The Author’s motives for continuing this Work in the year 1759--A
memorable era--Election of Chancellor of Oxford--Exchange
of Prisoners--Death of the Princess of Orange--Capture
of Goree--Expeditions to West Indies--Generals Wolfe and
Townshend--Mr. Pitt’s character and ministry--Estimates of
the year--Mr. Pitt’s speech on Taxes--Jealousies in the
Ministry--Royal Message respecting the Militia--Threats of
Invasion from France--Havre de Grace bombarded.
The conclusion of the reign which furnished the preceding Memoirs
arrived so soon after the period where I quitted my narration,
and was terminated by such a scene of glory, that it would be
unpardonable to break off the thread in the most interesting moment
of our annals. The particular events will be detailed by many
writers, more accurately perhaps, and more circumstantially: but
as I am accustomed to relate our story with exact fidelity to the
impressions it made on me, the picture of so memorable an era drawn
by an eyewitness must, with all its faults and prejudices, be more
striking to future readers, than the cold and critical detail which
men less partial may hereafter retrace and digest on a regular plan.
These volumes, however, having swelled to a bulk far beyond my first
intention, I shall endeavour to restrain this sketch to as compact
dimensions as perspicuity will admit of. Descriptions of battles
and victories I have always avoided, as not coming within the scope
of my purpose, and from my ignorance in military transactions. Even
the glorious campaigns which will be the chief subjects of the two
years I am going to write of, will be but slightly touched: their
consequences alone are my object. Intrigues of the Cabinet, or of
Parliament, scarce existed at that period. All men were, or seemed
to be, transported with the success of their country, and content
with an Administration which outwent their warmest wishes, or made
their jealousy ashamed to show itself. Few new characters appeared
on the stage. One episode[32] indeed there was, in which less heroic
affections were concerned; but having given rise to no memorable
catastrophe, nor disturbed the shining order of events, it will not
demand a long narration, though it will diversify the story, and, by
the intermixture of human passions, serve to convince posterity that
such a display of immortal actions as illustrate the following pages
is not the exhibition of a fabulous age.
The winter of this great year was not memorable. I shall briefly
skim the events of it. The Chancellorship of Oxford was vacant
by the death of Lord Arran.[33] The candidates were the Earls of
Westmoreland[34] and Lichfield,[35] and Trevor, Bishop of Durham.
The last, who had the appearance of a Court-candidate, was yet
Tory enough not to make him despair of success. Lord Lichfield’s
education, principles, and connexions were still more favourable
to _his_ hopes. He lived in the neighbourhood, was unalterably
good-humoured, and if he did not make the figure that his youth had
promised, the Jacobites could not reproach him, as he had drowned
his parts in the jovial promotion of their cause--but of late he had
warped a little from what they thought loyalty. Lord Westmoreland
was an aged man, of gravity and dignity, married to a Cavendish, and
formerly so attached to the House of Hanover, that he commanded the
very body of troops which King George I. had been obliged to send to
Oxford to teach the University the only kind of passive obedience
which they did not approve. But having fallen into the intimacy of
Lord Chesterfield and Lord Cobham during the Opposition to Sir Robert
Walpole, his regiment[36] was taken from him, and his resentment,
which was not so versatile as theirs, had led him to imbibe all the
nonsensical tenets of the Jacobites. They wanted a representative,
and he was a comely one. The choice accordingly fell on him, after
Lord Lichfield, who divided the Tories, had flung his interest into
that scale to prevent the election of the Bishop.
