Well! but we have had a prodigious riot: are not you impatient to

know the particulars? It was so prodigious a tumult, that I

verily thought half the administration would have run away to

Harrowgate. The north Briton was ordered to be burned by the

hangman at Cheapside, on Saturday last. The mob rose; the

greatest mob, says Mr. Sheriff Blunt, that he has known in forty

years. They were armed with that most bloody instrument, the mud

out of the kennels: they hissed in the most murderous manner:

broke Mr. Sheriff Harley's coach-glass in the most frangent

manner; scratched his forehead, so that he is forced to wear a

little patch in the most becoming manner; and obliged the hangman

to burn the paper with a link, though fagots were prepared to

execute it in a more solemn manner. Numbers of gentlemen, from

windows and balconies, encouraged the mob, who, in about an hour

and a half, were so undutiful to the ministry, as to retire

without doing any mischief, or giving Mr. Carteret Webb(403) the

opportunity of a single information, except against an ignorant

lad, who had been in town but ten days.

This terrible uproar has employed us four days. The sheriffs

were called before your House on Monday, and made their

narrative. My brother Cholmondeley,(404) in the most pathetic

manner, and suitably to the occasion, recommended it to your

lordships, to search for precedents of what he believed never

happened since the world began. Lord Egmont,(405) who knows of a

plot, which he keeps to himself, though It has been carrying on

these twenty years, thought more vigorous measures ought to be

taken on such a crisis, and moved to summon the mistress of the

Union Coffee-house. The Duke of Bedford thought all this but

piddling, and at once attacked Lord Mayor, common council, and

charter of the city, whom, if he had been supported, I believe he

would have ordered to be all burned by the hangman next Saturday.

Unfortunately for such national justice, Lord Mansfield, who

delights in every opportunity of exposing and mortifying the Duke

of Bedford, and Sandwich, interposed for the magistracy of

London, and after much squabbling, saved them from immediate

execution. The Duke of Grafton, with infinite shrewdness and

coolness, drew from the witnesses that the whole mob was of one

mind; and the day ended in a vote of general

censure on the rioters. This was communicated to us at a

conference, and yesterday we acted the same farce; when Rigby

trying to revive the imputation on the Lord Mayor, etc. (who, by

the by, did sit most tranquilly at Guildhall during the whole

tumult) the ministry disavowed and abandoned him to a man,

vindicating the magistracy, and plainly discovering their own

fear and awe of the city, who feel the insult, and will from

hence feel their own strength. In short, to finish this foolish

story, I never saw a transaction in which appeared so little

parts, abilities, or conduct; nor do I think there can be any

thing weaker than the administration except it is the opposition:

but an opposition, bedrid and tonguetied, is a most ridiculous

body. Mr. Pitt is laid up with the gout; Lord Hardwicke, though

much relieved by a quack medicine, is still very ill; and Mr.

Charles Townshend is as silent as my Lord Abercorn(406--that they

too should ever be alike!

This is not all our political news; Wilkes is an inexhaustible

fund: on Monday was heard, in the common Pleas, his suit against

Mr. Wood,(407) when, after a trial of fourteen hours, the jury

gave him damages of one thousand pounds; but this was not the

heaviest part of the blow. The Solicitor-general(408) tried to

prove Wilkes author of the North Briton, and failed in the proof.

You may judge how much this miscarriage adds to the defeat.

Wilkes is not yet out of danger: they think there is still a

piece of coat or lining to come Out of the wound. The campaign

is over for the present, and the troops going into country

quarters. In the mean time, the house of Hamilton has supplied

us with new matter of talk. My lord was robbed about three

o'clock in the night between Saturday and Sunday, of money,

bills, watches, and snuff-boxes, to the amount of three thousand

pounds. Nothing is yet discovered, but that the

guard in the stable yard saw a man in a great coat and white

stockings come from thereabouts, at the time I have named. The

servants have all been examined over and over to no purpose.

Fielding(409) is all day in the house, and a guard of his at

night. The bureau in my lord's dressing-room (the little red

room where the pictures are) was forced open. I fear you can

guess who was at first suspected.(410)

I have received yours, my dear lord, of Nov. 30th, and am pleased

that my Lady Hertford is so well reconciled to her ministry. You

forgot to give me an account of her audience, but I have heard of

the Queen's good-natured attention to her.

The anecdotes about Lord Sandwich are numerous; but I do not

repeat them to you, because I know nothing how true they are, and

because he has, in several instances, been very obliging to me,

and I have no reason to abuse him. Lord Hardwicke's illness, I

think, is a rupture and consequences.

I hope to hear that your little boy is recovered. Adieu! I have

filled my gazette, and exhausted my memory. I am glad such

gazettes please you - I can have no other excuse for sending such

tittle-tattle.

(396) This transaction was an endeavour on the part of Mr.

Grenville to obtain from General Conway a declaration that "his

disposition was not averse from a general support of the persons

and measures of those now employed," and permission " to say so

much when he might have occasion to speak to him." This

declaration General Conway declined to give, although Mr.

Grenville seemed to ask it only to enable him to save Conway from

dismissal on account of his late vote. There is reason to

believe that at this conference (at which the Duke of Richmond

was present, as Conway's friend) some overtures of a more

intimate connexion with the administration were made; but Conway

declared his determination to adhere to the politics of his

friends, the Dukes of Devonshire and Grafton. "At least," he

said, "if he should hereafter happen to differ from them, he

should so steer his conduct as not to be, in any way of office or

emolument, the better for it."-C.

(397) Isaac Barr`e was a native of Ireland, and born in 1726: he

entered the army early in life, and rose, gradually to the rank

of colonel. He was in 1763 made adjutant-general and the

governor of Stirling Castle, but was turned out on this occasion,

and even resigned his half-pay. He continued to make a

considerable figure in the House of Commons: in 1782 he became a

privy-councillor and treasurer of the navy, which latter office

he soon exchanged for paymaster of the forces; but on the change

of government he retired on a pension of 3200 pounds, which his

political friends had previously secured for him. From this time

his sight failed him, and he was quite blind for many years

previous to his death, which took place in 1802.-C.

(398) Captain James, afterwards Sir James Campbell, of

Ardkinglass: a captain in the army, and member for the county of

Stirling.-E.

(399) Major-General Edward Harvey, lieutenant-general in 1772.-E.

(400) Colonel Barr`e, previous to his dismissal, had

distinguished himself by an attack on Mr. Pitt, which is not

reported in the Parliamentary Debates.-C. [In the Chatham

Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 171, will be found the following

passage, in a letter from Mr. Symmers to Sir Andrew Mitchell,

dated January 29, 1762:--"Would you know a little of the humour

of Parliament, and particularly with regard to Mr. Pitt?' I must

tell you that Colonel Barr`e, a soldier of fortune, a young man

born in Dublin, of a mean condition, his father and mother from

France, and established in a little grocer's shop by the

patronage of the Bishop of Clogher; a child of whom the mother

nursed; this young man (a man of address and parts), found

out, pushed, and brought into Parliament by Lord Shelburne, had

not sat two days in the House of Commons before he attacked Mr.

Pitt. I shall give you a specimen of his philippics. Talking in

the manner of Mr. Pitt's speaking, he said, 'There he would

stand, turning up his eyes to heaven, that witnessed his

perjuries, and laying his hand in a solemn manner upon the table,

that sacrilegious hand, that hand that had been employed in

tearing out the bowels of his mother country!' Would you think

that Mr. Pitt would bear this and be silent; or would you think

that the House would suffer a respectable member to be so

treated? Yet so it Was."]

(401) In the House of Commons, a few days before, Mr. Pitt had

condemned the whole series of North Britons, and called them

illiberal, unmanly, and detestable: "he abhorred," he said, "all

national reflections: the King's subjects were one people;

whoever divided them was guilty of sedition: his Majesty's

complaint was well-founded; it was just; it was necessary: the

author did not deserve to be ranked among the human species; he

was the blasphemer of his God and the libeller of the King."-E.

(402) This improbable event a few weeks brought about. We shall

see that Mr. Walpole did sing his Palinodia, and went down to

Claremont to eat a bit of mutton with the man in the world whom

(as all his writings, but especially his lately published

Memoires, show) he had most heartily hated and despised.-C.

(403) Philip Carteret Webb, Esq. solicitor to the treasury and

member for Haslemere.-E.

(404) George third Earl of Cholmondeley; born in 1703: married

Mr. Walpole's only legitimate sister, who died at Aix in 1731;

and as all Sir Robert Walpole's sons died without issue, Lord

Cholmondeley's family succeeded to Houghton, and the rest of the

Walpole property, as heirs-at-law of Sir Robert.-C.

(405) John, second Earl of Egmont, at this time first lord of the

admiralty. Lord Egmont had been in the House of Commons what

Coxe calls "a fluent and plausible debater;" but he had some

peculiarities of mind, to which Walpole here and elsewhere

alludes.-C.

(406) James, eighth Earl of Abercorn, "a nobleman," says his

panegyrist, "whose character was but little known, or rather but

little understood; but who possessed singular vigour of mind,

integrity of conduct, and patriotic views." Mr. Walpole elsewhere

laughs at his lordship's dignified aversion to throwing away his

words.-C.

(407) An action brought by Wilkes against Robert Wood, Esq. late

under-secretary of State for seizing Wilkes's papers, etc. It

was tried before Chief Justice Pratt, and under his direction the

jury found for the plaintiff.-C.

(408) Sir Fletcher Norton was not made attorney-general till

after this trial.-E.

(409) Mr. John Fielding, chief police magistrate.-E.

(410) The robbery was committed by one Bradley, a discharged

footman, and one John Wisket. The former was admitted a witness

for the crown, and the latter was hanged on his evidence, in Dec.

1764.-C.

Letter 185 To The Earl Of Hertford.

Arlington Street, Dec. 16, 1763. (page 261)

On the very day I wrote to you last, my dear lord, an

extraordinary event happened, which I did not then know. A

motion was made in the common council, to thank the sheriffs for

their behaviour at the riot, and to prosecute the man who was

apprehended for it. This was opposed, and the previous question

being put, the numbers were equal; but the casting vote of the

Lord Mayor(411) was given against putting the first

question--pretty strong proceeding; for though, in consequence

and in resentment of the Duke of Bedford's speech, it seemed to

justify his grace, who had accused the mayor and magistracy of

not trying to suppress the tumult; if they will not prosecute the

rioters, it is not very unfair to surmise that they did not

dislike the riot. Indeed, the city is so inflamed, and the

ministry so obnoxious, that I am very apprehensive of some

violent commotion. The court have lost the Essex election(412)

merely from Lord Sandwich interfering in it, and from the Duke of

Bedford's speech; a great number of votes going from the city on

that account to vote for Luther. Sir John Griffin,(413) who was

disobliged by Sandwich's espousing Conyers, went to Chelmsford,

at the head of five hundred voters.

