LONDON, _Feb._ 9, 1711–12.
WHEN my letter is gone, and I have none of yours to answer, my conscience
is so clear, and my shoulder so light, and I go on with such courage to
prate upon nothing to deerichar MD, oo would wonder. I dined with Sir
Matthew Dudley, who is newly turned out of Commission of the Customs. He
affects a good heart, and talks in the extremity of Whiggery, which was
always his principle, though he was gentle a little, while he kept in
employment. We can yet get no packets from Holland. I have not been
with any of the Ministry these two or three days. I keep out of their
way on purpose, for a certain reason, for some time, though I must dine
with the Secretary to-morrow, the choosing of the company being left to
me. I have engaged Lord Anglesea {400a} and Lord Carteret, {400b} and
have promised to get three more; but I have a mind that none else should
be admitted: however, if I like anybody at Court to-morrow, I may perhaps
invite them. I have got another cold, but not very bad. Nite . . . MD.
10. I saw Prince Eugene at Court to-day very plain; he’s plaguy yellow,
and tolerably ugly besides. The Court was very full, and people had
their Birthday clothes. I dined with the Secretary to-day. I was to
invite five, but I only invited two, Lord Anglesea and Lord Carteret.
Pshaw, I told you this but yesterday. We have no packets from Holland
yet. Here are a parcel of drunken Whiggish lords, like your Lord Santry,
{400c} who come into chocolate-houses and rail aloud at the Tories, and
have challenges sent them, and the next morning come and beg pardon.
General Ross {400d} was like to swinge the Marquis of Winchester {400e}
for this trick t’other day; and we have nothing else now to talk of till
the Parliament has had another bout with the state of the war, as they
intended in a few days. They have ordered the Barrier Treaty to be laid
before them; and it was talked some time ago, as if there was a design to
impeach Lord Townshend, who made it. I have no more politics now. Nite
dee MD.
11. I dined with Lord Anglesea to-day, who had seven Irishmen to be my
companions, of which two only were coxcombs; one I did not know, and
t’other was young Blith, {401a} who is a puppy of figure here, with a
fine chariot. He asked me one day at Court, when I had been just talking
with some lords who stood near me, “Doctor, when shall we see you in the
county of Meath?” I whispered him to take care what he said, for the
people would think he was some barbarian. He never would speak to me
since, till we met to-day. I went to Lady Masham’s to-night, and sat
with Lord Treasurer and the Secretary there till past two o’clock; and
when I came home, found some letters from Ireland, which I read, but can
say nothing of them till to-morrow, ’tis so very late; but I {401b} must
always be . . ., {401c} late or early. Nite deelest sollahs. {401d}
12. One letter was from the Bishop of Clogher last night, and t’other
from Walls, about Mrs. South’s {401e} salary, and his own pension of £18
for his tithe of the park. I will do nothing in either; the first I
cannot serve in, and the other is a trifle; only you may tell him I had
his letter, and will speak to Ned Southwell about what he desires me.
You say nothing of your Dean’s receiving my letter. I find Clements,
{401f} whom I recommended to Lord Anglesea last year, at Walls’s desire,
or rather the Bishop of Clogher’s, is mightily in Lord Anglesea’s favour.
You may tell the Bishop and Walls so; I said to Lord Anglesea that I was
[glad] I had the good luck to recommend him, etc. I dined in the City
with my printer, to consult with him about some papers Lord Treasurer
gave me last night, as he always does, too late; however, I will do
something with them. My third cold is a little better; I never had
anything like it before, three colds successively; I hope I shall have
the fourth. {402a} Those messengers come from Holland to-day, and they
brought over the six packets that were due. I know not the particulars
yet, for when I was with the Secretary at noon they were just opening;
but one thing I find, that the Dutch are playing us tricks, and tampering
with the French; they are dogs; I shall know more tomollow . . . MD.
{402b}
13. I dined to-day privately with my friend Lewis, at his lodgings, to
consult about some observations on the Barrier Treaty. Our news from
Holland is not good. The French raise difficulties, and make such offers
to the Allies as cannot be accepted. And the Dutch are uneasy that we
are likely to get anything for ourselves; and the Whigs are glad at all
this. I came home early, and have been very busy three or four hours. I
had a letter from Dr. Pratt {402c} to-day by a private hand, recommending
the bearer to me, for something that I shall not trouble myself about.
Wesley {402d} writ to recommend the same fellow to me. His expression is
that, hearing I am acquainted with my Lord Treasurer, he desires I would
do so and so: a matter of nothing. What puppies are mankind! I hope I
shall be wiser when I have once done with Courts. I think you han’t
troubled me much with your recommendations. I would do you all the
saavis {402e} I could.
