Death of Archbishop Hutton--Affair of Lord Tyrawley--New
Treaty with Prussia--Sequel of the Habeas Corpus Extension
Question--The Bill debated in the Lords--Lord Mansfield’s
Speech--The Bill dropped--Affairs at Leicester House--Operations
of the King of Prussia--Expedition to St. Maloes under the Duke
of Marlborough--Its failure--Passage of the Rhine by Prince
Ferdinand, and his Victory at Crevelt--Defeats of Prince Ysenberg
and M. Chevert.
March 20th died Dr. Hutton, Archbishop of Canterbury, after short
possession of his see. The Duke of Newcastle had great inclination to
give it to Dr. Hay Drummond, Bishop of St. Asaph, a gentleman, a man
of parts, and of the world; but Lord Hardwicke’s influence carried it
for Secker, who certainly did not want parts or worldliness.
Lord George Sackville was now rising to a principal figure. His
abilities in the House of Commons and his interest with Pitt gave him
great weight in Government, and everything seemed to promise him the
first rank in the Army, where, since the depression of Conway, he
stood without a rival. The Duke, who hated him, was removed; Marshal
Ligonier was very old, and was governed by him; and by his seat in
the Ordnance, and his own address, he began to balance Fox in the
direction of the Duke of Marlborough. But his imperious temper was
not to be restrained; and at this very period he wantonly started an
enemy, under whose lash he had reason afterwards to wish he had not
fallen.
A considerable officer was Lord Tyrawley, too old to give jealousy
to Lord George, and who having been neglected by the Duke of
Newcastle, had treated the latter with a contempt which, besides
his attaching himself to Fox, had assured an entire stop to his own
further advancement. Lord Tyrawley had a thorough knowledge of the
world, though less of his own country than of others. He had long
been Minister in Portugal, where he grew into such favour, that the
late King, to keep him there, would have appointed him his general.
He had a great deal of humour, and occasional good breeding, but not
to the prejudice of his natural temper, which was imperiously blunt,
haughty, and contemptuous, with an undaunted portion of spirit.
Accustomed to the despotism of Portugal, Muscovy, and the Army, he
had little reverence for Parliaments, and always spoke of them as the
French do of the long-robe. He even affected not to know where the
House of Commons was. He was just returned from Gibraltar, where
he had ordered great additions to the works, with no more economy
than Governors are apt to do, who think themselves above being
responsible. Lord George Sackville caught at this dissipation, and
privately instigated Sir John Philipps to censure the expense. To
their great surprise Lord Tyrawley demanded to be heard at the bar of
the House in his own defence. A day was named. Lord Tyrawley drew up
a memorial, which he proposed to read to the House; and which in the
meantime he did read to everybody else. It was conceived in bitter
terms against Lord George, and attacked him roundly on having avoided
all foreign command. This alarmed. Lord George got the day of hearing
adjourned for near a fortnight; but Lord Tyrawley was not a man to
recede from his point; and Lord George having underhand procured the
report of Skinner, who surveyed the works at Gibraltar to be brought
before the House, without mentioning what it was, Mr. Fox laid open
the unhandsome darkness of this conduct, and Lord Tyrawley himself
appeared at the bar. As the hearing was before the Committee, high
words were avoided, which must have ensued had the Speaker, who was
not wont to suffer disrespect to the House, been in the chair; for
Lord Tyrawley made good by his behaviour all that had been taken for
vapour before he appeared there. He treated the House with great
freedom, their forms with still greater; and leaning on the bar
(though he was allowed a chair), he browbeat Skinner his censor, who
stood on his left hand, with such arrogant humour, that the very
lawyers thought themselves outdone in their own style of worrying
a culprit. He read his memorial, which was well drawn and somewhat
softened, with great art and frankness, and assumed more merit to
himself than he had been charged with blame. Such tough game tempted
few hunters. Lord George was glad to wave the sport; and the House
dismissed the affair with perfect satisfaction in the innocence of a
man who dared to do wrong more than they dared to censure him.
Hitherto the King of Prussia had lain quiet. Suspicions had even been
entertained that he was meditating or concluding a separate peace.
At last a new subsidiary treaty was concluded with him, and Colonel
Yorke was dispatched from the Hague to fix that essential man.