The cloud which had hung over General Conway since the disappointment
at Rochfort began to disperse. He was commissioned to meet at Sluys
Monsieur de Bareil, who commanded in French Flanders, and to settle
a cartel for the exchange of prisoners. The distresses of France
had obliged that Crown to withdraw their allowance from their
prisoners here, who were so numerous as to make that scanty stipend
an object: it seemed none to the generosity of this country to
replace it--private and voluntary subscriptions[37] were even made
for their relief. The cartel was immediately and satisfactorily
settled: yet as Mr. Pitt could not digest the smallest deviation from
his plans, the essence of which was rashness, and as he wisely was
desirous of inspiring the most romantic valour into our officers and
troops, nothing could prevail on him to trust another enterprise to
Mr. Conway, who panted for an opportunity of encountering the rudest
dangers that Mr. Pitt could chalk out. But Conway was still crossed;
and even Moyston, who pleaded ignorance of his profession, to excuse
himself from being employed on the West Indian expeditions, was, by
the favour of Newcastle, whose creature he then was, preferred to
Conway for service in Germany.
On the 12th of January died Anne, Princess-Royal of England and
Dowager of Orange, the King’s eldest daughter, and Gouvernante of the
Republic during the minority of her son, in the fiftieth year of her
age. She left no children but the young Stadtholder,[38] of eleven
years of age, and the Princess Caroline. Her last offices had been
employed in preventing a rupture between Great Britain and Holland,
which was ready to break out on the many captures we had made of
their vessels carrying supplies to the French settlements.
The first conquest that opened the year was the capture of Goree by
Commodore Keppel.[39] That island had indeed surrendered on the 29th
of December preceding; but the account did not arrive till the 27th
of this month. An expedition of far higher importance was at that
time on the point of departing. The war was to be carried into the
heart and to the capital of the French empire in America; and so
weakened was the force of that Monarchy on that side of the globe,
by their encroachments, in which they had drawn upon themselves such
extensive vengeance, that this was not attempted to be made a secret
expedition. Quebec was the object, and was avowed to be so. Another
fleet had sailed in November, to attempt the reduction of Martinico
and Guadaloupe, under the direction of General Hopson and Commodore
Moore. The former was old and infirm: brave, but neither able nor
experienced: Moore has been mentioned before. On Martinico the
attempt miscarried. Moore was blamed by some for want of activity;
but his subservience to the Ministry on the affair of Admiral Byng
had secured such favour to him, that, in the Extraordinary Gazette
published on this disappointment, Moore was treated with great
lenity, and the blame made to bear hard on Hopson, who, however,
survived long enough to expire in the arms of victory; for, on
the failure at Martinico, the troops embarked with alacrity for
Guadaloupe, and carried that island by dint of bravery. Basseterre,
the capital, was reduced to a heap of ashes by the artillery from
the Fleet; and Hopson died in possession of the ruins. The remainder
of the island was subdued by General Barrington,[40] who succeeded
to the command, and Colonel Clavering. Moyston,[41] as I have said,
had been named for this service, but professed he knew nothing of
his trade: yet, on a promotion of general officers, before which the
King, as usual, made a promotion of Hanoverians in the same line,
by which some Major-Generals were now put over the head of General
Waldegrave, who had commanded them in the last campaign; Moyston,
of the same rank with Waldegrave, offered to serve under the new
Hanoverian Lieutenants-General, if he might be sent to Germany; which
well-timed flattery obtained his suit. On his waving Martinico, Pitt
carried a list of names to the King, who selected Hopson--a choice
not consonant to Mr. Pitt’s practice, who, considering that our
ancient officers had grown old on a very small portion of experience,
which by no means compensated for the decay of fire and vigour, chose
to trust his plans to the alertness and hopes of younger men.
This appeared particularly in the nomination of Wolfe for the
enterprise on Quebec. Ambition, activity, industry, passion for the
service, were conspicuous in Wolfe. He seemed to breathe for nothing
but fame, and lost no moments in qualifying himself to compass his
object. He had studied for his purpose, and wrote well. Presumption
on himself was necessary to such a character; and he had it. He was
formed to execute the designs of such a master as Pitt, till risen
to an eminence, whence he might choose to thwart his master. To
Wolfe was associated George Townshend,[42] whose proud, and sullen,
and contemptuous temper never suffered him to wait for thwarting
his superiors till risen to a level with them. He saw everything
in an ill-natured and ridiculous light--a sure prevention of ever
being seen himself in a great or favourable one. The haughtiness
of the Duke of Cumberland, the talents or blemishes of Fox, the
ardour of Wolfe, the virtue of Conway, all were alike the objects
of Townshend’s spleen and contradiction--but Wolfe was not a man to
wave his pre-eminence from fear of caricatures. He felt his superior
knowledge and power, and had spirit enough to make Townshend sensible
at least of the latter--a confidence in himself that was fortunate
for his country: but we must pass to the other events of the year
which preceded the decision of that attempt.