Pray have you got your aplon, {402f} maram Ppt? I paid for it but
yesterday; that puts me in mind of it. I writ an inventory of what
things I sent by Leigh in one of my letters; did you compare it with what
you got? I hear nothing of your cards now; do you never play? Yes, at
Ballygall. Go to bed. Nite, deelest MD. {402g}
14. Our Society dined to-day at Mr. Secretary’s house. I went there at
four; but hearing the House of Commons would sit late upon the Barrier
Treaty, I went for an hour to Kensington, to see Lord Masham’s children.
My young nephew, {403a} his son of six months old, has got a swelling in
his neck; I fear it is the evil. We did not go to dinner till eight at
night, and I left them at ten. The Commons have been very severe on the
Barrier Treaty, as you will find by their votes. A Whig member took out
the _Conduct of the Allies_, and read that passage about the succession
with great resentment; but none seconded him. The Church party carried
every vote by a great majority. The A.B. {403b} Dublin is so railed at
by all who come from Ireland that I can defend him no longer. Lord
Anglesea assured me that the story of applying Piso out of Tacitus {403c}
to Lord Treasurer’s being wounded is true. I believe the Duke of
Beaufort will be admitted to our Society next meeting. To-day I
published the _Fable of Midas_, {403d} a poem, printed in a loose
half-sheet of paper. I know not how it will sell; but it passed
wonderfully at our Society to-night; and Mr. Secretary read it before me
the other night to Lord Treasurer, at Lord Masham’s, where they equally
approved of it. Tell me how it passes with you. I think this paper is
larger than ordinary; for here is six days’ journal, and no nearer the
bottom. I fear these journals are very dull. Nite my deelest lives.
15. Mr. Lewis and I dined by invitation with a Scotch acquaintance,
after I had been very busy in my chamber till two afternoon. My third
cold is now very troublesome on my breast, especially in the morning.
This is a great revolution in my health; colds never used to return so
soon with me, or last so long. ’Tis very surprising this news to-day of
the Dauphin and Dauphiness both dying within six days. They say the old
King is almost heart-broke. He has had prodigious mortifications in his
family. The Dauphin has left two little sons, of four and two years old;
the eldest is sick. There is a foolish story got about the town that
Lord Strafford, one of our Plenipotentiaries, is in the interests of
France; and it has been a good while said that Lord Privy Seal {404a} and
he do not agree very well. They are both long practised in business, but
neither of them of much parts. Strafford has some life and spirit, but
is infinitely proud, and wholly illiterate. Nite, MD.
16. I dined to-day in the City with my printer, to finish something I am
doing about the Barrier Treaty; {404b} but it is not quite done. I went
this evening to Lord Masham’s, where Lord Treasurer sat with us till past
twelve. The Lords have voted an Address to the Queen, to tell her they
are not satisfied with the King of France’s offers. The Whigs brought it
in of a sudden; and the Court could not prevent it, and therefore did not
oppose it. The House of Lords is too strong in Whigs, notwithstanding
the new creations; for they are very diligent, and the Tories as lazy:
the side that is down has always most industry. The Whigs intended to
have made a vote that would reflect on Lord Treasurer; but their project
was not ripe. I hit my face such a rap by calling the coach to stop
to-night, that it is plaguy sore, the bone beneath the eye. Nite dee
logues.
17. The Court was mighty full to-day, and has been these many Sundays;
but the Queen was not at chapel. She has got a little fit of the gout in
her foot. The good of going to Court is that one sees all one’s
acquaintance, whom otherwise I should hardly meet twice a year. Prince
Eugene dines with the Secretary to-day, with about seven or eight General
Officers, or foreign Ministers. They will be all drunk, I am sure. I
never was in company with this Prince: I have proposed to some lords that
we should have a sober meal with him; but I can’t compass it. It is come
over in the Dutch news prints that I was arrested on an action of twenty
thousand pounds by the Duke of Marlborough. I did not like my Court
invitation to-day; so Sir Andrew Fountaine and I went and dined with Mrs.
Van. I came home at six, and have been very busy till this minute, and
it is past twelve. So I got into bed to write to MD . . . MD. {405a} We
reckon the Dauphin’s death will put forward the peace a good deal. Pray
is Dr. Griffith {405b} reconciled to me yet? Have I done enough to
soften him? . . . {405c} Nite deelest logues.