Luckily, Kniphausen was on the road, with his assent to the treaty,
before Yorke arrived; otherwise the vainglory of Lord Hardwicke
could not have imagined a more impolitic step for his country or his
son. Every attempt of our sending men of parts to circumvent him
had succeeded ill. The King of Prussia was so far a little genius,
that he dreaded trying himself against talents. For this reason, he
used Legge and Sir Charles Williams in the most ungracious manner.
Lord Hyndford, Mr. Villiers, and Mitchell, were the men that suited
him--and had he known him, he would not have feared Yorke. But the
King made Mitchell introduce him, would talk to him on no business,
and entertained him with nothing but a panegyric on Mitchell.
The treaty was laid before the Houses, and approved. Lord Denbigh
commended it, and said, he was glad the Elector of Hanover was
included in it, that he might not desert the King of England. He
entered a claim against any Hanoverian neutrality, and rejoiced
that we had another General; censuring the Duke for the convention
of Closter Seven. This unjust bitterness was received with marks of
approbation by the Duke of Newcastle, Lord Lincoln, and Lord Temple,
and was ill retorted by Lord Sandwich. Lord Lyttelton spoke well,
distinguishing between the two parts of the Administration, and too
ridiculously ascribing whatever had been done well to the Duke of
Newcastle. Lord Temple answered him with vehement abuse, and applied
to him a passage out of Tully, which Lord Lyttelton had formerly
inscribed on a temple at Stowe; the gentle conclusion of it was to
call him “Hominem detestabilem, imbecillum, caducum.” Lord Lyttelton,
as usual, replied with firmness, but with too little asperity,
considering how unrelenting towards him was the malice of that
faction.
The grant of money for the treaty was followed by the Ways and Means
for the year. The new taxes were laid on houses and windows, and on
places; a poor tribute to popularity offered by Legge.
The Bill for explaining and extending the Act of Habeas Corpus was
now got into the House of Lords, where it produced a new scene, and
showed how the feelings of men differ from their professions. The
constitution, as settled at present, is in a King elected by the
voice of the people, without any right of succession, in opposition
to an arbitrary family, and tied down from acts of violence against
the liberty of individuals by that peculiar fundamental law, the
act of Habeas Corpus. The House of Lords is the next branch of the
Legislature. It is composed of the ancient Peerage, who have expelled
their ancient Kings for the innovations of the latter, and of modern
Peers, created under the new establishment by the favour of the
Prince, or selected from the sages of the Law for their integrity,
wisdom, and knowledge of the true rights of their country. In this
House, too, sit the Bishops, who cannot be too tender of those laws,
which secure the exercise of their holy religion. In this House sit
the Cavendishes and Russels, renowned for their vigorous defence
of the Habeas Corpus; and with them the Duke of Newcastle, the
ring-leader of the mob of Whigs on the accession of the present
family. The third estate is the House of Commons.
Let us, before we pass to the discussion of the Bill, anticipate the
behaviour of all these persons and bodies of men, all engaged by
common interest and common honour to support the charter, for which
they had violated other inferior ties; but almost all swayed by
private and separate interests to abandon the cause. The King talked
openly at his Levee against the Bill; and it was understood to be
offensive to him to vote for the extension of it. He was King; he did
not desire to reduce the prerogative lower than it had been delivered
to him. The Lords were become so much more considerable than they
had been before the Revolution, that they were in no danger from the
Crown; and when they do not fear it, they will always be ready to
uphold it. They look on themselves as distinct from the rest of the
nation; and at best, leave the people to be taken care of by their
representatives, the Commons. As jealous of, and as fond of their
privileges, as the King of his prerogative, they are attentive to
maintain them, and deem the rights of the people rather encroachments
than a common interest. Added to this general description, they
were, at the time I write of, a tame, subservient, incapable set
of men, governed entirely by the Duke of Newcastle, and the two
lawyers, Hardwicke and Mansfield. Those lawyers were instances of
the discrimination that ought to be made between the spirit of the
laws and the profession of them. Nobody better read in them, nobody
more warm to enforce them, nobody less actuated by the essence of
them. If either of them ever took the side of liberty, or the side of
mildness, I am willing to be thought to asperse them. The conduct of
the Prelates had for so many years been so uniformly supple, that no
man expected anything from them but complaisance for the Court--and
they deceived no man! The Hierarchy behaved so nobly in the reign of
James the Second, and has behaved so poorly ever since, that they
seem to know no medium between a mitre and a crown of martyrdom. If
the clergy are not called to the latter, they never deviate from the
pursuit of the former. One would think their motto was, _Canterbury
or Smithfield_.
