Tuesday, Dec. 23rd, 1788.
MY DEAR LORD,
Never did any debate of nice discussion go off better in our eye
than that of last night: never was I more agreeably surprised than
by the result--having gained nine on our former majority. The House
was thinner by forty at twelve at night, than the debate before at
three in the morning. The shirkers I alluded to may now come in,
and we may augur our future divisions to be yet stronger and more
decisive: our rats having all shown their tails on last night's
motion to address the Prince.
Sir John Aubrey, rat-major, receiving his emoluments of the
Treasury for five years, and declaring himself unconnected with
any, afforded a subject of general laugh. Master Popham, Sir Samuel
Hurmery, James Macpherson, W.G. Hamilton, &c., &c., followed the
illustrious Aubrey. Fox, after Pitt's reply, and his own rejoinder,
paired off with Stevens of the Admiralty. The Marquis of
Lansdowne's friends, Barre, &c., were with us. Masham, voting for
the Address, declared himself not precluded thereby from voting for
limitations. Drake, on the same head, not to preclude himself, left
the House. We shall, therefore, have those _two_. Sir John Scott
spoke with such learning, truth, and uncommon energy of reasoning
and language, that he carried the House with him, and extorted from
Lord North, in particular, the highest compliments ever paid to a
lawyer in the House of Commons. I never heard Fox speak so
temperately, or better, in point of argument. Pitt, in reply, was
equally great. He stated, to conviction, "the fiction of the law,
which admitted the application of the royal political authority,
when the personal was disabled, as implicated in the very
principles of hereditary succession, which otherwise would suffer
interruption from nonage, infirmity, dotage, and every contingency
in the state of man." Sheridan spoke very ill: very hot,
injudicious, and _ill-heard_. Rolle, whilst adverting to Sheridan's
speech, made use of a remarkable expression, and which seems to
hint some future acting up to the rumours of his purpose. He said
that in proper time, "He should heartily vote for the Prince's
being Regent, _if_ the Prince had done no act by which he had
forfeited pretensions to executive government in this country."
Our resolutions being carried to the Lords, in conference this day,
on Friday next the Lords will debate thereon. Lords Townshend,
Romney, Radnor, and many other occasional opponents, I understand
to be decidedly with us on the second Whig resolution.
In speaking of our debate, I had forgot Burke, who, after I
finished my last night's letter, finished his wild speech in a
manner next to madness. He let out two of the new
titles--Fitzwilliam to be Marquis of Rockingham, and Lord G.
Cavendish, jun. His party pulled him, and our friends calling
"Hear, hear," we lost the rest of the twenty-five new Peers, who
would all have come out.
For the King's health, the world is yet in expectation of some
crisis. The St. James's notes of last night "quiet," or "unquiet,"
are disregarded, as too general, or as of course; and accounts from
ladies about the Queen, and from the physicians themselves, pass in
the greater circles, still mentioning violent intermitting fevers,
and profuse occasional perspirations. Having generally, in my last,
stated that the faculty had conspired to render the public less
sanguine, I mention to _your Lordship only_ what T. Warner, above
seventy years of age, and forty years first surgeon of Guy's and
St. Thomas's Hospitals, told me, "Being at the head of these city
hospitals, he has been often called in to meet the physicians of
Bethlem, where a surgeon for scalping, &c., was required, and that
a madness after fifty, without a clear assignable cause--and that
cause to be reached by surgery or medicine--did not admit a
perfect recovery above one time in an hundred." The opinions of
many others of the faculty are bandied about; but, as matter of
conversation for your private ear, I give this particular one as
authentically coming to my own knowledge.
You'll observe in this day's papers, a meeting advertised of the
bankers. It is understood to be for the purpose of tendering W.
Pitt, on his going out of office, a transfer of L3000 per annum,
Bank Stock, or a principal of L50,000, in the name of the
commercial world.
Adieu, my dear Lord. Health and prosperity be yours, and be assured
that you have no one more devotedly attached than your most
affectionate and obliged friend and servant,