brother Ned has been here to wish me joy:

your brother Gal. has been here and cried; your tender nature

will at first make you like the latter; but afterwards you will

rejoice with the elder and me. Adieu! Yours, ever, and the same.

(436) "Sir Robert," says Coxe, "seemed to have anticipated this

event, and met it with his usual fortitude and

cheerfulness. While the tellers were performing their office, he

beckoned Sir Edward Baynton, the member whose return was

supported by the Opposition, to sit near him., spoke to him with

great complacency, animadverted on the ingratitude of several

individuals who were voting against him, on whom he had conferred

great favour, and declared he would never again sit in that

House."-E.

(437) Sir Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, knight of the

garter, and at this time lord president of the council.

(438) william, Baron, and afterwards Earl Fitzwilliam; a young

lord, much attached to Sir R. W.

(439) James Ogilvy, Lord Deskford succeeded his father, in 1764,

as sixth Earl of Findlater, and third Earl of Seafield. He held

some inconsiderable offices in Scotland, and died in 1770.-D.

(440) the peculiar antipathy to Lord Hardwicke manifested by

Horace Walpole on all occasions is founded, no doubt, upon the

opinion which he had taken up, that the resignation of Sir Robert

Walpole at this moment had been rendered necessary by the

treachery and intrigues of that nobleman and the Duke of

Newcastle. In his "Memoires" he repeatedly charges him with such

treachery; and the Edinburgh reviewer of that work

(xxxvi. 1). 29) favours this view, observing, "It appears

that, unless there was a secret understanding of Newcastle and

Hardwicke with Pulteney and Carteret, before Sir Robert's

determination to resign, the coalition was effected between the

31st of January and 2d of February; for on the 2d of

February it was already settled that Lord Wilmington should be at

the head of the Treasury in the new administration. So speedy an

adjustment of a point of such consequence looks

somewhat like previous concert." However much appearances might

favour this opinion, another writer has shown most

satisfactorily that no such previous concert existed. The

reviewer of the "Memoires" in the Quarterly Review (xxvii. p.

191) proves, in the first place, that it was Sir Robert

himself who determined the course of events, and, as he

emphatically said, turned the key of the closet on Mr.

Pulteney; so that, if he was betrayed, it must have been by

himself; and secondly, that we have the evidence of his family

and friends, that he was lost by his own inactivity and

timidity; in other words, the great minister was worn out with

age and business." And these views are confirmed by extracts from

the "Walpoliana," written, be it remembered, by Philip, second

Earl -of Hardwicke, son of the chancellor, from the information

of the Walpole family, and even of Sir Robert

himself; who, after his retirement, admitted his young friend

into his conversation and confidence-a fact totally

inconsistent with a belief in his father's treachery;-by Sir

Robert's own authority, who, in a private and confidential letter

to the Duke of Devonshire, dated 2d of February, 1742, giving an

account of his resignation, and the efforts of his triumphant

antagonists to form a new ministry, distinctly

states "that he himself prevented the Duke of Newcastle's

dismissal;" and lastly, by Horace Walpole's own pamphlet, "A

Detection of a late Forgery," etc., in which he speaks of "the

breach between the King and the Prince, as open, the known,

avowed cause of the resignation, and which Sir Robert never

disguised;"-and again, among the errors of the writer he

notices, Sir Robert Walpole is made to complain of being

abandoned by his friends. This is for once an undeserved

satire on mankind: no fallen minister ever experienced such

attachment from his friends as he did."-E.

(441) Maria, natural daughter of Sir R. W. by Maria Skerret, his

mistress, whom he afterwards married. She had a patent to take

place as an earl's daughter.

(442) William Wentworth, second Earl of Strafford, of the

second creation. He married Anne Campbell, second daughter of

John, Duke of Argyle.-D.

220 Letter 53

To Sir Horace Mann.

Feb. 9, 1741-2.

You will have had my letter that told you of the great change.