One of the latest acts of the ministry will not please my Lady

Hertford: they have turned out her brother, Colonel Fitzroy:(414

Fitzherbert,(415) too, is removed; and, they say, Sir Joseph

Yorke recalled.(416) I must do Lord Halifax and Mr. Grenville

the justice to say that these violences are not imputed to them.

It is certain that the former was the warmest opposer of the

measure for breaking the officers; and Mr. Grenville's friends

take every opportunity of throwing the blame on the Duke of

Bedford and Lord Sandwich. The Duchess of Bedford, who is too

fond a Wife not to partake in all her husband's fortunes, has

contributed her portion of indiscretion. At a great dinner,

lately, at Lord Halifax's, all the servants present, mention

being made of the Archbishop of Canterbury,(417) M. de Guerchy

asked the Duchess, "Est-il de famille?" She replied, "Oh! mon

Dieu, non, il a `et`e sage-femme." The mistake of sage-femme for

accoucheur, and the strangeness of the proposition, confounded

Guerchy so much, that it was necessary to explain it: but think

of a minister's wife telling a foreigner, and a Catholic, that

the primate of her own church had been bred a man-midwife!

The day after my last, another verdict was given in the common

Pleas, of four hundred pounds to the printers; and another

episode happened, relating to Wilkes; one Dunn, a mad Scotchman,

was seized in Wilkes's house, whither he had gone intending to

assassinate him. This was complained of in the House of Commons,

but the man's phrensy was verified; it was even proved that he

had notified his design in a coffee-house, some days before. The

mob, however, who are determined that Lord Sandwich shall answer

for every body's faults, as well as his own, believe that he

employed Dunn. I wish the recess, which begins next Monday, may

cool matters a little, for indeed it grows very serious.

Nothing is discovered of Lord Harrington's robbery, nor do I know

any other news, but that George West(418) is to marry lady Mary

Grey. The Hereditary Prince's wound is broken out again, and

will defer his arrival. We have had a new comedy,(419) written

by Mrs. Sheridan, and admirably acted; but there was no wit in

it, and it was so vulgar that it ran but three nights.

Poor Lady Hervey desires you will tell Mr. Hume how incapable she

is of answering his letter. She has been terribly afflicted for

these six weeks with a complication of gout, rheumatism, and a

nervous complaint. She cannot lie down in her bed, nor rest two

minutes in her chair. I never saw such continued suffering.

You say in your last, of the 7th, that you have omitted to invite

no Englishman of rank or name. This gives me an opportunity, my

dear lord, of mentioning one Englishman, not of great rank, but

who is very unhappy that you have taken no notice of him. You

know how utterly averse I am to meddle, or give impertinent

advice; but the letter I saw was expressed with so much respect

and esteem for you, that you would love the person. It is Mr.

Selwyn, the banker. He says, he expected no favour; but the

great regard he has for the amiableness of your character, makes

him miserable at being totally undistinguished by you. He has so

good a character himself and is so much beloved by many persons

here that you know, that I think you will not dislike my putting

you in mind of him. The letter was not to me, nor to any friend

of mine; therefore, I am sure, unaffected. I saw the whole

letter, and he did not even hint at its being communicated to me.

I have not mentioned Lady Holdernesse's presentation, though I by

no means approve it, nor a Dutch woman's lowering the peerage of

England. Nothing of that sort could make me more angry, except a

commoner's wife taking such a step; for you know I have all the

pride of A citizen of Rome, while Rome survives: In that respect

my name is thoroughly Horatius.

(411) William Bridgen, Esq.-E.

(412) John Luther, Esq. was returned for Essex, on the popular

interest, after a severe and most expensive contest.-C.

(413) Sir john Griffin Griffin, K. B., major-general and colonel

of the 33d regiment; member for Andover. He established, in

1784, a claim to the barony of Howard de Walden, and was created,

in 1788,

Baron Braybrook, with remainder to A. A. Neville, Esq. He died

in 1797.-C.

(414) Colonel Charles Fitzroy, member for Bury, afterwards Lord

Southampton. It seems strange that Mr. Walpole should be

mistaken in such a point; but Colonel Fitzroy was not Lady

Hertford's brother, but her brother's son.-C.

(415) William Fitzherbert, Esq. member for Derby: a lord of

trade.-C.

(416) the rumour mentioned in the text was unfounded, Sir Joseph

continued at the Hague till 1783.-C.

(417) Archbishop Secker. The Grounds for this strange story

(which Walpole was fond of repeating) was, that the Archbishop

had, in early youth, been intended for the medical profession,

and had attended some hospitals.-C.

(418) Mr. West married, in February 1764, Lady Mary Grey,

daughter of the Earl of Stamford: he died without issue, in

1776.-E.

(419) "The Dupe," by Mrs. Sheridan, mother of Richard Brinsley

Sheridan. The Biographia Dramatica says it was condemned, "on

account of a few passages, which the audience thought two

indelicate."-E.

Letter 186 To The Earl Of Hertford.

Arlington Street, Dec. 29, 1763. (page 263)

You are sensible, my dear lord, that any amusement from my

letters must depend upon times and seasons. We are a very absurd

nation (though the French are so good at present as to think us a

very wise one, only because they themselves, are now a very weak

one); but then that absurdity depends upon the almanac.

Posterity, who will know nothing of our intervals, wilt conclude

that this age was a succession of events. I could tell them that

we know as well when an event, as when Easter will happen. Do

but recollect these last ten years. The beginning of October,

one is certain that every body will be at Newmarket, and the Duke

of Cumberland will lose', and Shafto(420) win, two or three

thousand pounds. After that, while people are preparing to come

to town for the winter, the ministry is suddenly changed, and all

the world comes to learn how it happened, a fortnight sooner than

they intended; and fully persuaded that the new arrangement

cannot last a month. The Parliament opens; every body is bribed;

and the new establishment is perceived to be composed of adamant.

November passes, with two or three self-murders, and a new play.

Christmas arrives; every body goes out of town; and a riot

happens in one of the theatres. The Parliament meets again;

taxes are warmly opposed; and some citizen makes a fortune by a

subscription.(421) The opposition languishes; balls and

assemblies begin; some master and miss begin to get together, are

talked of, and give occasion to forty more matches being

invented; an unexpected debate starts up at the end of the

session, that makes more noise than any thing that was designed

to make a noise, and subsides again in a new peerage or two.

Ranelagh opens and Vauxhall; one produces scandal, and t'other a

drunken quarrel. People separate, some to Tunbridge, and some to

all the horseraces in England; and so the year comes again to

October. I dare to prophesy, that if you keep this letter, YOU

Will find that my future correspondence will be but an

illustration of this text; at least, it is an excuse for my

having very little to tell you at present, and was the reason of

My not writing to you last week.

Before the Parliament adjourned, there was nothing but a trifling

debate in an empty House, occasioned by a motion from the

ministry, to order another physician and surgeon to attend

Wilkes; it was carried by about seventy to thirty, and was only

memorable by producing Mr. Charles Townshend, who having sat

silent through the question of privilege, found himself

interested in the defence of Dr. Brocklesby!(422) Charles

ridiculed Lord North extremely, and had warm words with George

Grenville. I do not look upon this as productive of

consequential speaking for the opposition; on the contrary, I

should expect him sooner in place, if the ministry could be fools

enough to restore weight to him and could be ignorant that he can

never hurt them so much as by being with them. Wilkes refused to

see Heberden and Hawkins, whom the House commissioned to visit

him; and to laugh at us more, sent for two Scotchmen, Duncan and

Middleton. Well! but since that, he is gone off himself:

however, as I (lid in D'Eon's case, I can now only ask news of

him from you, and not tell you any; for You have got him. I do

not believe you will invite him, and make so much of him, as

the Duke of Bedford did. Both sides pretend joy at his being

gone; and for once I can believe both. You will be diverted, as

I was, at the cordial esteem the ministers have for one another;

Lord Waldegrave(423) told my niece, this morning, that he had

offered a shilling, to receive an hundred pounds when-@Sandwich

shall lose his head! What a good opinion they have of one

another! apropos to losing heads, is Lally beheaded?

The East India Company have come to an unanimous resolution of

not paying Lord Clive the three hundred thousand pounds, which

the ministry had promised him in lieu of his nabobical annuity.

Just after the bargain was made, his old rustic of a father was

at the King's lev`ee; the King asked where his son was; he

replied, "Sire, he is coming to town, and their your Majesty will

have another vote." If you like these franknesses, I can tell

you another. The Chancellor(424) is chosen a governor of St.

Bartholomew's Hospital; a smart gentleman, who was sent with the

staff, carried it in the evening, when the Chancellor happened to

be drunk. "Well, Mr. Bartlemy," said his lordship, snuffling,

"what have you to say?" The man, who had prepared a formal

harangue, was transported to have so fair opportunity given him

of uttering it, and with much dapper gesticulation congratulated

his lordship on his health, and the nation on enjoying such great

abilities. The Chancellor stopped him short, crying, "By God, it

is a lie! I have neither health nor abilities my bad health has

destroyed my abilities." The late Chancellor(425) is much

better.

The last time the King was at Drury-lane, the play given out for

the next night was "All in the Wrong:" the Galleries clapped, and

then cried out. "Let us be all in the right! Wilkes and Liberty!"

When the King comes to a theatre, or goes out, or goes to the

House, there is not a single applause; to the Queen there is a

little: in short, Louis le bien-aim`e is not French at present

for King George.

The town, you may be sure, is very empty; the greatest party is

at Woburn, whither the Comte de Guerchy and the Duc de Pecquigny

are going. I have been three days at Strawberry, and had George

Selwyn, Williams, and Lord Ashburnham;(426) but the weather was

intolerably bad. We have scarce had a moment's drought since you

went, no more than for so many months before. The towns and the

roads are beyond measure dirty, and every thing else under water.

I was not well neither, nor am yet, with pains in my stomach:

however, if I ever used one, I could afford to pay a physician.

T'other day, coming from my Lady Townshend's, it came into my

head to stop at one of the lottery offices, to inquire after a

single ticket I had, expecting to find it a blank, but it was

five hundred pounds--Thank you! I know you wish me joy. It will

buy twenty pretty things when I come to Paris.

I read last night, your new French play, Le Comte de Warwick(427)

which we hear has succeeded much. I must say, it does but

confirm the cheap idea I have of you French: not to mention the

preposterous perversion of history in so known a story, the

Queen's ridiculous preference of old Warwick to a young King; the

omission of the only thing she ever said or did in her whole life

worth recording, which was thinking herself too low for his wife,

and too high for his mistress;(428) the romantic honour bestowed

on two such savages as Edward and Warwick: besides these, and

forty such glaring absurdities, there is but one scene that has

any merit, that between Edward and Warwick in the third act.

Indeed, indeed, I don't honour the modern French: it is making

your son but a slender compliment, with his knowledge, for them

to say it is extraordinary. The best proof I think they give of

their taste, is liking you all three. I rejoice that your little

boy is recovered. Your brother has been at Park-place this week,

and stays a week longer: his hill is too high to be drowned.