18. Lewis had Guiscard’s picture: he bought it, and offered it to Lord
Treasurer, who promised to send for it, but never did; so I made Lewis
give it me, and I have it in my room; and now Lord Treasurer says he will
take it from me: is that fair? He designs to have it at length in the
clothes he was when he did the action, and a penknife in his hand; and
Kneller is to copy it from this that I have. I intended to dine with
Lord Treasurer to-day, but he has put me off till to-morrow; so I dined
with Lord Dupplin. You know Lord Dupplin very well; he is a brother of
the Society. Well, but I have received a letter from the Bishop of
Cloyne, to solicit an affair for him with Lord Treasurer, and with the
Parliament, which I will do as soon as fly. I am not near so keen about
other people’s affairs as . . . {405d} Ppt used to reproach me about; it
was a judgment on me. Harkee, idle dearees both, meetinks I begin to
want a rettle flom {405e} MD: faith, and so I do. I doubt you have been
in pain about the report of my being arrested. The pamphleteers have let
me alone this month, which is a great wonder: only the third part of the
_Answer to the Conduct_, which is lately come out. (Did I tell you of it
already?) The House of Commons goes on in mauling the late Ministry and
their proceedings. Nite deelest MD. {406a}
19. I dined with Lord Treasurer to-day, and sat with him till ten, in
spite of my teeth, though my printer waited for me to correct a sheet. I
told him of four lines I writ extempore with my pencil, on a bit of paper
in his house, while he lay wounded. Some of the servants, I suppose,
made waste-paper of them, and he never had heard of them. Shall I tell
them you? They were inscribed to Mr. Harley’s physician. Thus
On Britain Europe’s safety lies; {406b}
Britain is lost, if Harley dies.
Harley depends upon your skill:
Think what you save, or what you kill.
Are not they well enough to be done off-hand; for that is the meaning of
the word extempore, which you did not know, did you? I proposed that
some company should dine with him on the 8th of March, which was the day
he was wounded, but he says he designs that the Lords of the Cabinet, who
then sat with him, should dine that day with him: {406c} however, he has
invited me too. I am not got rid of my cold; it plagues me in the
morning chiefly. Nite, MD.
20. After waiting to catch the Secretary coming out from Sir Thomas
Hanmer, for two hours, in vain, about some business, I went into the City
to my printer, to correct some sheets of the _Barrier Treaty and
Remarks_, which must be finished to-morrow: I have been horrible busy for
some days past, with this and some other things; and I wanted some very
necessary papers, which the Secretary was to give me, and the pamphlet
must now be published without them. But they are all busy too. Sir
Thomas Hanmer is Chairman of the Committee for drawing up a
Representation of the state of the nation {406d} to the Queen, where all
the wrong steps of the Allies and late Ministry about the war will be
mentioned. The Secretary, I suppose, was helping him about it to-day; I
believe it will be a pepperer. Nite, deel MD.
21. I have been six hours to-day morning writing nineteen pages of a
letter to Lord Treasurer, about forming a Society or Academy to correct
and fix the English language. {407a} (Is English a speech or a
language?) It will not be above five or six more. I will send it to him
to-morrow, and will print it, if he desires me. I dined, you know, with
our Society to-day: Thursday is our day. We had a new member admitted;
it was the Duke of Beaufort. We had thirteen met: brother Ormond was not
there, but sent his excuse that Prince Eugene dined with him. I left
them at seven, being engaged to go to Sir Thomas Hanmer, who desired I
would see him at that hour. His business was that I would _hoenlbp
ihainm itavoi dsroanws ubpl tohne sroegporaensiepnotlastoigobn_, {407b}
which I consented to do; but know not whether I shall succeed, because it
is a little out of my way. However, I have taken my share. Nite, MD.
22. I finished the rest of my letter to Lord Treasurer to-day, and sent
it to him about one o’clock; and then dined privately with my friend Mr.
Lewis, to talk over some affairs of moment. I had gotten the thirteenth
volume of Rymer’s Collection of the Records of the Tower for the
University of Dublin. {407c} I have two volumes now. I will write to
the Provost, to know how I shall send them to him; no, I won’t, for I
will bring them myself among my own books. I was with Hanmer this
morning, and there were the Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer
{407d} very busy with him, laying their heads together about the
representation. I went to Lord Masham’s to-night, and Lady Masham made
me read to her a pretty twopenny pamphlet, called _The St. Albans
__Ghost_. {408a} I thought I had writ it myself; so did they; but I did
not. Lord Treasurer came down to us from the Queen, and we stayed till
two o’clock. That is the best night-place I have. The usual {408b}
company are Lord and Lady Masham, Lord Treasurer, Dr. Arbuthnot, and I;
sometimes the Secretary, and sometimes Mrs. Hill of the bed-chamber, Lady
Masham’s sister. I assure oo, it im vely rate now; but zis goes
to-morrow: and I must have time to converse with own richar MD. Nite,
deelest sollahs. {408c}
23. I have no news to tell you this last day, nor do I know where I
shall dine. I hear the Secretary is a little out of order; perhaps I may
dine there, perhaps not. I sent Hanmer what he wanted from me, I know
not how he will approve of it. I was to do more of the same sort; I am
going out, and must carry zis in my pottick to give it at some general
post-house. I will talk further with oo at night. I suppose in my next
I shall answer a letter from MD that will be sent me. On Tuesday it will
be four weeks since I had your last, N. 26. This day se’nnight I expect
one, for that will be something more than a full month. Farewell, MD . . .
deelest . . . MD MD MD . . . ME ME ME . . . logues . . . lele. {408d}