The heir of the house of Russel was silent, and at last acquiesced
in rejection of the Bill. His compeer, the Duke of Devonshire, who
did not love Murray, and who had set out with approving the Bill,
became even an emissary to procure votes against it. He wrote to Lord
Hertford, to press him to come to town and oppose it; and begged
him, if he had any scruples, to come to him for the clearing of them.
A Cavendish soliciting against the Habeas Corpus was a phenomenon;
_that_ Cavendish supposing himself qualified for a casuist was the
height of burlesque. For the other Whig Duke, Newcastle, he was the
most pardonable of all. There had not been an hour of his life that
laid him under the least obligation of acting consistently. The House
of Commons maintained their character.
If this survey appears severe, let the motives be considered and
weighed. The Bill rejected was of the most national concern; if
rejected conscientiously, the grounds were those of convenience
preferred to those of immutable right--and with what arms do
tyrants _begin_ to combat liberty but with those of necessity and
convenience? But in the present case I cannot allow conscience to the
House of Lords. The House of Commons,[21] almost to a man, approved
the Bill. Five hundred men are probably as conscientious as two
hundred. But it was evidently an affair of faction; and was rejected
in compliment to Lord Mansfield, to mark whom it had been designed,
and to gratify the private pique and public authority of the family
of Yorke, the head of which always considered what was the law,
never on what grounds a law had been made.
On May 9th, the Bill was read by the Lords. Lord Hardwicke, after
chicaning upon it, rather than attacking it openly, proposed to ask
the opinions of the Judges. Lord Temple answered him with spirit,
and reproached his Peers with being so long governed by one Law
Lord, now by two. He read the strong introduction of the Earl of
Devonshire to the conference with the Commons on the former Bill,
and concluded with showing how improper it was to take the opinions
of the Judges, which must be biassed, as the new Bill inflicted
penalties on them if they refused the writ. This drew on more
altercation between them, and much haughtiness from Lord Hardwicke,
who urged that it was an improper time to press the Bill, when civil
authority wanted the utmost support: an argument that suits the worst
times and the worst Ministers; and never advanced with less truth,
for no man living could say in what instance civil authority had
wanted assistance. Lord Granville spoke for the Bill; but discovering
afterwards how unwelcome it was at St. James’s, he attended it no
more. Lord Mansfield opposed the Bill, and was seconded by the Duke
of Newcastle, who, though approaching to seventy, still appeared in
the full vigour of his nonsense.
Lord Chief Justice Willes, in the name of his brethren, desired time
to consider the question till next term, as he himself was ill, and
three of the order were obliged to attend for three days at the Old
Bailey. But Lord Hardwicke, who the last year would have detained
Admirals under sailing orders of the utmost consequence, affected to
see danger in this delay, in which by the nature of the thing there
could be no danger but in not giving it sufficient deliberation,
and was urgent that the Judges should have but two days to consider
the point: so little decency did that man observe in pursuing the
dictates of his passions. But in this, as in the former case, the
House, with all its complaisance, declined acquiescence, and allowed
the Judges above a fortnight. It was not expected that Lord Hardwicke
would have taken up the point so strongly, as Lord Mansfield, whom he
did not love, was aimed at by the Bill; but Charles Yorke, his son,
who resented that Pratt was preferred to him for Attorney-General,
had declared against the Bill, even without consulting his father.
The calling upon the Judges for their solemn opinions was one of
those dramatic exhibitions which had twice before been played off by
the Ministry with success. No man supposed that Lord Hardwicke or
Lord Mansfield wished, wanted, or would be directed by the sentiments
of the rest, the subordinate part of the order: but the Bill was
to be thrown out, and the world to be amused by the gravity of the
oracles that were to pronounce against it. The plan, I believe,
in this, as in the former cases, was Lord Mansfield’s. In his own
and Stone’s affair, the decorum of the Cabinet Council had made
prodigious impression. The Admirals, who were rather struck with awe
than inspired it, had served to give a sort of colour to the fate of
Mr. Byng--but in the present instance this decoration of the theatre
did not terminate so advantageously. The Cabinet Council had said
little, but it was with dignity: the Admirals less, but that was
the very thing desired. When the Judges came, they were to talk, to
talk on law, and to _explain_ that law by _jargon_. The field was
so spacious and so inviting, that they ran into all the subtleties,
distinctions, chicaneries, and absurdities of their profession. They
contradicted one another, and no two of them but differed on some
particular case. They exposed themselves and their instigators, who
at last could not build upon any decision of those sages.