Mr. Pitt, on entering upon Administration, had found the nation at
the lowest ebb in point of power and reputation. His predecessors,
now his coadjutors, wanted genius, spirit, and system. The Fleet had
many able officers; but the Army, which, since the resignation of
the Duke of Cumberland, had lost sight of discipline, was destitute
of Generals in whom either the nation or the soldiery had any
confidence. France, who meaned to be feared, was feared heartily;
and the heavy debt of the nation, which was above fourscore millions,
served as an excuse to those who understood nothing but little
temporary expedients to preach up our impossibility of making an
effectual stand. They were willing to trust that France would be so
good as to ruin us by inches.
Pitt had roused us from this ignoble lethargy: he had asserted
that our resources were still prodigious--he found them so in the
intrepidity of our troops and navies--but he went farther, and
perhaps too far. He staked our revenues with as little management as
he played with the lives of the subjects; and as if we could never
have another war to wage, or as if he meant, which was impracticable,
that his Administration should decide which alone should exist as
a nation, Britain or France, he lavished the last treasures of
this country with a prodigality beyond example and beyond excuse;
yet even that profusion was not so blameable as his negligence.
Ignorant of the whole circle of finance, and consequently averse
from corresponding with financiers, a plain set of men, who are
never to be paid with words instead of figures, he kept aloof from
all details, drew magnificent plans, and left others to find the
magnificent means. Disdaining, too, to descend into the operations
of an office which he did not fill, he affected to throw on the
Treasury the execution of measures which he dictated, but for
which he thus held himself not responsible. The conduct was artful,
new, and grand; and to him proved most advantageous. Secluded from
all eyes, his orders were received as oracles; and their success,
of consequence, was imputed to his inspiration. Misfortunes and
miscarriages fell to the account of the more human agents: corruption
and waste were charged on the subordinate priests. They indeed were
charmed with this dispensation.
As Mr. Pitt neither granted suits nor received them, Newcastle
revelled in a boundless power of appointing agents, commissaries,
victuallers, and the whole train of leeches, and even paid his court
to Pitt by heaping extravagance on extravagance; for the more money
was thrown away, the greater idea Pitt conceived of his system’s
grandeur. But none flattered this ostentatious prodigality like the
Germans. From the King of Prussia[43] and Prince Ferdinand to the
lowest victualler in the camp, all made advantage of English easiness
and dissipation. As the Minister was proud of such pensioners,
they were not coy in begging his alms. Fox, too, was not wanting
to himself during this harvest, to which his office of Paymaster
opened so commodious an inlet. Depressed, annihilated as a statesman,
he sat silent, indemnifying himself by every opportunity of gain
which his rival’s want of economy threw in his way. The larger and
more numerous are subsidies, the more troops are in commission, the
more are on service abroad, the ampler means has the Paymaster of
enriching himself. An unfortunate campaign, or an unpopular peace
might shake the Minister’s establishment--but till this vision of
expensive glory should be dissipated, Fox was determined to take no
part. But thence, from that inattention on one hand, and rapacity on
the other, started up those prodigious private fortunes which we have
seen suddenly come forth--and thence we remained with a debt of an
hundred and forty millions!
