Sackville Street complained yesterday of silence.
[266] James Whitshed, M.P. for Cirencester.
230.
_To J. B. Holroyd, Esq._
December, 1774.
Poor Clarke is too melancholy a subject to dwell much upon. Had I
wrote last night I should have said that symptoms appeared rather
more favourable, but I must now have contradicted myself. I fear
there remains but little hope. If I have any really good news to send
you I will not lose a moment. Otherwise permit me to be silent on
that unpleasant head.
Monday last was our first engagement. You have seen the Address,[267]
Lord John Cavendish's amendment, and the numbers--264 to 73. Burke
was a water-mill of words and images; Barré an Actor equal to
Garrick; Wedderbourne artful and able. Lord G. Germaine, though An
Anti-American, remained silent; Hartley,[268] Sir William Maine[269]
and some other new Members lost their maidenheads with very little
credit. Once or twice I was a little lewd, but am now well pleased
that I resisted the premature temptation. I divided with the
Majority. Your Lewes friend Sir Thomas[270] (to the general surprize)
with the minority.
As to private affairs, It is a strange pair of brutes that I an
engaged with. I send your letters as instructions to Hugonin. As to
Lovegrove we expect his _Ultimatum_. The Bishop of Landaff gives a
very bad character of Matthews.
Last Tuesday I dined at Lethiuellier's[271] with Maudit,[272]
Lascelles and Sir Thomas Millar. Next Tuesday they dine in Bentinck
Street, with the addition of Batt.[273] From some circumstance it
appears that my romantic attack on Lord A. might have succeeded.
Adieu.
Embrace my Lady. The treaty between moles and paper is far advanced.
[267] The Address was carried on December 5, 1774. An amendment,
claiming the fullest information on American affairs, was moved
in the Lower House by Lord John Cavendish.
[268] David Hartley, M.P. for Kingston-upon-Hull.
[269] Sir W. Maine, Bart., of Gatton Park, Surrey, M.P. for
Canterbury.
[270] Sir Thomas Miller, Bart., of Chichester, M.P. for Lewes.
[271] Benjamin Lethieullier, at this time M.P. for Andover,
whom Gibbon met at Up Park in 1762, was brother to Lady
Featherstonhaugh, and a relation of Smart Lethieullier, the
antiquary.
[272] Israel Mauduit, pamphleteer and woollen-draper, best known
for his _Considerations on the Present German War_ (1760), was
agent for Massachusetts Bay. It was on his application that
Wedderburn was heard before the Privy Council, in answer to the
petition for the recall of Hutchinson and Oliver.
[273] "Lawyer Batt," whose name often occurs in these letters,
was John Thomas Batt, of Newhall near Salisbury, successively a
Master in Chancery, and a Commissioner for the auditing of the
Public Accounts. He was a "prime favourite" of Miss Burney, and a
friend of Walpole, Lord Malmsbury, and Sir J. Reynolds.
[Sidenote: A GOOD SON AND A GOOD FRIEND.]
231.
_To Mrs. Holroyd._
Bentinck Street, Dec. 17th, 1774.