They began with Noel, the youngest Judge, a pompous man, of little
solidity. Wilmot, whose manner was like Lord Mansfield’s, and very
rapid and full of fire, spoke warmly against the Bill, though
the intimate friend of Pratt and Legge. So did Legge’s brother,
the Judge, and Adams, another friend of Pratt. Wilmot and Noel
differed in some points of not much moment. The former spoke with
great applause, though too diffusely. Bathurst was strong against
Wilmot; Smyth with him. Foster could not attend, being hindered
by the illness of his wife; but he was zealous for the Bill, and
published a large pamphlet in support of it. The rest were discordant
and inconclusive; and so little was gained by the delivery of
their opinions, that Lord Temple now pleaded for the Bill on the
disagreement of the Judges; and moved a long question, the purport of
which was, that an affidavit of confinement ought to be a probable
cause for the Judges to grant the writ. Lord Lyttelton saying, that
in any other place that question would be a defamatory libel on
the Judges, Lord Temple started up and said, “This is impertinence
I will not bear.”--This occasioned much confusion. Lord Lyttelton
explained himself handsomely, saying he had applied words to words,
not to persons: he was sorry if he had given offence; he had meant
less offence to Lord Temple than to anybody: he revered the manes of
their former friendship; he hoped the ashes were not extinguished
past return. To all this Lord Temple said nothing; and when the
House insisted on their giving their words that it should proceed no
further, Lord Temple sullenly endeavoured to avoid it by shifting
the asking of pardon on Lord Lyttelton. The latter engaged with
frankness to drop it--always the most sensible way when words have
passed in public, which are sure of being prevented from further
discussion. Lord Lyttelton was known to want no spirit: Lord Temple
had been miserably deficient.
The fate of the Bill, which could not be procured by the sanction
of the Judges, Lord Mansfield was forced to take on himself. He
spoke for two hours and half: his voice and manner, composed of
harmonious solemnity, were the least graces of his speech. I am not
averse to own that I never heard so much argument, so much sense,
so much oratory united. His deviations into the abstruse minutiæ of
the Law served but as a foil to the luminous parts of the oration.
Perhaps it was the only speech that, in my time at least, had real
effect; that is, convinced many persons. Nor did I ever know how
true a votary I was to liberty till I found that I was not one of
the number staggered by that speech. I took as many notes of it as I
possibly could; and prolix as they would be, I would give them to the
reader, if it would not be injustice to Lord Mansfield to curtail and
mangle, as I should by the want of connexion, so beautiful a thread
of argumentation.
Lord Temple made a feeble answer--yet the force of truth was still
so great, that notwithstanding the visible operation of Lord
Mansfield’s speech, they would not venture directly to reject the
Bill. Lord Hardwicke agreed that all the Judges ought to have equal
power in granting the writ, and said that he would move to order
the Judges to bring in such a Bill against the next session. Lord
Temple’s friends seemed glad to catch at this proposal; and the Bill
was heard of no more![22]
The complexion of the rest of the year was military. Even the softest
penetralia of the Court were threatened with storms. The Princess
began to perceive an alteration in the ardour of Lord Bute, which
grew less assiduous about her and increased towards her son. The Earl
had attained such an ascendant over the Prince, that he became more
remiss to the mother: and no doubt it was an easier function to lead
the understanding of a youth, than to keep up to the spirit required
by an experienced woman. The Prince even dropped hints against women
interfering in politics. These clouds, however, did not burst; and
the creatures of the Princess vindicated her from any breach with
Lord Bute with as much earnestness as if their union had been to her
honour.
The King of Prussia opened one of his ablest campaigns. The same
enemies still crowded upon him, though much of their vigour was
abated by the extraordinary efforts they had made to overwhelm him:
yet obliging him to make head against so many Armies, his fall
at last seemed inevitable. Sweden, involved in domestic broils,
rather kept up his attention, and divided his forces, than hurt
him actively. The unwieldy numbers of Muscovites again advanced.