The admirers of Mr. Pitt extol the reverberation he gave to our
councils, the despondence he banished, the spirit he infused,
the conquests he made, the security he affixed to our trade and
plantations, the humiliation of France, the glory of Britain
carried, under his Administration, to a pitch at which it never had
arrived--and all this is exactly true. When they add, that all this
could not be purchased too dearly, and that there was no option
between this conduct and tame submission to the yoke of France--even
this is just in a degree; but a material objection still remains,
not depreciating a grain from this bill of merits, which must be
gratefully acknowledged by whoever calls himself Englishman--yet
very derogatory from Mr. Pitt’s character, as virtually trusted with
the revenues, the property of his country. A few plain words will
explain my meaning, and comprehend the force of the question. All
this was done--but might have been done for many millions less--the
next war will state this objection more fully.
Posterity, this is an impartial picture. I am neither dazzled by the
blaze of the times in which I have lived, nor, if there are spots in
the sun, do I deny that I see them. It is a man I am describing, and
one, whose greatness will bear to have his blemishes fairly delivered
to you--not from a love of censure in me, but of truth; and because
it is history I am writing, not romance. I pursue my subject.
The estimates of the year will show how our expenses increased. When
the Ways and Means were to be voted, the disposition of Mr. Pitt,
which I have mentioned, appeared; and some other passions. He had
taken umbrage at Legge from the time the latter had been associated
with him in the testimonials of popularity which they had received
together from many counties and corporations, or he might have
discovered some of Legge’s subterraneous intrigues. The new-intended
tax to answer part of the supplies granted, was destined to fall on
sugar. Pitt, who rarely condescended to make use of any instrument
for acquiring popularity, was less reserved on this head with regard
to Beckford, who was a noisy, good-humoured flatterer, bombast, as
became the priest of such an idol, and vulgar and absurd, as was
requisite to captivate any idol’s devotees, the mob. On that class in
the City, Beckford had much influence. He was pompous in his expense,
or rather in his expressions, but he knew his interest, and was
attentive to it. His fortune lay chiefly in Jamaica--a tax on sugar
touched his vitals. Accompanied by fifty West-Indian merchants, he
applied to Legge to divert the new duty; but the measure was taken.
He was obliged to have recourse to Pitt, who professed being little
in the secret of money-matters; promised the affair should have
farther consideration, and that himself would be open to conviction
on what he should hear in the debate.
The chiefs of the City had already been acquainted with the tax,
and approved it; but Pitt obliged Newcastle and Legge to depart
from their plan, though at so late a day, and to shift the new
duty upon dry goods in general. Yet when the debate came on, Pitt
reproved Legge for having been so dilatory with the taxes; and made
an extravagant panegyric on Beckford, who, he said, had done more to
support Government than any Minister in England; launched out on his
principles, disinterestedness, knowledge of trade, and solidity;
and professed he thought him another Sir Josiah Child. The House,
who looked on Beckford as a wild, incoherent, superficial buffoon,
of whose rhapsodies they were weary, laughed and groaned. Pitt was
offended, and repeated his encomium, as the House did their sense of
it. He added, that he thought a tax on wine or linens preferable to
that on dry goods (which included sugar as part): he wished either
had been proposed sooner: now he must _sequi deteriora_--yet why
did he talk of his being consulted? _Accident, jumble, and twenty
circumstances, had placed him in an odd gap of government--but only
for a time--he only desired to be an instrument of government, and
the drudge of office._ He wished for no power; he had seen what
effect it had had on his predecessors!
But the most remarkable part of his speech on that and a following
day, at least what was much recollected a few years afterwards,[44]
was the commendation he bestowed upon _excise_, upon Sir Robert
Walpole’s plan for it,[45] and upon that Minister. He concluded with
declaring, that he should like a tax on hops better than on any
commodity that had been mentioned. This, too, was very ill received
by the House. Legge, as usual, kissed the rod with much humility--yet
many, who knew he deserved to be crushed, did not approve the violent
manner in which it was done.
On the Corn Bill, Sir John Philipps reproached Pitt with
Hanoverizing. Soame Jenyns, a humorous poet, had indirectly done
the same in a simile to ridicule the Tories, whom Pitt was leading
towards the Court, and who had already gone so far as to agree to his
most extravagant demands for Germany. Pitt was grievously hurt; and
it required all the intercession and protection of Lord Hardwicke to
save Jenyns from being turned out of the Board of Trade. Pitt was no
less complaisant to Lord Hardwicke on a point of higher importance.