Thank you for your kindness to Mr. Selwyn: if he had too much

impatience, I am sure it proceeded only from his great esteem for

you.

I will endeavour to learn what you desire; and will answer, in

another letter, that and some other passages in your last. Dr.

Hunter is very good, and calls on me sometimes. You may guess

whether we talk you over or not. Adieu!

P. S. There has not been a death, but Sir William Maynard's, who

is come to life again: or a marriage, but Admiral Knollys's who

has married his divorced wife again.

(420) Robert Shafto, Esq. of Whitworth, member of Durham, well

known on the turf.-C.

(421) To a loan.-C.

(422) Dr. Richard Brocklesby, an eminent physician. He had been

examined before the House of Commons, as to Mr. Wilkes's

incapacity to attend in his place. His Whig politics, which

probably induced Mr. Wilkes to sen@ for him, induced the majority

of the House to distrust his report, and to order two other

medical men to visit the patient. This proceeding implied a

doubt of Dr. Brocklesby's veracity, which certainly called for,@

the interference of Mr. Charles Townshend, who was a private as

well as a political friend of the doctor's. Dr. Brocklesby,

besides being one of the first physicians of his time, was a man

of literature and taste, and did not confine his society nor his

beneficence to those who agreed with him in politics. He was the

friend and physician of Dr. Johnson, and when, towards the close

of this great man's life, it was supposed that his circumstances

were not quite easy, Dr. Brocklesby generously pressed him to

accept an annuity of one hundred pounds, and he attended him to

his death with unremitted affection and care.-C.

(423) John, third Earl of Waldegrave, a general in the army: in

1770 master of the horse to the Queen.-E.

(424) Lord Henley; afterwards Earl of Northington.

(425) Lord Hardwicke.

(426) John, second Earl of Ashburnham; one of the lords of the

bedchamber, and keeper of the parks.-E.

(427) By La Harpe. This play, written when the author was only

twenty-three years old, raised him into great celebrity; and is,

in the opinion of the French critics, his first work in merit as

well as date.-C.

(428) This phrase has been also attributed to Mademoiselle de

Montmorency, afterwards Princess de Cond`e, in reply to the

solicitations of Henry IV.; and is told also of Mademoiselle de

Rohan, afterwards Duchess of Deux Ponts.-C.

Letter 187 To George Montagu, Esq.

Arlington Street, Jan. 11, 1764. (page 266)

It is an age, I own, since I wrote to you; but except politics,

what was there to send you? and for politics, the present are too

contemptible to be recorded by any body but journalists,

gazetteers, and such historians! The ordinary of Newgate, or Mr.

* * * * who write for their monthly half-crown, and who are

indifferent whether Lord Bute, Lord Melcombe, or Maclean is their

hero, may swear they find diamonds on dunghills; but you will

excuse me, if I let our correspondence lie dormant rather than

deal in such trash. I am forced to send Lord Hertford and Sir

Horace Mann such garbage, because they are out of England, and

the sea softens and makes palatable any potion, as it does

claret; but unless I can divert you, I had rather wait till we

can laugh together; the best employment for friends, who do not

mean to pick one another's pocket, nor make a property of

either's frankness. Instead of politics, therefore, I shall

amuse you to-day with a fairy tale.

I was desired to be at my Lady Suffolk's on New-year's morn,

where I found Lady Temple and others. On the toilet Miss Hotham

spied a small round box. She seized it with all the eagerness

and curiosity of eleven years. In it was wrapped up a

heart-diamond ring and a paper in which, in a hand as small as

Buckinger's, who used to write the Lord's Prayer in the compass

of a silver penny, were the following lines:--

Sent by a sylph, unheard, unseen

A new-year's gift from Mab our queen:

But tell it not, for if you do,

You will be pinch'd all black and blue.

Consider well, what a disgrace,

To show abroad your mottled face

Then seal your lips, put on the ring,

And sometimes think of Ob., the king.

You will easily guess that Lady Temple(429) was the poetess, and

that we were delighted with the genteelness of the thought and

execution. The child, you may imagine, was less transported with

the poetry than the present. Her attention, however, was hurried

backwards and forwards from the ring to a new coat, that she had

been trying on when sent for down; impatient to revisit her coat,

and to show the ring to her maid, she whisked up stairs; when she

came down again, she found a letter sealed, and lying on the

floor--new exclamations! Lady Suffolk bade her open it: here it

is:--

Your tongue, too nimble for your sense,

Is guilty of a high offence;

Hath introduced unkind debate,

And topsy-turvy turned our state.

In gallantry I sent the ring,

The token of a lovesick king:

Under fair Mab's auspicious name

>From me the trifling present came.

You blabb'd the news in Suffolk's ear;

The tattling zephyrs brought it here;

As Mab was indolently laid

Under a poppy's spreading shade.

The jealous queen started in rage;

She kick'd her crown and beat her page:

"Bring me my magic wand," she cries;

"Under that primrose there it lies;

I'll change the silly, saucy chit,

Into a flea, a louse, a nit,

A worm, a grasshopper, a rat,

An owl, a monkey, hedge-hog, bat.

Ixion once a cloud embraced,

By Jove and jealousy well placed;

What sport to see proud Oberon stare,

And flirt it with a pet-en Pair!"

Then thrice she stamped the trembling ground,

And thrice she waved her wand around;

When I endowed with greater skill,

And less inclined to do you ill,

Mutter'd some words, withheld her arm

And kindly stoppld the unfinish'd charm

But though not changed to owl or bat,

Or something more indelicate;

Yet, as your tongue has run too fast,

Your boasted beauty must not last,

No more shall frolic Cupid lie

In ambuscade in either eye,

>From thence to aim his keenest dart

To captivate each youthful heart:

No more shall envious misses pine

At charms now flown, that once were thine:

No more, since you so ill behave,

Shall injured Oberon be your slave.

The next day my Lady Suffolk desired I would write her a patent

for appointing Lady Temple poet laureate to the fairies. I was

excessively out of order with a pain in my stomach, which I had

had for ten days, and was fitter to write verses like a poet

laureate, than for making one: however, I was going home to

dinner alone, and at six I sent her some lines, which you ought

to have seen how sick I was, to excuse; but first, I must tell

you my tale methodically. The next morning by nine o'clock Miss

Hotham (she must forgive me twenty years hence for saying she was

eleven, for I recollect she is but ten,) arrived at Lady

Temple's, her face and neck all spotted with saffron, and

limping. "Oh, Madam!" said she, "I am undone for ever if you do

not assist me!" "Lord, child," cried my Lady Temple, "what is

the matter?" thinking she had hurt herself, or lost the ring, and

that she was stolen out before her aunt was up. "Oh, Madam,"

said the girl. "nobody but you can assist me!" My Lady Temple

protests the 'child acted her part so well as to deceive her.

"What can I do for you?" "Dear Madam, take this load from my

back; nobody but you can." Lady Temple turned her round, and

upon her back was tied a child's waggon. In it were three tiny

purses of blue velvet; in one of them a silver cup, in another a

crown of laurel, and in the third four new silver pennies, with

the patent, signed at top, Oberon Imperator; and two sheets of

warrants strung together with blue silk according to form; and at

top an office seal of wax and a chaplet of cut paper on it. The

warrants were these:--

>From the Royal Mews:

A waggon with the draught horses, delivered by command without

fee.

>From the Lord Chamberlain's Office:

A warrant with the royal sign manual, delivered by command

without fee, being first entered in the office books.

>From the Lord Steward's Office:

A butt of sack, delivered without fee or gratuity, with an order

for returning the cask for the use of the office, by command.

>From the Great Wardrobe:

Three velvet bags, delivered without fee, by command.

>From the Treasurer of the Household's Office:

A year's salary paid free from land-tax, poundage, or any other

deduction whatever, by command.

>From the Jewel Office:

A silver butt, a silver cup, a wreath of bays, by command without

fee.

Then came the patent:

By these presents be it known,

To all who bend before your throne,

Fays and fairies, elves and sprites,

Beauteous dames and gallant knights,

That we, Oberon the grand,

Emperor of fairy land,

King of moonshine, prince of dreams,

Lord of Aganippe's streams,

Baron of the dimpled isles

That lie in pretty maidans' smiles,

Arch-treasurer of all the graces

Dispersed through fifty lovely faces,

Sovereign of the slipper's order,

With all the rites thereon that border,

Defender of the sylphic faith,

Declare--and thus your monarch saith:

Whereas there is a noble dame,

Whom mortals Countess Temple name,

To whom ourself did erst impart

The choicest secrets of our art,

Taught her to tune the harmonious line

To our own melody divine,

Taught her the graceful negligence,

Which, scorning art and veiling sense,

Achieves that conquest o'er the heart

Sense seldom gains, and never art;

This lady, 'tis our royal will

Our laureate's vacant seat should fill:

A chaplet of immortal bays

Shall crown her brow and guard her lays;

Of nectar sack an acorn cup

Be at her board each year fill'd up;

And as each quarter feast comes round

A silver penny shall be found

Within the compass of her shoe;

And so we bid you all adieu!

Given at our palace of Cowslip-castle, the shortest night of the

year. Oberon. And underneath,

Hothamina.

How shall I tell you the greatest curiosity of the story? The

whole plan and execution of the second act was laid and adjusted

by my Lady Suffolk herself and Will. Chetwynd, master of the

mint, Lord Bolingbroke's Oroonoko-Chetwynd; he fourscore, she

past seventy-six; and, what is more, much worse than I was, for,

added to her deafness, she has been confined these three weeks

with the gout in her eyes, was actually then in misery, and had

been without sleep. What spirits, and cleverness, and

imagination, at that age, and under those afflicting

circumstances! You reconnoitre her old court knowledge, how

charmingly she has applied it! Do you wonder I pass so many

hours and evenings with her? Alas! I had like to

have lost her this morning! They had poulticed her feet to draw

the gout downwards, and began to succeed yesterday, but to-day it

flew up into the head, and she was almost in convulsions with the

agony, and screamed dreadfully; proof enough how ill she was, for

her patience and good breeding makes her for ever sink and

conceal what she feels. This evening the gout has been driven

back to her foot, and I trust she is out of' danger. Her loss

would be irreparable to me at Twickenham, where she is by far the

most rational and agreeable company I have.

I don't tell you that the Hereditary Prince(430) is still

expected and not arrived. A royal wedding would be a flat

episode after a re(il fairy tale, though the bridegroom is a

hero. I have not seen your brother General yet, but have called

on him. When come you yourself? Never mind the town and its

filthy politics; we can go to the gallery at Strawberry--stay, I

don't know whether we can or not, my hill is almost drowned, I

don't know how your mountain is--well, we can take a boat, and

always be gay there; I wish we may be so at seventy-six and

eighty! I abominate politics more and more; we had glories, and

would not keep them: well! content, that there was an end of

blood; then perks prerogative its ass's ears up; we are always to

be saving our liberties, and then staking them

again! 'Tis wearisome! I hate the discussion, and yet One cannot

always sit at a gaming-table and never make a bet. I wish for

nothing, I care not a straw for the ins or the outs; I determine

never to think of them, yet the contagion catches one; can you

tell any thing that will prevent infection? Well then, here I

swear,-no I won't swear, one always breaks one's oath. Oh, that

I had been born to love a court like Sir William Breton! I should

have lived and died with the comfort of thinking that courts

there will be to all eternity, and the liberty of my country

would never once have ruffled my smile, or spoiled my bow. I

envy Sir William. Good night!