The Czarina, inflexible in resentments, which she did not attend
enough to the operations of government to enforce properly, had
thought herself betrayed. Apraxin was recalled; the great Chancellor
Bestucheff, inclined to England, was disgraced, and new Generals
commissioned to execute her vengeance. The Empress-Queen had drained
her own and her husband’s dominions to collect a decisive force: yet
the vivacity of the King of Prussia, instead of entrenching wholly on
the defensive, though he disposed various Armies to keep the Russians
at bay and to cover Saxony, led him to a hardy step: after besieging
and taking Schweidnitz in thirteen days, he instantaneously appeared
in Moravia, the short road to Vienna. Daun had thought him preparing
to attack Bohemia, when, to his surprise, he heard the King had
opened the siege of Olmutz. On this theatre the alert Monarch and the
cautious Marshal displayed all the resources of their art, and by the
opposition of their characters, and the balance of their talents,
showed each other in every light that could create admiration.
But this is a theme, beyond my flight:--suffice it to say, that
Daun repaired his oversight by cutting off the King’s convoys, and
reducing him to raise the siege; and the King converted this check
into new matter of glory, by suddenly starting from Daun, getting a
march of two days, and piercing into Bohemia, where he made himself
master of Konigsgratz, while Daun did not suspect that he had driven
him from a siege to a conquest. In fact, it was not Daun alone that
rescued Olmutz and saved Vienna: the Russians were pouring upon
Brandenburgh, not more formidable by their designs than by their
dreadful manner of executing them. Savage cruelty and devastation
attended their march. They besieged Custrin with unspeakable fury,
and reduced the brave Governor to defend a mountain of ashes and a
few ruinous walls--the next step was Berlin. But I am advanced too
far into the year, and must look back to other operations.
Mr. Pitt, no less enterprising than Frederick, but a little less
informed, and a good deal less disposed to listen to information,
determined to strike some mighty stroke on his part, that might
combine his name with the glory of that King, and cement and justify
their harmony. Unfortunately, his mind was not purged of its vision
of Rochfort, and he again chose the coast of France for the scene
of his romance. A strong fleet was equipped of eighteen ships of
the line, thirteen frigates, three sloops, four fire-ships, and two
bomb-ketches, and carrying an Army of fourteen thousand landmen and
six thousand marines. The Duke of Marlborough, on whom Lord George
Sackville could not avoid attending, was appointed General. Commodore
Howe was destined to lead the Fleet: on which Sir Edward Hawke struck
his flag; but being persuaded to resume it, accompanied Lord Anson,
who took the command himself. The mode of volunteers, which the
Duke had always discouraged, now revived: Sir James Lowther, master
of 40,000_l._ a year, Lord Downe, Sir John Armitage, and others,
embarked with the expedition. Lord Granby at the same time came into
the service, and was appointed Colonel of the Blues; and George
Townshend, now there was no more question of the Duke, returned
to the Army, and was restored on the foot of his former rank. The
armament sailed on the first of June. Lord Anson, with the larger
ships, kept out at sea; Howe led the transports, which for some
days were kept back by contrary winds, but anchored on the fifth in
Cancalle-bay, near St. Maloes. The troops landed without opposition;
when the Commanders (as in former expeditions) seeming dispatched,
so scanty was their intelligence, to _discover_ the coast of France,
rather than to master it, soon perceived that the town was so
strongly situated, and approachable only by a narrow causeway, that,
after burning a parcel[23] of small vessels, they returned to their
ships; and the French learned that they were not to be conquered by
every Duke of Marlborough.
