You will perhaps ask what preparations have been made to recover
this loss. The, viceroy immediately despatched General
Fitzwilliam with four regiments of foot and three of horse
against the invaders, appointing to overtake them in person at
Newry; but -@is I believe he left Bladen's Caesar, and Bland's
Military Discipline behind him in England, which he used to study
in the camp at Blandford, I fear he will not have his campaign
equipage ready soon enough. My Lord Anson too has sent nine
ships, though indeed he does not think they will arrive time
enough. Your part, my dear Sir, will be very easy: you will only
have to say that it is nothing, while it lasts; and the moment it
is over, you must say it was an embarkation of ten thousand men.
I will punctually let you know how to vary your dialect. Mr.
Pitt is in bed very ill with the gout.
Lord George Sackville was put under arrest to-day. His trial
comes on to-morrow, but I believe will be postponed, as the
court-martial will consult the judges, whether a man who is not
in the army, may be tried as an officer. The judges will answer
yes, for how can a point that is not common sense, not be common
law!
Lord Ferrers is in the Tower; so you see the good-natured people
of England will not want their favourite amusement, executions-
-not to mention, that it will be very hard if the Irish war don't
furnish some little diversion.
My Lord Northampton frequently asks me about you. Oh! I had
forgot, there is a dreadful Mr. Dering come over, who to show
that he has not been spoiled by his travels, got drunk the first
day he appeared, and put me horridly out of countenance about my
correspondence with you--for mercy's sake take care how you
communicate my letters to such cubs. I will send you no more
invasions, if you read them to bears and bear-leaders.
Seriously, my dear child, I don't mean to reprove you; I know
your partiality to me, and your unbounded benignity to every
thing English; but I sweat sometimes, when I find that I have
been corresponding for two or three months with young Derings.
For clerks and postmasters, I can't help it, and besides, they
never tell one they have seen One's letters; but I beg you will
at most tell them my news, but without my name, or my words.
Adieu! If I bridle you, believe that I know that it is only your
heart that runs away with you.
(36) John Duke of Bedford, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
(37) Archibald Earl of Islay and Duke of Argyle.
(38) The Duke of argyle had been suspected of temporizing in the
last rebellion.
(39) Alluding to our expensive invasions on the coast of France.
Letter 16 To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, March 4, 1760. (page 48)
never was any romance of such short duration as Monsieur
Thurot's! Instead of the waiting for the viceroy's army, and
staying to see whether it had any ammunition, or was only armed
with brickbats `a la Carrickfergienne, he re-embarked on the
28th, taking along with him the mayor and three others--I
suppose, as proofs of his conquest. The Duke of Bedford had sent
notice of' the invasion to Kinsale, where lay three or four of
our best frigates. They instantly sailed, and came up with the
flying invaders in the Irish Channel. You will see the short
detail of the action in the Gazette; but, as the letter was
written by Captain Elliot himself, you will not see there, that
he with half the number of Thurot's crew, boarded the latter's
vessel. Thurot was killed, and his pigmy navy all taken and
carried into the Isle of Man. It is an entertaining episode; but
think what would have happened, if the whole of the plan had
taken place -it the destined time. The negligence of the Duke of
Bedford's administration has appeared so gross, that one may
believe his very kingdom would have been lost, if Conflans had
not been beat. You will see, by the deposition of Ensign hall,
published in all our papers, that the account of the siege of
Carrickfergus, which I sent you in my last, was not half so
ridiculous as the reality--because, as that deponent said, I was
furnished with no papers but my memory. The General Flobert, I
am told, you may remember at Florence; he was then very mad, and
was to have fought Mallet.--but was banished from Tuscany. Some
years since he was in England; and met Mallet at lord
Chesterfield's, but without acknowledging one another. The next
day Flobert asked the Earl if Mallet had mentioned him?--No-"Il a
donc," said Flobert, "beaucoup de retenue, car surement ce qu'il
pourroit dire de moi, ne seroit pas `a mon avantage."--it was
pretty, and they say he is now grown an agreeable and rational
man.
The judges have given their opinion that the court-martial on
lord George Sackville is legal; so I suppose it will proceed on
Thursday.
I receive yours of the 16th of last month: I wish you had given
me any account of your headaches that I could show to Ward. He
will no more comprehend nervous, than the physicians do who use
the word. Send me an exact description; if he can do you no
good, at least it will be a satisfaction to me to have consulted
him. I wish, my dear child, that what you say at the end of your
letter, of appointments and honours, was not as chronical as your
headaches-that is a thing you may long complain of-indeed there I
can consult nobody. I have no dealings with either our
state-doctors or statequacks. I only know that the political
ones are so like the medicinal ones, that after the doctors had
talked nonsense for years, while we daily grew worse, the quacks
ventured boldly, and have done us wonderful good. I should not
dislike to have you state your case to the latter, though I
cannot advise it, for the regular physicians are daintily
jealous; nor could I carry it, for when they know I would take
none of their medicines myself, they would not much attend to me
consulting them for others, nor would it be decent, nor should I
care to be seen in their shop. Adieu!
P. S. There are some big news from the East Indies. I don't know
what, except that the hero Clive has taken Mazulipatam and the
Great Mogul's grandmother. I suppose she will be brought over
and put in the Tower with the Shahgoest, the strange Indian beast
that Mr. Pitt gave to the King this winter.
.Letter 17 To Sir Horace Mann.