The scene is not quite so pleasant as it was, nor the

tranquility arrived that we expected. All is in confusion; no

overtures from the Prince, who, it must seem, proposes to be

King. His party have persuaded him not to make up, but on much

greater conditions than he first demanded: in short,

notwithstanding his professions to the Bishop,(443)-he is to

insist on the impeachment of Sir R., saying now, that his

terms not being accepted at first, he is not bound to stick to

them. He is pushed on to this violence by Argyll,

Chesterfield, Cobham,(444) Sir John Hind Cotton,(445) and Lord

Marchmont. The first says, "What impudence it is in Sir R. to be

driving about the streets!" and all cry out, that he is still

minister behind the curtain. They will none of them come into

the ministry, till several are displaced but have summoned a

great meeting of the faction for Friday, at the Fountain Tavern,

to consult measures against Sir R., and

to-morrow the Common Council meet, to draw up instructions for

their members. They have sent into Scotland and into the

counties for the same purpose. Carteret ind Pulteney@ pretend to

be against this violence, but own that if their party

insist upon it, they cannot desert them. The cry against Sir R.

has been greater this week than ever; first, against a

grant of four thousand pounds a-year, which the King gave him on

his resignation, but which, to quiet them, he has given Up.(446)

Then, upon making his daughter a lady; their wives and daughters

declare against giving her place. He and she both kissed hands

yesterday, and on Friday go to Richmond for a week. He seems

quite secure in his innocence-but what

protection is that, against the power and malice of' party!

Indeed, his friends seem as firm is ever, and frequent him as

much; but they are not now the strongest. As to an

impeachment, I think they will not be so mad as to proceed to it:

it is too solemn and too public to be attempted, without proof of

crimes, of which he certainly is not guilty. For a bill of'

pains and penalties, they may, if they will, I

believe, pass it through the Commons, but will scarce get the

assent of the King and Lords. In a week more I shall be able to

write with less uncertainty.

I hate sending you false news, as that was, of the Duke of

Richmond's resignation. It arose from his being two hours below

with Sir R., and from some very warm discourse of his in the

House of Lords, against the present violences; but went no

further. Zeal magnified this, as she came up stairs to me, and I

wrote to you before I had seen Sir Robert.

At a time when we ought to be most united, we are in the

greatest confusion; such is the virtue of the patriots, though

they have obtained what they professed alone to seek. They will

not stir one step in foreign affairs, though Sir R. has offered

to unite with them, with all his friends, for the

common cause. It will now be seen whether he or they are most

patriot. You see I call him Sir Robert still! after one has

known him by that name for these threescore years, it is

difficult to accustom one's mouth to another title.

In the midst of all this, we are diverting ourselves as

cordially as if Righteousness and Peace had just been kissing one

another. Balls, operas, and masquerades! The Duchess of Norfolk

(447) makes a grand masquing next week; and to-morrow there is

one at the Opera-house.

Here is a Saxe-Gothic prince, brother to her Royal

Highness:(448) he sent her word from Dover that he was driven in

there, in his way to Italy. The man of the inn, Whom he

consulted about lodgings in town, recommended him to one of very

ill-fame in Suffolk-street. He has got a neutrality for himself,

and goes to both courts.

Churchill (449) asked Pultney the other day, "Well, Mr.

Pultney, will you break me too?"-"No, Charles," replied he, "you

break fast enough of yourself!" Don't you think it hurt him more

than the other breaking would? Good night!

Yours, ever.

Thursday, Feb. 11, 1741-2.

P. S. I had finished my letter, and unwillingly resolved to send

you all that bad news, rather than leave you ignorant of our

doings; but I have the pleasure of mending your prospect a

little. Yesterday the Common Council met, and resolved upon

instructions to their members, which, except one not very

descriptive paragraph, contains nothing personal -,against our

new earl; and ends with resolutions "to stand by our present

constitution." Mind what followed! One of them proposed to insert

"the King and Royal Family" before the words, "our

present constitution;" but, on a division, it was rejected by

three to one.