Lord Denbigh[46] acquainted the House of Lords, that he should move
to ask the Judges for their new Act of Habeas Corpus, (which Lord
Hardwicke had promised to prepare,) and said he did not doubt but
that Lord would second his motion. The Judges were accordingly
summoned--but Lord Denbigh told them he had dropped his design. As he
professed attachment to Pitt, the inference was obvious.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, who could be obsequious, too, and who
was showing great management for the Methodists, so far as to enter
into their superstitious prosecution of the bakers for baking on
Sundays, was not rigid even on that or still more solemn days, when
he looked towards Court. On the general fast he acquainted the King
by the Lord Chamberlain, that he had provided a preacher for his
Majesty, who would have all proper regard to necessary brevity--but
the man happened to preach half an hour--double the time to which the
King was accustomed; who complaining that the Archbishop had deceived
him, the flattery came to light. The Prelate was not less attentive
to paying his court in a point of greater moment. The King, persuaded
that his indulgence to and toleration of the Catholics would secure
him from their plotting, was constantly averse to every proposition
of rigour towards them. Representations of Justices of Peace against
their chapels in private houses were always quashed. Of late it had
appeared in print, by concurrent testimonies of opposite parties on
the controversy with Bower,[47] that a regular mission of Jesuits
was established in London. They had attempted or suggested the
assassination of the King of Portugal; they were detected and decried
in France--Catholic kingdoms--in London no notice was taken of them.
The Primate was too much occupied on forcing Protestant bakers to
church, and in providing laconic preachers for his master!
Newcastle had now been long enough connected with Pitt to grow
jealous of him once more. On a fine speech in the House of Lords,
for the importation of Irish cattle, made by the Duke of Bedford,
Newcastle commended him extravagantly; and soon after, a connexion
between them recommenced by the intervention of Fox and the Duke of
Bedford’s creatures. The consequences, however, did not soon appear,
except in mutual diffidences of Newcastle and Pitt, the former of
whom suspected the latter of designing to break on some popular
topic; an opportunity which therefore the new connexion determined
not to throw in his way, apprehending the power of his popularity.
The jealousy, however, frequently broke out: the instances, trifling
as they were, I shall sometimes briefly mention, as several of them
led to higher matters.
The Privy Council sitting to hear the case argued of the captures
made on the Dutch; Pitt, sensible of the clamour that would be
raised, if the prizes were restored, went officiously early to the
House of Commons, to mark, by his not being at Council, his taking
no part in the decision. Newcastle went thither; but perceiving the
politic absence of Pitt, his Grace pretended the chamber was too
hot, and retired too. This was followed by the affair of the Judges:
on a proposal the last year to exempt them from the new tax on
employments, it had been agreed rather to increase their salaries.
Legge had promised a Bill for that purpose; and John Campbell,[48]
of Calder, a staunch revolutionist, said he would add a motion to
convert their commissions during good behaviour into patents for
life. Then followed the Debate on the Habeas Corpus, on which, though
the opinions of the Judges were divided, they certainly were not very
favourable to Mr. Pitt and the friends of the extension. Now when the
time was arrived for fixing those salaries, Pitt told Newcastle that
the increase had been made to reward the complaisance of the Judges
on the Bill of Habeas Corpus, _and that it was the largest fee that
ever was given_. This terrified the Duke so much, that he prevailed
on Campbell to drop his intended Motion. The King, too, disapproved
it; wishing, when he could, to leave the prerogative as ample as he
found it. The Treasury, however, having advanced the salaries,
were censured by Lord Denbigh and Lord Temple. Yet when it came
before the House, Pitt, though he warmly opposed it in private, did
not attend; but his friends, George Grenville and Beckford, attacked
the Motion, and a Mr. Coventry told many entertaining stories of the
Judges and their rapaciousness on the circuit, and of casual presents
that they had converted into standing usages. Charles Yorke defended
both the Judges and the measure--the latter with more success than
the former: yet as the stories were neither flagrant nor of very
recent date, the best apology for the Judges was, that so little
could be objected to them. The additional salary was voted by 169
to 39; which occasioned Charles Townshend to say, _that the book of
Judges had been saved by the book of Numbers_.