(429) Anne, one of the daughters and coheirs of Thomas Chambers,

of Hanworth, in the county of Middlesex, Esq. wife of Earl

Temple. This lady was a woman of genius: it will hereafter be

seen, that a small volume of her poems was printed at the

Strawberry Hill press.-E.

(430) Of Brunswick.

Letter 188 To The Earl Of Hertford.

Arlington Street, Jan. 22, 1764. (page 270)

Monsieur Monin, who will deliver this to you, my dear lord, is

the particular friend I mentioned in my last,(431) and is,

indeed, no particular friend of mine at all, but I had a mind to

mislead my Lord Sandwich, and send you one letter which he should

not open. This I write in peculiar confidence to you, and insist

upon your keeping it entirely to yourself from every living

creature. It will be an answer to several passages in your

letters, to which I did not care to reply by the post.

Your brother was not pleased with your laying the stopping your

bills to his charge.(432) To tell you the truth, he thinks you

are too much inclined to courts and ministers, as you think him

too little so. So far from upbraiding him on that head, give me

leave to say you have no reason to be concerned at it. You must

be sensible, my dear lord, that you are far from standing well

with the opposition, and should any change happen, your brother's

being well with them, would prevent any appearance that might be

disagreeable to you. In truth, I cannot think you have abundant

reason to be fond of the administration. Lord Bute(433) never

gave you the least real mark of friendship. The Bedfords

certainly do not wish you well: Lord Holland has amply proved

himself your enemy: for a man of your morals, it would be a

disgrace to you to be connected with Lord Sandwich; and for

George Grenville,(434) he has shown himself the falsest and most

contemptible of mankind. He is now the intimate tool of the

Bedfords, and reconciled to Lord Bute, whom he has served and

disserved just as occasion or interest directed. In this

situation of things, can you wonder that particular marks of

favour are withheld from you, or that the expenses of your

journey are not granted to you as they were to the

Duke of Bedford!

You ask me how your letters please; it is impossible for me to

learn, now I am so disconnected with every thing ministerial. I

wish YOU not to make them please too much. The negotiations with

France must be the great point on which the nation will fix its

eyes: with France we must break sooner or later. Your letters

will be strictly canvassed: I hope and firmly believe that

nothing will appear in them but attention to the honour and

interest of the nation; points, I doubt, little at the heart of

the present administration, who have gone too far not to be in

the power of France, and who must bear any thing rather than

quarrel. I would not take the liberty of saying so much to you,

if, by being on the spot, I was not a judge how very serious

affairs grow, and how necessary it is for you to be upon your

guard.

Another question you ask is, whether it is true that the

opposition is disunited. I will give you one very necessary

direction, which is, not to credit any court stories. Sandwich

is the father of lies,(435) and every report is tinctured by him.

The administration give it out, and trust to this disunion. I

will tell you very nearly what truth there is or is not in this.

The party in general is as firmly and cordially united as ever

party was. Consider, that without any heads or leaders at all,

102(436) men stuck to Wilkes, the worst cause they could have

had, and with all the weight of the Yorkes against them. With

regard to the leaders there is a difference. The old Chancellor

is violent against the court: but, I believe, displeased that his

son was sacrificed(437) to Pratt, in the case of privilege.

Charles Yorke(438) resigned, against his own and Lord

Royston,S(439) inclination, is particularly angry with Newcastle

for complying with Pitt in the affair of privilege, and not less

displeased that Pitt prefers Pratt to him for the seals; but then

Norton is attorney-general, and it would not be graceful to

return to court, which he has quitted, while the present

ministers remain there. In short, as soon as the affair of

Wilkes and privilege is at an end, it is much expected that the

Yorkes will take part in the opposition. It is for that

declaration that Charles Townshend says he waits. He again broke

out strongly on Friday last against the ministry, attacking

George Grenville, who seems his object. However, the childish

fluctuation of his temper, and the vehemence of his brother

George(440) for the court, that is for himself, will for ever

make Charles little to be depended on. For Mr. Pitt, you know,

he never will act like any other man in the opposition, and

to that George Grenville trusts: however, here are such

materials, that if they could once be put in operation for a

fortnight together, the present administration would be blown up.

To this you may throw in dissensions among themselves: Lord

Halifax and Lord Talbot are greatly dissatisfied. Lord Bute is

reconciled to the rest; sees the King continually; and will soon

want more power, or will have more jealousy than is consistent

with their union. Many single men are ill disposed to them,

particularly Lord George Sackville: indeed, nobody is with them,

but as it is farther off from, or nearer to, quarter-day: the

nation is unanimous against them: a disposition, which their own

foolish conduct during the episode of the Prince of

Brunswick,(441) to which I am now coming, has sufficiently

manifested. The fourth question put to him on his arrival was,

"When do you go?" The servants of the King and Queen were forbid

to put on their new clothes for the wedding, or drawing-room,

next day, and ordered to keep them for the Queen's birth-day.

Such pains were taken to keep the Prince from any intercourse

with any of the opposition, that he has done nothing but take

notice of them. He not only wrote to the Duke of Newcastle and

Mr. Pitt, but has been at Hayes to see the latter, and has dined

twice with the Duke of Cumberland; the first time on Friday last,

when he was appointed to be at St. James's at half an hour after

seven, to a concert. As the time drew near, F`e6ronce(442)

pulled out his watch; the Duke took the hint, and said, "I am

sorry to part with you, but I fear your time is come." He

replied "N'importe;" sat on, drank coffee, and it was half an

hour after eight before he set out from Upper-Grosvenor street

for St. James's. He and Princess Augusta have felt and shown

their disgusts so strongly, and his suite have complained so much

of the neglect and disregard of him, and of the very quick

dismission of him, that the people have caught it, and on

Thursday, at the play, received the King and Queen without the

least symptom of applause, but repeated such outrageous

acclamations to the Prince, as operated very visibly on the

King's countenance. Not a gun was fired for the marriage, and

Princess Augusta asking Lord Gower(443) about some ceremony, to

which he replied, it could not be, as no such thing had been done

for the Prince of Orange;(444) she said, it was extraordinary to

quote that precedent to her in one case, which had been followed

in no other. I could tell you ten more of these stories, but one

shall suffice. The Royal Family went to the Opera on Saturday:

the crowd not to be described: the Duchess of Leeds, ]lady

Denbigh, Lady Scarborough, and others, sat on chairs between the

scenes; the doors of the front boxes were thrown open, and the

passages were all filled to the back of the stoves; nay, women of

fashion stood on the very stairs till eight at night. In the

middle of the second act, the Hereditary Prince, who sat with his

wife and her brothers in their box, got up, turned his back to

the King and Queen, pretending to offer his place to Lady

Tankerville(445) and then to Lady Susan. You know enough of

Germans and their stiffness to etiquette, to be sure that this

could not be done inadvertently: especially as he repeated this,

only without standing up, with one of his own gentlemen, in the

third act. I saw him, without any difficulty, from the Duchess

of Grafton's box. He is extremely slender, and looks many years

older than he is: in short, I suppose it is his manner with which

every mortal is captivated, for though he is well enough for a

man, he is far from having any thing striking in his person.

To-day (this is Tuesday) there was a drawing-room at

Leicester-house, and to-night there is a subscription ball for

him at Carlisle-house, Soho, made chiefly by the Dukes of

Devonshire and Grafton. I was invited to be of it, but not

having been to wait on him, did not think it Civil to meet him

there. The Court, by accident or design, had forgot to have a

bill passed for naturalizing him. The Duke of Grafton Undertook

it, on which they adopted it, and the Duke of Bedford moved it;

but the Prince sent word to the Duke of Grafton, that he should

not have liked the compliment half so well, if he had not owed it

to his grace. You may judge how he will report of us at his

return!

With regard to your behaviour to Wilkes,(446) I think you

observed the just medium: I have not heard it mentioned: if they

should choose to blame it, it will not be to me, known as your

friend and no friend of theirs. They very likely may say that

you did too much, though the Duke of Bedford did ten times more.

Churchill has published a new satire, called "The Duellist,"(447)

the finest and bitterest of his works. The poetry is glorious;

some lines on Lord Holland, hemlock: charming abuse on that

scurrilous mortal, Bishop Warburton: an ill-drawn, though

deserved, character of Sandwich; and one, as much deserved, and

better, of Norton.

Wednesday, after dinner.

The Lord knows when this letter will be finished; I have been

writing it this week, and believe I shall continue it till old

Monin sets out. Encore, the Prince of Brunswick. At the ball,

at Buckingham house, on Monday: it had begun two hours before he

arrived. Except the King's and Queen's servants, nobody was

there but the dukes of Marlborough and Ancaster, and Lord Bute's

two daughters. No supper. On Sunday evening the Prince had been

to Newcastle-house, to visit the Duchess. His speech to the Duke

of Bedford, at first, was by no means so strong as they gave it

out; he only said, "Milord, nous avons fait deux m`etiers bien

diff`erens; le v`otre a `et`e le plus agr`eable: j'ai fait couler

du sang, vous l'avez fait cesser." His whole behaviour, so much

`a la minorit`e, makes this much more probable. His Princess

thoroughly, agrees with him. When Mr. Grenville objected to the

greatness of her fortune, the King said, "Oh! it will not be

opposed, for Augusta is in the opposition."

The ball, last night, at Carlisle-house, Soho, was most

magnificent: one hundred and fifty men subscribed, and five

guineas each, and had each three tickets. All the beauties in

town were there, that is, of rank, for there was no bad company.

The Duke of Cumberland was there too; and the Hereditary Prince

so pleased, and in such spirits, that he stayed till five in the

morning. He is gone to-day, heartily sorry to leave every thing

but St. James's and Leicester-house. They lie to-night at Lord

Abercorn's,(448) at Witham, who does not step from his pedestal

to meet them. Lady Strafford said to him, "Soh! my lord, I hear

your house is to be royal] v filled on Wednesday."--"And

serenely,"(449) he replied, and closed his mouth again till next

day.

Our politics have been as follow. Last Friday the opposition

moved for Wilkes's complaint of breach of privilege to be heard

to-day: Grenville objected to it, and at last yielded, after

receiving some smart raps from Charles Townshend and Sir George

Saville. On Tuesday the latter, and Sir William Meredith,

proposed to put it off to the 13th of February, that Wilkes's

servant, the most material evidence might be here. George

Grenville again opposed it, was not supported, and yielded.