But to-day, for good news! Sir Robert has resigned; Lord

Wilmington is first lord of the treasury, and Sandys has

accepted the seals as chancellor of the exchequer, with Gibbon

(450) and Sir John Rushout,(451) joined to him as other lords of

the treasury. Waller was to have been the other, but has

formally refused. So, Lord Sundon, Earle, Treby,(452) and

Clutterbuck (453) are the first discarded, unless the latter

saves himself by Waller's refusal. Lord Harrington, who is

created an earl, is made president of the council, and Lord

Carteret has consented to be secretary of state in his

room-but mind; not one of them has promised to be against the

prosecution of Sir Robert, though I don't believe now that it

will go on. You see Pultney is not come in, except in his friend

Sir John Rushout, but is to hold the balance between liberty and

prerogative; at least, in this, he acts with

honour. They say Sir John Hind Cotton and the Jacobites will be

left out,,unless they bring in Dr. Lee and Sir John Barnard to

the admiralty, as they propose; for I do not think it is decided

what are their principles. Sir Charles Wager has

resigned this morning:(454) he says, "We shall not die, but be

all changed!" though he says, a parson lately reading this text

in an old Bible, where the c was rubbed out, read it, not die,

but be all hanged!

To-morrow our earl goes to Richmond Park, en retir`e; comes on

Thursday to take his seat in the Lords, and returns thither

again. Sandys is very angry at his taking the title of

Orford, which belonged to his wife's (455) great uncle. You know

a step of that nature cost the great Lord Strafford (456) his

head, at the prosecution of a less bloody-minded man than Sandys.

I remain in town, and have not taken at all to withdrawing, which

I hear has given offence,(457) as well as my gay face in public;

but as I had so little joy in the grandeur, I am

determined to take as little part in the disgrace. I am

looking about for a new house.

I have received two vast packets from you to-day, I believe from

the bottom of the sea, for they have been so washed that I could

scarce read them. I could read the terrible history of the

earthquakes at Leghorn: how infinitely good you was to poor Mrs.

Goldsworthy! How could you think I should not

approve such vast humanity? but you are all humanity and

forgiveness. I am only concerned that they will be present when

you receive all these disagreeable accounts of your

friends. Their support" is removed as well as yours. I only

fear the interest of the Richmonds (458) with the Duke of

Newcastle; but I will try to put you well with Lord Lincoln. We

must write circumspectly, for our letters now are no longer safe.

I shall see Amorevoli to-night to give him the letter. Ah!

Monticelli and the Visconti are to sing to-night at a great

assembly at Lady Conway's. I have not time to write more: so,

good night, my dearest child! be in good spirits.

Yours, most faithfully.

P. S. We have at last got Cr`ebillon's "Sofa:" Lord

Chesterfield received three hundred, and gave them to be sold at

White's. It is admirable! except the beginning of the

first volume, and the last story, it is equal to any thing he has

written. How he has painted the most refined nature in Mazulhim!

the most retired nature in Mocles! the man of

fashion, that sets himself above natural sensations, and the man

of sense and devotion, that would skirmish himself from their

influence, are equally justly reduced to the standard of their

own weakness.(459)

(443) Secker, Bishop of Oxford.

(444) Richard Temple, Viscount Cobham, so created in 1717, with

remainder to the issue male of his sister, Hester

Grenville. He had served in Flanders under the Duke of

Marlborough, and was upon the overthrow of Sir Robert

Walpole's administration promoted to the military rank of

field marshal. He is now best remembered as the friend of pope

and the creator of the gardens at Stowe.-D.

(445) Sir John Hinde Cotton, Bart. of Landwade, in

Cambridgeshire; long a member of parliament, and one of the

leaders of the Jacobite party. He died in 1752, and Horace

Walpole, in his Memoires, in noticing this event, says, "Died Sir

John Cotton, the last Jacobite of any sensible

activity."-D.