[Illustration: DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.
London, Henry Colburn, 1846.]
Legge, who officially made the Motion, did not escape Pitt’s anger;
but he was protected by Newcastle, to whom he had newly attached
himself. The first interview passed with such privacy, that they
met at Lord Dupplin’s without candles. Yet Newcastle discovered it
to Pitt, and others to Lord Bute, which completed the ruin of Legge
with both. Lord Bute immediately showed his resentment by excluding
Oswald, though a Scot, from the Treasury, because recommended
by Legge; and even to Pitt, Lord Bute made use of the name of
the Prince of Wales to fortify the exclusion. Legge, however,
was indemnified by obtaining the vacant post for his friend Lord
North.[49]
These were the most remarkable, and not very interesting events
of that session, which concluded with a Message from the King to
desire to be enabled to march the Militia out of their several
counties on the apprehension of an invasion from France. Notice
of such an intention had been received so early as February last.
Fifty thousand men were said to be destined for that service, which
formerly had been a plan of Marshal Belleisle in the last war,
had been communicated to the King of Prussia, and approved of by
him. Pitt made a pompous speech on delivery of the Message, and
distinguished between the various kinds of fear: this, he said, was a
magnanimous fear. The Address in return was still more lofty. Vyner
and Cooke added an Address, that his Majesty would quicken such
Lords Lieutenant as were dilatory with their Militias--there were
several of them; the measure was far from being generally popular.
When they did come to march, several country gentlemen would have
excused themselves on the season of hay harvest. Pitt answered, that
if any such objection were made, he would, move the next session to
have the Bill repealed--a dreadful threat to his Tory friends, who,
by the silent _douceurs_ of commissions in the Militia, were weaned
from their opposition, without a sudden transition to ministerial
employment.
The invasion, though it ended in smoke, was very seriously projected,
and hung over us for great part of the summer; nor was it radically
baffled till the winter following. Immense preparations were made
along their coasts of flat-bottomed boats. They even notified their
design to the Dutch; but at the same time informing the States, that
they did not intend to disturb the established succession, but to
punish England for her attempts on their coasts the last year. This
notification had the least serious air in the whole transaction, but
accorded with those weak councils, which knew not how to conduct
any of their operations. We were defenceless at home, and could
not assemble above twelve thousand men. Our towns were crowded
with French prisoners. They were removed up into the country, and
committed to the guard of the Militia. The Earl of Orford,[50] with
the Militia of Norfolk, was garrisoned at Portsmouth, whence they
addressed the King with offers and promises of service--a zeal
somewhat unconstitutional, and indicating how far from impossible it
might be to divert this national force to the same purposes as are
always reasonably apprehended from a standing Army. In the present
case the apprehension was the more pregnant, as the officers of the
Militia were chiefly Tory gentlemen.
To ward off or dissipate the invasion, Admiral Rodney[51] was
dispatched to the French coast; and arriving off Havre de Grace, he
with two bomb-ketches set fire to the town in two or three places,
though the fire from the forts was very warm. He threw so prodigious
a number of bombs into the place, that he almost melted his own
mortars; but the flat-bottomed boats, which were not finished,
proved to be out of his reach; and he returned with having done but
inconsiderable damage. About the same time advice being received that
Monsieur Thurot, with 1500 men under his command, had escaped out
of Dunkirk, another battalion was flung into Dover Castle, and two
more were ordered into the lines at Chatham--but Thurot was not then
sailed.
FOOTNOTES:
[32] The story of Lord George Sackville.