Afterwards Dowdeswell moved for a committee on the Cider-bill;

and, at last, a committee was appointed for Tuesday next, with

powers to report the grievances of the bill, and suggest

amendments and redress, but with no authority to repeal it. This

the administration carried but by 167 to 125.

Indeed, many of their people were in the House of Lords, where

the court triumphed still less. They were upon the "Essay on

Woman." Sandwich proposed two questions; 1st, that Wilkes was

the author of it;(450) 2dly, to order the Black Rod to attach

him. It was much objected by the Dukes of Devonshire, Grafton,

Newcastle, and even Richmond, that the first was not proved, and

might affect him in the courts below. Lord Mansfield tried to

explain this away, and Lord Marchmont and Lord Temple had warm

words. At last Sandwich, artfully, to get something, if not all,

agreed to melt both questions into one, which was accepted; and

the vote passed, that it appearing Wilkes was the author, he

should be taken into custody by the usher. It appearing, was

allowed to mean as far as appears. Then a committee was

appointed to search for precedents how to proceed on his being

withdrawn. That dirty dog Kidgel(451) had been summoned by the

Duke of Grafton, but as they only went on the breach of

privilege, he was not called. The new club,(452) at the

house that was the late Lord Waldegrave's, in Albermarle-street,

makes the ministry very uneasy; but they have worse grievances to

apprehend!

Sir Robert Rich(453) is extremely angry with my nephew, the

Bishop of Exeter, who, like his own and wife's family, is

tolerably warm. They were talking together at St. James's, when

A'Court(454) came in, "There's poor A'Court," said the Bishop.

"Poor A,Court!" replied the Marshal, "I wish all those fellows

that oppose the King were to be turned out of the army!" "I

hope," said the Bishop, "they will first turn all the old women

out of it!"

The Duc de Pecquigny was on the point of a duel with Lord

Garlies,(455) at Lord Milton's(456) ball, the former handing the

latter's partner down to supper. I wish you had this Duke again,

lest you should have trouble with him from hence: he seems a

genius of the wrong sort. His behaviour on the visit to Woburn

was very wrong-headed, though their treatment of him was not more

right. Lord Sandwich flung him down in one of their horse-plays,

and almost put his shoulder out. He said the next day there, at

dinner, that for the rest of his life he should fear nothing so

much as a lettre de cachet from a French secretary of state, or a

coup d'`epaule from an English one. After this he had a pique

with the Duchess, with whom he had been playing at whisk. A

shilling and sixpence were left on the table, which nobody

claimed. He was asked if it was his, and said no. Then they

said, let us put it to the cards: there was already a guinea.

The Duchess, in an air of grandeur said, as there was gold for

the groom of the chambers, the sweeper of the room might have the

silver, and brushed it off the table. The Pecquigny took this to

himself, though I don't believe meaned; and complained to the

whole town of it, with large comments, at his return. It is

silly to tell you Such silly stories, but in your situation it

may grow necessary for you to know the truth, if you should hear

them repeated. I am content to have you call me gossip, if I

prove but of the least use to you.

Here have I tapped the ninth page! Well! I am this moment going

to M. de Guerchy's, to know when Monin sets out, that I may

finish this eternal letter. If I tire you, tell me so: I am sure

I do myself. If I speak with too much freedom to you, tell me

so: I have done it in consequence of your questions, and mean it

most kindly. In short, I am ready to amend any thing you

disapprove; so don't take any thing ill, my dear lord, unless I

continue after you have reprimanded me. The safe manner in which

this goes, has made me, too, more explicit than you know I have

been on any other occasion. Adieu!

Wednesday-night, late.

Well, my letter will be finished at last. M. Monin sets out on

Friday. so does my Lord Holland: but I affect not to know it, for

he is not just the person that you or I should choose to be the

bearer of this. You will be diverted with a story they told me

to-night at the French Ambassador's. When they went to supper,

at Soho, last night, the Duke of Cumberland placed himself at the

head of the table. One of the waiters tapped him on the

shoulder, and said, "Sir, your Royal Highness can't sit there;

that place is designed for the Hereditary Prince." You ought to

have seen how every body's head has been turned with this Prince,

to make this story credible to you. My Lady Rockingham, at

Leicester-house, yesterday, cried great sobs for his departure.

Yours ever, page the ninth.

(431) This letter does not appear.

(432) Lord Hertford had claimed certain expenses of his journey

to Paris which had been allowed to his predecessors, but which

were refused to him; he therefore may have expressed a suspicion

that his brother's opposition in Parliament rendered the

ministers at home less favourable to him; but there never was any

difference or coldness between the brothers in their private

relations. This appears from their private letters at this

period.-C.

(433) In April 1763, Lord Bute surprised both his friends and his

opponents by a sudden resignation. The motive of this resolution

is still a mystery. Some have said, that having concluded the

peace, his patriotic views and ambition were satisfied; others

that he resigned in disgust at the falsehood and ingratitude of

public men; others that he was driven from his station by libels

and unpopularity. None of these reasons seem consistent with a

desire which Lord Bute appears to have entertained, to return to

office with a new administration. A clamour was long kept up

against Lord Bute's secret and irresponsible influence; but it is

now generally admitted that no such influence existed, and that

Lord Bute soon ceased to have any weight in public affairs.-C.

(434) Mr. Walpole was so vehement in his party feelings, that all

his characters of political enemies must be read with great

distrust.-C.

(435) Lord Sandwich was an able minister, and so important a

member of the administration to which Mr. Walpole was now

opposed, that we must read all that he says of this lord with

some "grains of allowance."-C.

(436) On the 19th of January, when the ministers were about to

proceed to vote Wilkes in contempt, and expel him, a motion was

made by Wilkes's friends to postpone the consideration of the

affair till next day; this was lost by 239 to 102.-C.

(437) He means that the opposition had adopted Pratt's view

instead of Mr. Yorke's.-C.

(438) This is not true; the real cause of his resignation is

stated ant`e, p. 251, letter 181; he certainly disagreed from the

Duke of Newcastle and others of his friends, who made the matter

of privilege a party question instead of treating it as a legal

one, as Mr. Yorke did.

(439) Philip Lord Royston, afterwards second Earl of Hardwicke,

elder brother of Mr. Charles Yorke.-E.

(440) George, first Marquis of Townshend, at this time a

major-general in the army. In the divisions on branches of the

Wilkes question, we sometimes find General Townshend a teller on

one side, and Mr. Townshend on the other.-C.

(441) The Hereditary Prince, who came to England to marry the

Princess Augusta, eldest sister of George III. He landed at

Harwich on the 12th of January, and arrived the same evening at

Somerset-house, where he was lodged. Lady Chatham, in a letter

to Mr. Pitt, relates the following anecdotes Mrs. Boscawen tells

me, that while the Prince was at Harwich, the people almost

pulled down the house in which he was, in order to see him. A

substantial Quaker insisted so strongly upon seeing him, that he

was allowed to come into the room: he pulled off his hat to him,

and said, 'Noble friend, give me thy hand!' which was given, and

he kissed it; 'although I do not fight myself, I love a brave man

that will fight: thou art a valiant Prince, and art to be married

to a lovely Princess: love her, make her a good husband, and the

Lord bless you both!'" See Chatham Correspondence, vol. ii. p.

272.-E.

(442) The Prince's chief secretary.-E.

(443) Granville, second Earl Gower, afterwards first Marquis:

groom of the stole.-E.

(444) William Charles Henry, Prince of Orange, who, in 1734,

married Anne, eldest daughter of George II.-E.

(445) Alicia Ashley, wife of Charles, third Earl of Tankerville,

lady of the bedchamber to Princess Augusta. Nothing but Mr.

Walpole's facetious ingenuity could have tortured the Prince's

little attention to Lady Tankerville into a desire to insult the

King.-C.

(446) Mr. Wilkes had thought it prudent to retire to Paris, under

circumstances which certainly rendered it unlikely that the

King's ambassador should pay him any kind of civil attention.-C.

(447) Again Mr. Walpole's partiality blinds him. "The Duellist"

is surely far from being the finest of Churchill's works. Mr.

Walpole's own feelings are strongly marked by the glee with which

he sees hemlock administered to his old friend Lord Holland, and

by being charmed with the abuse of Bishop Warburton.-C.

(448) Mr. Walpole, by one of those happy expressions which make

the chief charm of his writings, characterizes the stately

formality of this noble lord. His house at Witham is close to

the great road, a little beyond the town of Witham. Her late

Majesty, Queen Charlotte, slept there on her way to London, in

1761.-C.

(449) Mr. Walpole probably understood his lordship to mean that a

Serene Highness was not sufficiently important to require his

attendance at Witham.-C.

(450) Wilkes was convicted, in the Court of King's Bench, on the

21st of January, the day before this letter was begun, of having

written the Essay on Woman.-C.

(451) Mr. Kidgel, a clergyman, had obtained from a printer a copy

of the Essay on Woman, which he said he felt it his duty to

denounce. His own personal character turned out to be far from

respectable.-C.

(452) The opposition club was in Albemarle-street, and the

ministerial at the Cocoa-tree; and the papers of the day had

several political letters addressed to and from these clubs.-C.

(453) The oldest field-marshal in the army.

(454) Major-general A,Court had a little before resigned, or

rather been dismissed, for his parliamentary opposition, from the

command of the second regiment of foot-guards.-C.

(455) John, afterwards seventh Earl of galloway.

(456) Joseph Damer, first Lord Milton.

Letter 189 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.

Arlington Street, Jan. 31, 1764. (page 277)

Dear Sir,

Several weeks ago I begged you to tell me how to convey to you a

print of Strawberry Hill, and another of Archbishop Hutton. I

must now repeat the same request for two more volumes of my

Anecdotes of Painting, which are on the point of being published.

I hope no illness prevented my hearing from you.

To The Rev. Mr. Cole.

Dear Sir,

I am impatient for your manuscript, but have not yet received it.

You may depend on my keeping it to myself, and returning it

safely.

I do not know that history of my father, which you mention, by

the name of Musgrave. If it is the critical history of his

administration, I have it; if not, I shall be obliged to you for

it.

Your kindness to your tenants is like yourself, and most humane.

I am glad Your prize rewards you, and wish your fortune had been

as good as mine, who with a single ticket in this last lottery

got five hundred pounds.

I have nothing new, that is, nothing old to tell you. You care

not about the present world, and are the only real philosopher, I

know.

I this winter met with a very large lot of English heads, chiefly

of the reign of James I., which very nearly perfects my

collection. There were several which I had in vain hunted for

these ten years. I have bought too, some very scarce, but more

modern ones out of Sir Charles Cotterell's collection. Except a

few of Faithorne's, there are scarce any now that I much wish

for.

With my Anecdotes I packed up for you the head of Archbishop

Hutton, and a new little print of Strawberry. If the volumes, as

I understand by your letter, stay in town to be bound, I hope

your bookseller will take care not to lose those trifles.