Lord Carteret and Mr. Pulteney had really betrayed their party,

and so injudiciously, that they lost their old friends and gained

no new ones.

(446) Sir Robert, at the persuasion of his brother, Mr.

Selwyn, and others, desisted from this grant. Three years

afterwards, when the clamour was at an end, and his affairs

extremely involved, he sued for it; which Mr. Pelham, his

friend and `el`eve, was brought with the worst grace in the world

to ask, and his old obliged master the King prevailed upon, with

as ill grace, to grant. ["February 6. Sir R.

Walpole was presented at Court as Earl of Orford. He was

persuaded to refuse a grant of four thousand pounds a-year during

the King's life and his own, but could not be dissuaded from

accepting a letter of honour from the King, to grant his natural

daughter Maria, precedence as an earl's daughter; who was also

presented this day. The same thing had been done for Scrope,

Earl of Sunderland, who left no lawful issue, and from one of

whom Lord Howe is descended."-Secker MS.]

(447) Mary, daughter of Edward Blount, Esq. and wife of

Edward, ninth Duke of Norfolk.-D.

(448) The Princess of Wales.-D.

(449)General Charles Churchill.-D.

(450) Philip Gibbons, Esq.-D.

(451) Sir John Rushout, the fourth baronet of the family, had

particularly distinguished himself as an opponent of Sir R.

Walpole's excise scheme. He was made treasurer of the navy in

1743, and died in 1775, at the advanced age of ninety-one. His

son was created Lord Northwick, in 1797.-D.

(452) George Treby, Esq.-D.

(453) Thomas Clutterbuck, Esq. He left the Treasury in

February 1742, and was made treasurer of the navy.-D.

(454) "February II. Lord Orford and Sir Charles Wager

resigned. Mr. Sandys kissed hands as chancellor of the

exchequer: Lord Wilmington declared first commissioner of the

Treasury: offers made to the Duke of Argyle, but refused: none to

Lord Chesterfield."-Secker MS.-E.

(455) Lady Sandys was daughter of Lady Tipping, niece of

Russel, Earl of Orford.

(456) Sir Thomas Wentworth, the great Earl of Strafford, took the

title of Raby from a castle of that name, which belonged to Sir

Henry Vane, who, from that time, became his mortal foe.

(457) Sir Charles Wager. [In the following December Sir

Charles was appointed treasurer of the navy, which office he held

till his death, in May 1743.)

(458) Mrs. Goldsworthy had been a companion of the Duchess of

Richmond.

(459) Posterity has not confirmed the eulogium here given to the

indecent trash of the younger Cr`ebillon: but in the age of

George II. coarseness passed for humour, and obscenity was

wit."-D

224 Letter 54

To Sir Horace Mann.

Feb. 18, 1741-2.

I write to you more tired, and with more headache, than any one

but you could conceive! I came home at five this morning from the

Duchess of Norfolk's masquerade, and was forced to rise before

eleven, for my father, who came from Richmond to take his seat in

the Lords, for the Houses met to-day. He is gone back to his

retirement. Things wear a better aspect: at the great meeting

(460) on Friday, at the Fountain, Lord

Carteret and Lord Winchilsea (461) refused to go, only saying,

that they never dined at a tavern. Pultney and the new

chancellor of the exchequer went, and were abused by his Grace of

Argyll. The former said he was content with what was

already done, and would not be active in any further

proceedings, though he would not desert the party. Sandys said

the King had done him the honour to offer him that place; why

should he not accept it? if he had not, another would: if nobody

would, the King would be obliged to employ his old

minister again, which he imagined the gentlemen present would not

wish to see; and protested against screening, with the same

conclusion as Pultney. The Duke of Bedford was very warm against

Sir William Yonge; Lord Talbot (462) was so in

general.(463)