[33] The late Earl of Arran was only brother of the last Duke of
Ormond, and had been elected Chancellor of Oxford, on the forfeiture
of his brother, to show the devotion of the University to that
family, and to the Jacobite cause.
[34] John Fane, Earl of Westmoreland, married Mary, only daughter of
Lord Henry Cavendish, a younger son of the first Duke of Devonshire.
[35] George Henry Lee, third Earl of Lichfield, married Diana,
daughter of Sir Thomas Frankland; a very remarkable union--for she
was fourth in descent from Oliver Cromwell, as her Lord was from King
Charles the First. They had no issue.
[36] He was not even permitted to sell his regiment, though he had
paid 8,000_l._ for it.
[37] 1740_l._ were collected for them in London alone. The Romans
dragged Princes in triumph after their cars--the English taxed
themselves to support their prisoners.
[38] Father of the late King of the Netherlands.--E.
[39] Augustus Keppel, second son of William Anne, Earl of Albemarle.
This was the same Keppel who had interested himself to save Admiral
Byng, and who was so much more known in the succeeding reign from his
own trial and quarrel with Sir Hugh Palisser.
[40] John, younger brother of the Lord Viscount Barrington.
[41] John, younger brother of Sir Roger Moyston, and Groom of the
Bed-chamber to the King.
[42] George, eldest son of the Viscount Townshend, whom he succeeded
in the title, afterwards Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.--A.
Our Author, who had no objection to satirical jokes, should have been
more indulgent to a man whose chief offence was his success in them.
A love of fun may be mischievous, but is rather a proof of levity
than of sullenness, pride, or a contemptuous temper.--E.
[43] The King of Prussia melted the gold coin which we furnished for
our subsidy, and recoined it with much more alloy.
[44] On the cider-tax in the following reign.
[45] Sir Robert Walpole had brought in a Bill on general excise,
but so virulent was the opposition made to it by his enemies, that,
though he carried it, he had been in danger of his life, and was
persuaded by his friends, against his own opinion, to drop it. Almost
all his chief opponents lived to recant their opposition to that
plan, as Mr. Pitt did on this occasion; which was the handsomer, as
he had lost his cornetcy of horse, and his uncle Lord Cobham his
regiment, for their opposition on that occasion.
[46] Basil Fielding, Earl of Denbigh, much better known in the
following reign.
[47] Archibald Bower, author of the History of the Popes, was much
exposed in print by Dr. Douglas, and a warm controversy was stirred
up on that occasion.
[48] This Mr. Campbell, who had estates both in Scotland and Wales,
had been one of the Lords of the Treasury during the Administration
of Sir Robert Walpole, and died very aged since the year 1770.
[49] Frederick, Lord North, afterwards Prime Minister, eldest son of
Francis, Earl of Guildford, who married to his second wife the widow
of Lord Lewisham, elder brother of Mr. Legge.
[50] George Walpole, third Earl of Orford, grandson of Sir Robert
Walpole. Lord Orford, whose intellects were never very sound,
and which were afterwards much disordered, showed at no time a
disposition to tread in the principles of his grandfather and family.
He lived almost always in the country, and was chiefly influenced
in politics, when he did take any part in them, by George Lord
Townshend, who had deviated still more from the Whig principles of
_his_ grandfather; being poisoned by his mother, the celebrated
Ethelreda, Lady Townshend. That lady had been very affected. She
had a great deal of wit, which was seldom delicate, and had turned
Jacobite on some disregard from the Duke of Cumberland. One day that
she was very severe on the Royal Family, Margaret Cecil, Lady Brown,
said to her, “Lady Townshend, it was very well, while you was only
_affected_; but now you are _disaffected_, it is intolerable.” A
famous _bon mot_ of Lady Townshend on the Royal Family was occasioned
by seeing them often at Ranelagh: she said, “This is the cheapest
family to see, and the dearest to keep, that ever was.”
[51] Afterwards Sir George Brydges Rodney; much more known in the
years 1780 and 1781.