Letter 190 To Sir David Dalrymple.(457)

Arlington Street, Jan. 31, 1764. (page 278)

I am very sorry, Sir, that your obliging corrections of my

Anecdotes of Painting have come so late, that the first volume is

actually reprinted. The second shall be the better for them. I

am now publishing the third volume, and another of Engravers. I

wish you would be so kind as to tell me how I may convey them

speedily to you: you waited too long the last time for things

that have little merit but novelty. These volumes are of still

less worth than the preceding; our latter painters not

compensating by excellence for the charms that antiquity has

bestowed on their antecessors.

I wish I had known in time what heads of Nanteuil you want.

There has been a very valuable sale of Sir Clement Cotterell's

prints, the impressions most beautiful, and of which Nanteuil

made the capital part. I do not know who particularly collects

his works now, but I have ordered my bookseller Bathoe,(458) who

is much versed in those things, to inquire; and if I hear of any

purchaser, Sir, I will let you know.

I have not bought the Anecdotes of Polite literature,(459)

suspecting them for a bookseller's compilation, and confirmed in

it by never hearing them mentioned. Our booksellers here at

London disgrace literature, by the trash they bespeak to be

written, and at the same time prevent every thing else from being

sold. They are little more or less than upholsters, who sell

sets or bodies of arts and sciences for furniture; and the

purchasers, for I am sure they are not readers, buy only in that

view.(460) I never thought there was much merit in reading: but

yet it is too good a thing to be put upon no better footing than

In damask and mahogany.

Whenever I can be of the least use to your studies or

collections, you know, Sir, that you may command me freely.

(457) Now first collected.

(458) This very intelligent bookseller, who lived near Exeter

'Change, in the Strand, died in 1768.-E.

(459) This was a very amusing and judicious selection, in five

small volumes, very neatly printed.-E.

(460 "I once said to Dr. Johnson, 'I am sorry, Sir, you did not

get more for your Dictionary.' His answer was, 'I am sorry too;

but it was very well: the booksellers are generous liberal-minded

men.' He, upon all occasions, did ample justice to their

character in this respect. He considered them as the patrons of

literature and, indeed, although they have eventually been

considerable gainers by his Dictionary, it is to them that we owe

its having been undertaken and carried out at the risk of great

expense for they were not absolutely sure of being indemnified."

Boswell's Johnson, vol. ii. p. 58.-E.

Letter 191 To The Earl Of Hertford.

Arlington Street, Feb. 6, 1764. (page 279)

You have, I hope, long before this, my dear lord, received the

immense letter that I sent you by old Monin. It explained much,

and announced most part of which has already happened; for you

will observe that when I tell you any thing, very positively, it

is on good intelligence. I have another much bigger secret for

you, but that will be delivered to you by word of mouth. I am

not a little impatient for the long letter you promised me. In

the mean time thank you for the account you give me of the King's

extreme civility to you. It is like yourself, to dwell on that,

and to say little of M. de Chaulnes's dirty behaviour; but

Monsieur and Madame de Guerchy have told your brother and me all

the particulars.

I was but too good a prophet when I warned you to expect new

extravagances from the Due de Chaulnes's son. Some weeks ago he

lost five hundred pounds to one Virette, an equivocal being, that

you remember here. Paolucci, the Modenese minister, who is not

in the odour of honesty, was of the party. The Duc de Pecquigny

said to the latter, "Monsieur, ne jouez plus avec lui, si vous

n'`etes pas de moiti`e." So far was very well. On Saturday at

the Maccaroni Club(461) (which is composed of all the travelled

young men, men who wear long curls and spying-glasses,) they

played again: the Duc lost, but not Much. In the passage at the

Opera, the Duc saw Mr. Stuart talking to Virette, and told the

former that Virette was a coquin, a fripon, etc. etc. Virette

retired, saying only, "Voil`a un fou." The Duc then desired Lord

Tavistock to come and see him fight Virette, but the Marquis

desired to be excused. After the Opera, Virette went to the

Duc's lodgings, but found him gone to make his complaint to

Monsieur de Guerchy, whither he followed him; and farther this

deponent knoweth not. I pity the Count (de Guerchy,) who is one

of the best-natured amiable men in the world, for having this

absurd boy upon his hands!

Well! now for a little politics. The Cider-bill(462) has not

answered to the minority, though they ran the ministry hard;(463)

but last Friday was extraordinary. George Grenville was pushed

upon some Navy bills; I don't understand a syllable, you know of

money and accounts; but whatever was the matter,(464) he was

driven from entrenchment to entrenchment by Baker,(465) and

Charles Townshend. After that affair was over, and many gone

away, Sir W. Meredith moved for the depositions on which the

warrant against Wilkes had been granted. The ministers

complained of the motion being made so late In the day; called it

a surprise; and Rigby moved to adjourn, which was carried but by

73 to 60. Had a surprise been intended, one may imagine the

minority would have been better provided with numbers; but it

certainly had not been concerted: however, a majority, shrunk to

thirteen, frightened them out of the small senses they possess.

heaven, earth, and the treasury, were moved to recover their

ground to-day, when the question was renewed. For about two

hours the debate hobbled on very lamely, when on a sudden your

brother rose, and made such a speech(466)--but I wish any body

was to give you the account except me, whom you will think

partial: but you will hear enough of it, to confirm any thing I

can say. Imagine fire, rapidity, argument, knowledge, wit,

ridicule, grave, spirit; all pouring like a torrent, but without

clashing. Imagine the House in a tumult of continued applause

imagine the ministers thunderstruck; lawyers abashed and almost

blushing, for it was on their quibbles and evasions he fell most

heavily, at the same time answering a whole session of arguments

on the side of the court. No, it was unique; you can neither

conceive it, nor the exclamations it occasioned. Ellis, the

forlorn hope, Ellis presented himself in the gap, till the

ministers could recover themselves, when on a sudden Lord George

Sackville led up the Blues;(467) spoke with as much warmth as

your brother had, and with great force continued the attack which

he had begun. Did not I tell you he would take this part? I was

made privy to it; but this is far from all you are to expect.

Lord North in vain rumbled about his mustard-bowl, and

endeavoured alone to outroar a whole party: him and Forrester,

Charles Townshend took up, but less well than usual. His

jealousy of your brother's success, which was very evident, did

not help him to shine. There were several other speeches, and,

upon the whole, it was a capital debate; but Plutus is so much

more persuasive an orator than your brother or Lord George, that

we divided but 122 against 217. Lord Strange, who had agreed to

the question, did not dare to vote for it, and declared off; and

George Townshend who had actually voted for it on Friday, now

voted against it. well! upon the whole, I heartily wish this

administration may last: both their characters and abilities are

so contemptible, @at I am sure we can be in no danger from

prerogative when trusted to such hands!

Before I have done with Charles Townshend, I must tell you one of

his admirable bon-mots. Miss Draycote,(468) the great fortune,

is grown very fat: he says her tonnage is become equal to her

poundage.

There is the devil to pay in Nabob-land, but I understand Indian

histories no better than stocks. The council rebelled against

the governors and sent a deputation, the Lord knows why, to the

Nabob, who cut off the said deputies' heads, and then, I think,

was disnabob'd himself, and Clive's old friend reinstated. There

is another rebellion in Minorca, where Johnson [has renounced his

allegiance to viceroy Dick Lyttelton, and set up for himself.

Sir Richard has laid the affair before the King and council;

Charles Townshend first, and then your brother, (you know why I

am sorry they should appear together in that cause,) have tried

to deprecate Sir Richard's wrath: but it was then too late. The

silly fellow has brought himself' to a precipice.

I forgot to tell you that Lord George Sackville carried into the

minority with him his own brother(469) Lord Middlesex; Lord

Milton's brother;(470) young Beauclerc; Sir Thomas Hales; and

Colonel Irwine.

We have not heard a word of the Hereditary Prince and Princess.

They were sent away in a tempest, and I believe the best one can

hope is, that they are driven to Norway.(471)

Good night, my dear lord; it is time to finish, for it is half an

hour after one in the morning - I am forced to purloin such hours

to Write to you, for I get up so late, and then have such a

perpetual succession Of nothings to do, such auctions, politics,

visits, dinners, suppers, books to publish or revise, etc. that I

have not a quarter of an hour without a call upon it: but I need

not tell you, who know my life, that I am forced to create new

time, if I will keep up my correspondence with you. You seem to

like I should, and I wish to give you every satisfaction in my

power.

Tuesday, February 7, four o'clock.

I tremble whilst I continue my letter, having just heard such a

dreadful story! A captain of a vessel has made oath before the

Lord Mayor, this morning, that he saw one of the yachts sunk on

the coast of Holland; and it is believed to be the one in which

the Prince was. The city is in an uproar; nor need one point out

all such an accident may produce, if true; which I most fervently

hope it is not. My long letter will help you to comments enough,

which will be made on this occasion. I wish you may know, at

this moment, that our fears are ill placed. The Princess was not

in the same yacht with her husband. Poor Fanshawe,(472) as clerk

of the green cloth, with his wife and sister, was in one of them.

Here is more of the Duc de Pecquigny's episode. An officer was

sent yesterday to put Virette under arrest. His servant disputed

with the officer on his orders, till his master made his escape.

Virette sent a friend, whom he ordered to deliver his letter in

person, and see it read, with a challenge, appointing the Duc to

meet him at an hour after seven this morning, at Buckingham-gate,

where he waited till ten to no purpose, though the Duc had not

been put under arrest. Virette absconds, and has sent M. de

Pecquigny word, that he shall abscond till he can find a proper

opportunity of fighting him. Your discretion will naturally

prevent your talking of this; but I thought you would like to be

prepared, if this affair should any how happen to become your

business, though your late discussion With the Duc de Chaulnes

will add to your disinclination from meddling with it.

I must send this to the post before I go to the Opera, and

therefore shall not be able to tell you more of the Prince of

Brunswick by this post.

(461) The "Maccaroni" of 1764 was nearly synonymous with the term

"dandy" at present in vogue, and even become classical by the use

of it by Lord Byron; who, in his story of Beppo, written in 1817,

speaks of

----"the dynasty of Dandies, now

Perchance succeeded by some other class

Of imitated imitators:--how

Irreparably soon decline, alas!

The demagogues of fashion: all below

Is frail; how easily the world is lost

By love, or war, and now and then by frost!"-E.

(462) A bill, passed in the last session, for an additional duty

on cider and perry, which was violently opposed by the cider

counties, and taken up as a general opposition question. This

measure was considered as a great error on the part of Lord Bute,

and the unpopularity consequent upon it is said to have

contributed to his resignation.

(463) On a motion for a committee on the Cider-bill on the 24th

of January. Mr. James Grenville, in a letter to his sister, Lady

Chatham, speaking of this debate says, "I should make you as old

a woman as either Sandys or Rushout, if I were to state all the

jargon that arose in this debate. It was plain the Court meant

to preclude any repeal of the bill; the cider people coldly

wished to obtain it. Sir Richard Bamfylde, at the head of them,

spoke, not his own sentiments, as he declared, but those which

the instructions and petitions of his constituents forced him to

maintain. We divided 127 with us: against us, 167." Chatham

Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 282.-E.

