STRAWBERRY HILL, _Oct._ 8, 1778.
As you are so earnest for news, I am concerned when I have not a
paragraph to send you. It looks as if distance augmented your
apprehensions; for, I assure you, at home we have lost almost all
curiosity. Though the two fleets have been so long at sea, and though,
before their last _sortie_, one heard nothing but _What news of the
fleets?_ of late there has been scarcely any inquiry; and so the French
one is returned to Brest, and ours is coming home. Admiral Keppel is
very unlucky in having missed them, for they had not above twenty-five
ships. Letters from Paris say that their camps, too, are to break up at
the end of this month: but we do not intend to be the dupes of that
_finesse_, if it is one, but shall remain on our guard. One must hope
that winter will produce some negotiation; and that, peace. Indeed, as
war is not declared, I conclude there is always some treating on the
anvil; and, should it end well, at least this age will have made a step
towards humanity, in omitting the ceremonial of proclamation, which
seems to make it easier to cease being at war. But I am rather making
out a proxy for a letter than sending you news. But, you see, even
armies of hundred thousands in Germany can execute as little as we; and
you must remember what the Grand Condé, or the great Prince of Orange--I
forget which--said, that unmarried girls imagine husbands are always on
duty, unmilitary men that soldiers are always fighting. One of the Duke
of Marlborough's Generals dining with the Lord Mayor, an Alderman who
sat next to him said, "Sir, yours must be a very laborious
profession."--"No," replied the General, "we fight about four hours in
the morning, and two or three after dinner, and then we have all the
rest of the day to ourselves."
The King has been visiting camps,--and so has Sir William Howe, who, one
should think, had had enough of them; and who, one should think too, had
not achieved such exploits as should make him fond of parading himself
about, or expect many hosannahs. To have taken one town, and retreated
from two, is not very glorious in military arithmetic; and to have
marched twice to Washington, and returned without attacking him, is no
addition to the sum total.
Did I tell you that Mrs. Anne Pitt is returned, and acts great grief for
her brother? I suppose she was the dupe of the farce acted by the two
Houses and the Court, and had not heard that none of them carried on the
pantomime even to his burial. Her nephew gave a little into that mummery
even to me; forgetting how much I must remember of his aversion to his
uncle. Lord Chatham was a meteor, and a glorious one; people discovered
that he was not a genuine luminary, and yet everybody in mimickry has
been an _ignis fatuus_ about him. Why not allow his magnificent
enterprises and good fortune, and confess his defects; instead of being
bombast in his praises, and at the same time discover that the
amplification is insincere? A Minister who inspires great actions must
be a great Minister; and Lord Chatham will always appear so,--by
comparison with his predecessors and successors. He retrieved our
affairs when ruined by a most incapable Administration; and we are
fallen into a worse state since he was removed. Therefore, I doubt,
posterity will allow more to his merit, than it is the present fashion
to accord to it. Our historians have of late been fond of decrying Queen
Elizabeth, in order if possible to raise the Stuarts: but great actions
surmount foibles; and folly and guilt would always remain folly and
guilt, though there had never been a great man or woman in the world.
Our modern tragedies, hundreds of them do not contain a good line; nor
are they a jot the better, because Shakspeare, who was superior to all
mankind, wrote some whole plays that are as bad as any of our present
writers.
I shall be very glad to see your nephew, and talk of you with him; which
will be more satisfactory than questioning accidental travellers.
_CAPTURE OF PONDICHERRY--CHANGES IN THE MINISTRY--LA FAYETTE IN
AMERICA._