The Duke himself was personally brave, and was eager to land on the
first possibility; but he had neither experience nor information,
nor probability on his side adequate to such a bravado. However, it
was well for him that his miscarriage happened under the auspices
of Pitt, not of Fox. Here, it was said, his Grace and his troops
remarked that Lord George Sackville was not among the first to court
danger: and Howe, who never made friendship but at the mouth of a
cannon, had conceived and expressed a strong aversion to him.[24] It
is certain that both the Duke and Lord George were so sick of naval
expeditions, that, after parading before Granvelle and Cherbourg,
they returned with the Fleet to St. Helen’s, and set out for the
Army in Germany, where the Duke took the command of the English
forces. General Blighe had been fetched from Ireland on that intent,
but was obliged to cede to the superior influence of Marlborough;[25]
and more cruelly was appointed to resume the thread of our silly
expeditions, from which Mr. Pitt and the mob still expected I don’t
know what of glory. Blighe was an elderly man, of no talents, brave,
but in every other shape unfit for the destined service, supposing
there was such a thing as fitness for that service. The armament
sailed again, and Prince Edward embarked with them: and that some
utility might at least be pretended from this vain expense, Prince
Ferdinand, to flatter Pitt, wrote letter after letter to declare the
great benefits he reaped from our expeditions, by which the attention
and troops of France were divided: an affirmation of so little truth,
that the Duke of Marlborough, in the hurry of their retreat, having
left his silver tea-spoons behind him, the Duc d’Aiguillon, politely
to mark contempt, sent them home by a cartel-ship.
But Prince Ferdinand who thus complimented the English Ministry on
the wisdom of these idle measures, showed it was not from want of
knowing how to perform realities. Having pushed the French beyond the
Rhine, he passed it himself at Herven in sight of their whole Army,
and soon eclipsed the glory of that passage by defeating them at
Crevelt, where they lost seven thousand men, and the Duc de Gisors,
the only son of Marshal Belleisle, an amiable and accomplished young
man. The King had Knyphausen thank the King of Prussia for giving
him so able a General. The Princess Gouvernante wrote to Prince
Ferdinand to complain of his passing over part of the territories of
the States. He replied, “He was sorry; it had been over a very small
part, and he should not have violated even that, had he had the same
Dutch guides that led the French to Hanover in the preceding year.”
The French were commanded by the Count de Clermont, a Prince of
the Blood of no estimation: their discipline was so bad, that
two-and-fifty officers went to amuse themselves at Paris without
leave of the Court. D’Etrées, their best General, had been recalled
by the intrigues of Madame Pompadour and her faction, whose interest
was displayed in a remarkable instance. At a meeting of the Marshals
of France, D’Etrées complained of a libel written against him, which
he produced. Maillebois, attached to the mistress, said, “It would be
right for the honour of the corps to have it inquired into; and the
more so, because he believed the charge was well-grounded, as he had
been informed by his son, who wrote the pamphlet.” The declaration
was frank: Maillebois was banished, and his son chastised but gently;
and indemnification was soon procured for both.
The victory of Crevelt did not draw on the consequences that were
expected. Contades, the fourth commander despatched into Germany by
the fluctuating councils at Versailles, found employment for Prince
Ferdinand without risking another battle; and the Duc de Broglio
and the Prince de Soubise attacked and cut to pieces seven thousand
Hessians under the Prince of Ysenberg; and would, it was feared,
intercept the English troops under the Duke of Marlborough, who
landed at Embden. This became more probable, as Monsieur Chevert
formed a plan to burn one of Prince Ferdinand’s bridges and to seize
his magazines, and cut off Baron Imhoff, who was posted to secure
the passage of the Rhine. But Imhoff, who soon perceived his own
desperate situation, destroyed this well-concerted scheme, which
failed by its very approach to success; for Imhoff would not stay
to be surrounded, but with his little force attacked Chevert (who
commanded twelve thousand men) and dispersed them in less than half
an hour, taking eleven pieces of cannon, their baggage, and a great
number of prisoners. Chevert was one of the ablest officers in the
French service; Imhoff, a man of so little capacity, that the talents
of his life seemed to have been reserved for this sole occasion. The
junction with the English was made, and Prince Ferdinand repassed the
Rhine unmolested.
FOOTNOTES:
[21] Mr. Fox, who did not love Pratt, and paid court to Lord
Mansfield, was one of the very few who gave negatives to the passing
of the Bill.
[22] Till the year 1816, when this just and necessary measure passed
with little notice, and no reference to the Judges.--E.
[23] The King said to Lord Waldegrave, “I never had any opinion of
it; we shall brag of having burnt their ships, and they, of having
driven us away.”
[24] They agreed so ill, that one day Lord George putting several
questions to Howe, and receiving no answer, said, “Mr. Howe, don’t
you hear me? I have asked you several questions.” Howe replied, “I
don’t love questions.”
[25] The King would have hindered Lord George from going to Germany;
but he preferred it to expeditions, and would go; and did, even
without kissing the King’s hand.