(464) It was a proposal for converting certain outstanding

navy-bills into annuities at four per cent.-C.

(465) Sir William Baker, member for Plympton; an alderman of

London. He married the eldest daughter of the second Jacob

Tonson, the bookseller.-E.

(466) There is no other account of this remarkable speech to be

found; and indeed we have little notice of General Conway's

parliamentary efforts, except Mr. Burke's general and brilliant

description of his conduct as leader of the House of Commons in

the Rockingham administration. As General Conway's reputation in

the House of Commons has been in some degree forgotten, it may be

as well to cite the passage from Mr. Burke's speech, in 1774, on

American taxation, in support of what Mr. Walpole says of the

General's powers in debate:--"I will likewise do justice, I ought

to do it, to the honourable gentleman who led us in this House.

Far from the duplicity wickedly charged on him, he acted his part

with alacrity and resolution. We all felt inspired by the

example he gave us, down even to myself, the weakest in that

phalanx. I declare for one, I knew well enough (it could not be

concealed from any body) the true state of things; but, in my

life I never came with so much spirits into this House. It was a

time for a man to act in. We had powerful enemies; but we had

faithful and determined friends and a glorious cause. We had a

great battle to fight, but we had the means of fighting; not as

now, when our arms are tied behind us. We did fight that day,

and conquer. I remember, Sir, with a melancholy pleasure, the

situation of the Honourable gentleman (General Conway) who made

the motion for the repeal; in that crisis, when the whole trading

interest of this empire, crammed into your lobbies with a

trembling, and anxious expectation, waited, ,almost to a winter's

return of light, their fate from your resolution. When, at

length, you had determined in their favour, and your doors thrown

open, showed them the figure of their deliverer in the

well-earned triumph of his important victory, from the whole of

that grave multitude there arose an involuntary burst of

gratitude and transport, They jumped upon him like children on a

long absent father. They clung about him like captives about the

redeemer. All England, all America, joined in his applause. Nor

did he seem insensible to the best of all earthly regards--the

love and admiration of his fellow-citizens. Hope elevated, and

joy brightened his crest. I stood near him; and his face, to use

the expression of the Scripture of the first martyr, 'his face

was as if it had been the face of an angel.' I do not know how

others feel; but if I had Stood in that situation, I never would

have exchanged it for all that kings, in their profusion, could

bestow. I did hope, that that day's danger and honour would have

been a bond to hold us all together for ever. But alas! that,

with other pleasing visions, is long since vanished."-C.

(467) Mr. Walpole tinges his approbation of Lord George's

politics by this allusion to Minden, where his lordship had not

"led up the Blues."-C.

(468) Miss Anna Maria Draycote, married in April, 17()3, to Earl

Pomfret. To taste Mr. Townshend's jest, one must recollect, that

in the finance of that day the duties of tonnage and poundage

held a principal place.-C.

(469) Governor Vansittart, contrary to the advice of his council,

had deposed the Nabob Meer Jaffier, and transferred the

sovereignty to his son-in-law, Cossim Ali Cawn. The latter,

however, soon forgot his obligations to the English; and in

consequence of some aggressions on his part, a deputation,

consisting of Mesrs Amyatt and Hay, members of council, attended

by half a dozen other gentlemen, was sent to the new Nabob.

While this deputation was on its return, hostilities broke out,

and these gentlemen were put to death as they were passing the

city of Mor", Moreshedabad. About the same here the English

council at Patna and their attendants were made prisoners, and

afterwards cruelly massacred. These events necessitated the

deposition of Cossim, and Jaffier was accordingly, after a short

campaign, restored.-C. (468) Charles, afterwards second Duke of

Dorset.-E.

(470) John Damer, member for Dorchester. Lord Milton had married

Lord George's youngest sister, Lady Caroline.-E.

(471) The Prince and Princess landed safely at Helvoet on the 2d

of February.-E.

(472) Simon Fanshawe, Esq. member for Grampound. He had married

a lady of his own name.

Letter 192 To The Earl Of Hertford.

Arlington Street, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 1764. (page 283)

My dear lord,

You ought to be Witness to the fatigue I am suffering, before you

can estimate the merit I have in being writing to you at this

moment. Cast up eleven hours in the House of Commons on Monday,

and above seventeen hours yesterday--ay, seventeen at length,-

-and then you may guess if I am tired! nay, you must add

seventeen hours that I may possibly be there on Friday, and then

calculate if I am weary.(473) In short, yesterday was the

longest day ever known in the House of Commons--why, on the

Westminster election at the end of my father's reign,(474) I was

at home by six. On Alexander Murray's(475) affair, I believe, by

five--on the militia, twenty people, I think, sat till six, but

then they were only among themselves, no heat, no noise, no

roaring. It was half an hour after seven this morning before I

was at home. Think of that, and then brag of your French

parliaments!(476)

What is ten times greater, Leonidas and the Spartan minority did

not make such a stand at Thermopylae, as we did. Do you know, we

had like to have been the majority? Xerxes(477) is frightened

out of his senses; Sysigambis(478) has sent an express to Luton

to forbid Phrates(479) coming to town to-morrow: Norton's(480)

impudence has forsaken him; Bishop Warburton is at this moment

reinstating Mr. Pitt's name in the dedication to his sermons,

which he had expunged for Sandwich's;(481) and Sandwich himself

is--at Paris, perhaps, by this time, for the first thing I expect

to hear to-morrow is, that he is gone off.

Now are you mortally angry with me for trifling with you, and not

telling you at once the particulars of this almost-revolution.

You may be angry, but I shall take my own time, and shall give

myself what airs I please both to you, my Lord Ambassador, and to

you, my Lord Secretary of State, who will, I suppose, open this

letter--if you have courage enough left. In the first place, I

assume all the impertinence of a prophet, aye, of that great

curiosity, a prophet, who really prophesied before the event, and

whose predictions have been accomplished. Have I, or have I not,

announced to you the unexpected blows that would be given to the

administration?--come, I will lay aside my dignity, and satisfy

your impatience. There's moderation.

We sat all Monday hearing evidence against Mr. Wood,(482) that

dirty wretch Webb,(483) and the messengers, for their illegal

proceedings against Mr. Wilkes. At midnight, Mr. Grenville

offered us to adjourn or proceed. Mr. Pitt humbly begged not to

eat or sleep till so great a point should be decided. On a

division, in which though many said aye to adjourning, nobody

would go out for fear of losing their seats, it was carried by

379 to 31, for proceeding--and then--half the House went away.

The ministers representing the indecency of this, and Fitzherbert

saying that many were within call, Stanley observed, that after

voting against adjournment, a third part had adjourned

themselves, when, instead of being within call, they ought to

have been within hearing: this was unanswerable, and we

adjourned.

Yesterday we fell to again. It was one in the morning before the

evidence was closed. CarringTon, the messenger, was alone

examined for seven hours. This old man, the cleverest of all

ministerial terriers, was pleased with recounting his

achievements, yet guarded and betraying nothing. However, the

arcana imperia have been wofully laid open.

I have heard Garrick, and other players, give themselves airs of

fatigue after a long part--think of the Speaker, nay, think of

the clerks taking most correct minutes for sixteen hours, and

reading them over to every witness; and then let me hear of

fatigue! Do you know, not only my Lord Temple,(484)--who you may

swear never budged as spectator, but old Will Chetwynd,(485) now

past eighty, and who had walked to the House, did not stir a

single moment out of his place, from three in the afternoon till

the division at seven in the morning. Nay, we had patriotesses,

too, who stayed out the whole: Lady Rockingham and Lady Sondes

the first day; both again the second day, with Miss Mary Pelham,

Mrs. Fitzroy,(486) and the Duchess of Richmond, as patriot as any

of us. Lady Mary Coke, Mrs. George Pitt,(487) and Lady

Pembroke(488) came after the Opera, but I think did not stay

above seven or eight hours at most.

At one, Sir W. Meredith(489) moved a resolution of the illegality

of the warrant, and opened it well. He was seconded by old

Darlington's brother,(490) a convert to us. Mr. Wood, who had

shone the preceding day by great modesty, decency, and ingenuity,

forfeited these merits a good deal by starting up (according to a

ministerial plan,) and very arrogantly, and repeatedly in the

night, demanding justice and a previous acquittal, and telling

the House he scorned to accept being merely excused; to which Mr.

Pitt replied, that if he disdained to be excused, he would

deserve to be censured. Mr. Charles Yorke (who, with his family,

have come roundly to us for support against the Duke of Bedford

on the Marriage-bill(491)) proposed to adjourn. Grenville and

the Ministry would have agreed to adjourn the debate on the great

question itself, but declared they would push this acquittal.

This they announced haughtily enough--for as yet, they did not

doubt of their strength. Lord Frederick Campbell(492) was the

most impetuous of all, so little he foresaw how much wiser it

would be to follow your brother. Pitt made a short speech,

excellently argumentative, and not bombast, nor tedious. nor

deviating from the question. He was supported by your brother,

and Charles Townshend, and Lord George;(493) the two last of whom

are strangely firm, now they are got under the cannon of your

brother Charles, who, as he must be extraordinary, is now so in

romantic nicety of honour. His father,(494) who is dying, or

dead, at Bath, and from whom he hopes two thousand a year, has

sent for him. He has refused to go--lest his steadiness should

be questioned. At a quarter after four we divided. Our cry was

so loud, that both we and the ministers thought we had carried

it. It is not to be painted, the dismay of the latter--in good

truth not without reason, for we were 197, they but 207. Your

experience can tell you, that a majority of but ten is a defeat.

Amidst a great defection from them, was even a white staff, Lord

Charles Spencer(495)--now you know still more of what I told you

was preparing for them!

Crestfallen, the ministers then proposed simply to discharge the

complaint; but the plumes which they had dropped, Pitt soon

placed in his own beaver. He broke out on liberty, and, indeed,

on whatever he pleased, uninterrupted. Rigby sat feeling the

vice-treasurership slipping from under him. Nugent was now less

pensive--Lord Strange,(496) though not interested, did not like

it. Every body was too much taken up with his own concerns or

too much daunted, to give the least disturbance to the Pindaric.

Grenville, however, dropped a few words, which did but heighten

the flame. Pitt, with less modesty than ever he showed,

pronounced a panegyric, on his own administration, and from

thence broke out on the dismission of officers. This increased

the roar from us. Grenville replied, and very finely, very

pathetically, very animated. he painted Wilkes and faction, and,

with very little truth, denied the charge of menaces to officers.

