STRAWBERRY HILL, _June_ 3, 1778.
I will not dispute with you, dear Sir, on patriots and politics. One
point is past controversy, that the Ministers have ruined this country;
and if the Church of England is satisfied with being reconciled to the
Church of Rome, and thinks it a compensation for the loss of America and
all credit in Europe, she is as silly an old woman as any granny in an
almshouse. France is very glad we have grown such fools, and soon saw
that the Presbyterian Dr. Franklin[1] had more sense than our Ministers
together. She has got over all her prejudices, has expelled the Jesuits,
and made the Protestant Swiss, Necker,[2] her Comptroller-general. It is
a little woful, that we are relapsing into the nonsense the rest of
Europe is shaking off! and it is more deplorable, as we know by repeated
experience, that this country has always been disgraced by Tory
administrations. The rubric is the only gainer by them in a few martyrs.
[Footnote 1: Dr. Franklin, as a man of science, may almost be called the
father of electrical science. He was the discoverer of the electrical
character of lightning, a discovery which he followed up by the
invention of iron conductors for the protection of buildings, &c., from
lightning. He was also a very zealous politician, and one of the leaders
of the American colonists in their resistance to the taxation imposed
first by Mr. Grenville and afterwards by Mr. C. Townshend. He resided
for several years in England as agent for the State of Pennsylvania, and
in that character, in the year 1765, was examined before the Committee
of the House of Commons on the Stamp Act of Mr. Grenville. After the
civil war broke out he was elected a member of the American Congress,
and was sent as an envoy to France to negotiate a treaty with that
country. As early as 1758 he was elected a member of the Royal Society
in England, and received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the
University of Oxford.]
[Footnote 2: Necker was originally a banker, in which business he made a
large fortune; but after a time he turned his attention to politics. He
began by opposing the financial and constitutional schemes of the great
Turgot, and shortly after the dismissal of that Minister he himself was
admitted into the Ministry as a sort of Secretary to the Treasury, his
religion, as a Protestant, being a bar to his receiving the title of
"Comptroller-General," though, in fact, he had the entire management of
the finance of the kingdom, which, by artful misrepresentation of his
measures and suppression of such important facts, that he had contracted
loans to the amount of twenty millions of money, he represented as far
more flourishing than in reality it was. At the end of two or three
years he resigned his office in discontent at his services not receiving
the rewards to which he considered himself entitled. But in 1788 he was
again placed in office, on this occasion as Comptroller-General, and,
practically, Prime Minister, a post for which he was utterly unfit; for
he had not one qualification for a statesman, was a prey to the most
overweening vanity, and his sole principles of action were a thirst for
popularity and a belief in "the dominion of reason and the abstract
virtues of mankind." Under the influence of these notions he frittered
away the authority and dignity of the King; and, as Napoleon afterwards
truly told his grandson, was, in truth, the chief cause of all the
horrors of the Revolution.]
I do not know yet what is settled about the spot of Lord Chatham's
interment. I am not more an enthusiast to his memory than you. I knew
his faults and his defects--yet one fact cannot only not be
controverted, but I doubt more remarkable every day--I mean, that under
him we attained not only our highest elevation, but the most solid
authority in Europe. When the names of Marlborough and Chatham are still
pronounced with awe in France, our little cavils make a puny sound.
Nations that are beaten cannot be mistaken.
I have been looking out for your friend a set of my heads of Painters,
and I find I want six or seven. I think I have some odd ones in town; if
I have not, I will have deficiencies supplied from the plates, though I
fear they will not be good, as so many have been taken off. I should be
very ungrateful for all your kindnesses, if I neglected any opportunity
of obliging you, dear Sir. Indeed, our old and unalterable friendship is
creditable to us both, and very uncommon between two persons who differ
so much in their opinions relative to Church and State. I believe the
reason is, that we are both sincere, and never meant to take advantage
of our principles; which I allow is too common on both sides, and I own,
too, fairly more common on my side of the question than on yours. There
is a reason, too, for that; the honours and emoluments are in the gift
of the Crown; the nation has no separate treasury to reward its friends.
If Mr. Tyrwhitt has opened his eyes to Chatterton's forgeries,[1] there
is an instance of conviction against strong prejudice! I have drawn up
an account of my transaction with that marvellous young man; you shall
see it one day or other, but I do not intend to print it. I have taken a
thorough dislike to being an author; and if it would not look like
begging you to compliment me, by contradicting me, I would tell you,
what I am most seriously convinced of, that I find what small share of
parts I had, grown dulled--and when I perceive it myself, I may well
believe that others would not be less sharp-sighted. It is very natural;
mine were spirits rather than parts; and as time has abated the one, it
must surely destroy their resemblance to the other: pray don't say a
syllable in reply on this head, or I shall have done exactly what I said
I would not do. Besides, as you have always been too partial to me, I am
on my guard, and when I will not expose myself to my enemies, I must not
listen to the prejudices of my friends; and as nobody is more partial
to me than you, there is nobody I must trust less in that respect. Yours
most sincerely.
[Footnote 1: Mr. Tyrrhwitt, a critic of great eminence, especially as
the editor of "Chaucer," had at first believed the poems published by
Chatterton to be the genuine works of Rowley, but was afterwards
convinced, as Dr. Johnson also was, by the inspection of the manuscripts
which the poor youth called the "originals," that they were quite
recent.]
_ADMIRAL KEPPEL'S SUCCESS--THREATS OF INVASION--FUNERAL OF LORD
CHATHAM._