At that moment, General A'Court(497) walked up the House --think

what an impression such an incident must make, when passions,

hopes, and fears, were all afloat--think, too, how your brother

and I, had we been ungenerous, could have added to these

sensations! There was a man not so delicate. Colonel Barr`e

rose--and this attended with a striking circumstance; Sir Edward

Deering, one of our noisy fools, called out, "Mr. Barr`e,"(498)

The latter seized the thought with admirable quickness, and said

to the Speaker, who, in pointing to him, had called him Colonel,

"I beg your pardon, Sir, you have pointed to me by a title I have

no right to," and then made a very artful and pathetic speech on

his own services and dismission; with nothing bad but an awkward

attempt towards an excuse to Mr. Pitt for his former behaviour.

Lord North, who will not lose his bellow, though he may lose his

place, endeavoured to roar up the courage of his comrades, but it

would not do--the House grew tired, and we again divided at seven

for adjournment; some of our people were gone, and we remained

but 184, they 208; however, you will allow our affairs are

mended, when we say, but 184. We then came away, and left the

ministers to satisfy Wood, Webb, and themselves, as well as they

could. It was eight in the morning before I was in bed; and

considering that this is no very short letter, Mr. Pitt bore the

fatigue with his usual spirit(499)--and even old Onslow, the late

Speaker, was sitting up, anxious for the event.

On Friday we are to have the great question, which would prevent

my writing; and to-morrow I dine with Guerchy, at the Duke of

Grafton's, besides twenty other engagements. To-day I have shut

myself up; for with writing this, and taking notes yesterday all

day, and all night, I have not an eye left to see out of--nay,

for once in my life, I shall go to bed at ten o'clock.

I am glad to be able to contradict two or three passages in my

last letter. The Prince and Princess of Brunswick are safely

landed, though they were in extreme danger. The Duc de Pecquigny

had not only been put in arrest late on the Sunday night, which I

did not know, but has retrieved his honour. Monsieur de Guerchy

sent him away, and at Dover Virette found him, and whispered him

to steal from D'Allonville(500) and fight. The Duc first begged

his pardon, owned himself in the wrong, and then fought him, and

was wounded, though slightly, in four places in the arm; and both

are returned to London with their honours as white as snow.

Sir Jacob Downing(501) is dead, and has left every shilling to

his wife; id est, not sixpence to my Lord Holland;(502) a mishap

which, being followed by a minority of 197, will not make a

pleasant week to him.

now would you believe how I feel and how I wish? I wish we may

continue the minority. The desires of some of my associates,

perhaps, may not be satisfied, but mine are. Here is an

opposition formidable enough to keep abler ministers than

Messieurs the present gentlemen in awe. They may pick pockets,

but they will pick no more locks. While we continue a minority,

we preserve our characters, and we have some too good to part

with. I hate to have a camp to plunder; at least, I am so Which

I am so whig, I hate spoils but the opima spolia. I think it,

too, much more creditable to control ministers, than to be

ministers--and much more creditable than to become mere ministers

ourselves. I have several other excellent reasons against our

success, though I could combat them with as many drawn from the

insufficience of the present folk, and the propriety of Mr. Pitt

being minister; but I am too tired, and very likely so are you,

my dear lord, by this time, and therefore good night!

Friday noon.

I had sealed my letter, and break it open again on receiving

yours of the 13th, by the messenger. Though I am very sorry you

had not then got mine from Monin, which would have prepared you

for much of what has happened, I do not fear its miscarriage, as

I think I can account for the delay. I had, for more security,

put it into the parcel with two more volumes of my Anecdotes of

Painting; which, I suppose, remained in M. Monin's baggage; and

he might not have taken it when he delivered the single letters.

If he has not yet sent you the parcel, you may ask for it, as the

same delicacy is not necessary as for a letter.

I thank Lord Beauchamp much for the paper, but should thank him

much more for a letter from himself. I am going this minute to

the House, where I have already been to prayers,(503) to take a

place. It was very near full then, so critical a day it is! I

expect we shall be beaten-but we shall not be so many times more.

Lord Granby(504) I hear, is to move the previous question--they

are reduced to their heavy cannon.

Sunday evening, 19th.

Happening to hear of a gentleman who sets out for Paris in two or

three days, I stopped my letter, both out of prudence (pray

admire me!) and from thinking that it was as well to send you at

once the complete history of our Great Week. By the time you

have read the preceding pages, you may, perhaps, expect to find a

change in the ministry in what I am going to say. You must have

a little patience; our parliamentary war, like the last war in

Germany, produces very considerable battles, that are not

decisive. Marshal Pitt has given another great blow to the

subsidiary army, but they remained masters of the field, and both

sides sing te Deum. I am not talking figuratively, when I assure

you that bells, bonfires, and an illumination from the Monument,

were prepared in the city, in case we had the majority. Lord

Temple was so indiscreet and indecent as to have fagots ready for

two bonfires, but was persuaded to lay aside the design, even

before it was abortive.

It is impossible to give you the detail of so long a debate as

Friday's. You will regret it the less when I tell you it was a

very dull one. I never knew a day of expectation answer. The

impromptus and the unexpected are ever the most shining. We love

to hear ourselves talk, and yet we must be formed of adamant to

be able to talk day and night on the same question for a week

together. If you had seen how ill we looked, you would not have

wondered we did not speak well. A company of colliers emerging

from damps and darkness could not have appeared more ghastly and

dirty than we did on Wednesday morning; and we had not recovered

much bloom on Friday. We spent two or three hours on corrections

of, and additions to, the question of pronouncing the warrant

illegal, till the ministry had contracted it to fit scarce any

thing but the individual case of Wilkes, Pitt not opposing the

amendments because Charles Yorke gave into them; for it is

wonderful(505) what deference is paid by both sides to that

house. The debate then began by Norton's moving to adjourn the

consideration of the question for four months, and holding out a

promise of a bill, which neither they mean nor, for my part,

should I like: I would not give prerogative so much as a

definition. You are a peer, and, therefore, perhaps, will hear

it with patience--but think how our ears must have tingled, when

he told us, that should we pass the resolution, and he were a

judge, he would mind it no more than the resolution of a drunken

porter! Had old Onslow been in the chair, I believe he would

have knocked him down with the mace. He did hear of it during

the debate, though not severely enough; but the town rings with

it. Charles Yorke replied, and was much admired. Me he did not

please; I require a little more than palliatives and sophistries.

He excused the part he has taken by pleading that he had never

seen the warrant, till after Wilkes was taken up--yet he then

pronounced the No. 45 a libel, and advised the commitment of

Wilkes to the Tower. If you advised me to knock a man down,

would you excuse yourself by saying you had never seen the stick

with which I gave the blow Other speeches we had without end, but

none good, except from Lord George Sackville, a short one from

Elliot, and one from Charles Townshend, so fine that it amazed,

even from him. Your brother had spoken with excellent sense

against the corrections, and began well again in the debate, but

with so much rapidity that he confounded himself first, and then

was seized with such a hoarseness that he could not proceed.

Pitt and George Grenville ran a match of silence, striving which

should reply to the other. At last, Pitt, who had three times in

the debate retired with pain,(506) rose about three in the

morning, but so languid, so exhausted, that, in his life, he

never made less figure. Grenville answered him; and at five in

the morning we divided. The Noes were so loud, as it admits a

deeper sound than Aye, that the Speaker, who has got a bit of

nose(507) since the opposition got numbers, gave it for us. They

went forth; and when I heard our side counted to the amount of

218, I did conclude we were victorious; but they returned 232.

It is true we were beaten by fourteen, but we were increased by

twenty-one; and no ministry could stand on so slight an

advantage, if we could continue above two hundred.(508)

We may, and probably shall, fall off: this was our strongest

question--but our troops will stand fast: their hopes and views

depend upon it, and their spirits are raised. But for the other

side it will not be the same. The lookers-on will be stayers

away, and their very subsidies will undo them. They bought two

single votes that day with two peerages;(509) Sir R.

Bampfylde(510) and Sir Charles Tynte(511)--and so are going to

light up the flame of two more county elections--and that in the

west, where surely nothing was wanting but a tinder-box!

You would have almost laughed to see the spectres produced by

both sides; one would have thought that they had sent a

search-warrant for members of parliament into every hospital.

Votes were brought down in flannels and blankets, till the floor

of the House looked like the pool of Bethesda. 'Tis wonderful

that half of us are not dead--I should not say us; Herculean I

have not suffered the least, except that from being a Hercules of

ten grains, I don't believe I now weigh above eight. I felt from

nothing so much as the noise, which made me as drunk as an owl-

-you may imagine the clamours of two parties so nearly matched,

and so impatient to come to a decision.

The Duchess of Richmond has got a fever with the attendance of

Tuesday--but on Friday we were forced to be unpolite. The

Amazons came down in such squadrons, that we were forced to be

denied. However, eight or nine of the patriotesses dined in one

of the Speaker's rooms, and stayed there till twelve--nay, worse,

while their dear country was at stake, I am afraid they were

playing at loo!

The Townshends, you perceive by this account, are returned; their

father not dead.(512) Lord Howe(513) and the Colonel voted with

us; so did Lord Newnham,(514) and is likely to be turned out of

doors for it. A warrant to take up Lord Charles Spenser was sent

to Blenheim from Bedford-house,(515) and signed by his brother,

and returned for him; so he went thither--not a very kind office

in the Duke of Marlborough to Lord Charles's character. Lord

Granby refused to make the motion, but spoke for it. Lord

Hardwicke is relapsed; but we do not now fear any consequences

from his death. The Yorkes, who abandoned a triumphant

administration, are not so tender as to return and comfort them

in their depression.

The chief business now, I suppose, will lie in souterreins and

intrigues. Lord Bute's panic will, probably, direct him to make

application to us. Sandwich will be manufacturing lies, and

Rigby, negotiations. Some change or other, whether partial or

extensive, must arrive. The best that can happen for the

ministers, is to be able to ward off the blow till the recess,

and they have time to treat at leisure; but in just the present

state it is impossible things should remain. The opposition is

too strong, and their leaders too able to make no impression.

Adieu! pray tell Mr. Hume that I am ashamed to be thus writing

the history of England, when he is with you!

P. S. The new baronies are contradicted, but may recover truth at

the end of the session.(516)

(473) the important debate on the question of General Warrants,

which is the subject of the following able and interesting

letter, has never been reported. There are, indeed, in the

parliamentary history, a letter from Sir George Yonge, and two

statements by Sir William Meredith and Charles Townshend, on the

subject, but they relate chiefly to their own motives and

reasonings, and give neither the names nor the arguments of the

debater,-, and fall very short indeed of the vigour and vivacity

of Mr. Walpole's animated sketch.-C.

(474) On the 22d December, 1741. This was one of the debates

that terminated Sir Robert Walpole's administration: the numbers

on the division were 220 against 216.-C.

(475) The proceedings of the 6th of February, 1751, against the

Honourable A. Murray, for impeding the Westminster election; but

Walpole, in his Memoires, states that the House adjourned at two

in the morning.-C.

(476) The disputes between Louis XV. and his parliaments, which

prepared the revolution, were at this period assuming a serious

appearance.-C.

(477) The King.

(478) The Princess Dowager.