BERKELEY SQUARE, _Dec._ 2, 1783.
... Your nephew is in town, but confined by the gout. I called on him,
but did not see him; yet you may be very easy, for he expects to be
abroad in a day or two. I can make you as easy about another point, too;
but, if you have not learnt it from him, do not take notice to him that
you know it. Mrs. Noel has informed me that his daughter's treaty of
marriage is broken off, and in a fortunate way. The peer, father of the
lover, obliged _him_ to declare off; and Mrs. Noel says that your niece
is in good spirits. All this is just what one should have wished. Your
nephew has sent me a good and most curious print from you of the old
Pretender's marriage: I never saw one before. It is a great present to
my collection of English portraits. The Farnesian books I have not yet
received, and have forgotten the name of the gentleman to whom you
entrusted them, and must search among your letters for it; or, tell it
me again.
The politicians of London, who at present are not the most numerous
corporation, are warm on a Bill for a new regulation of the East Indies,
brought in by Mr. Fox.[1] Some even of his associates apprehended his
being defeated, or meant to defeat him; but his marvellous abilities
have hitherto triumphed conspicuously, and on two divisions in the House
of Commons he had majorities of 109 and 114. On _that_ field he will
certainly be victorious: the forces will be more nearly balanced when
the Lords fight the battle; but, though the Opposition will have more
generals and more able, he is confident that his troops will overmatch
theirs; and, in Parliamentary engagements, a superiority of numbers is
not vanquished by the talents of the commanders, as often happens in
more martial encounters. His competitor, Mr. Pitt, appears by no means
an adequate rival. Just like their fathers, Mr. Pitt has brilliant
language, Mr. Fox solid sense; and such luminous powers of displaying it
clearly, that mere eloquence is but a Bristol stone, when set by the
diamond Reason.
[Footnote 1: In the session of 1783 Fox, as the leader of the Coalition
Ministry in the House of Commons, brought in a Bill for the reform of
the government of India on the expiration of the existing Charter of the
Company. It was denounced by Pitt as having for its principal object the
perpetuation of the administration by the enormous patronage it would
place at the disposal of the Treasury; and, through the interposition of
the King, whose conduct on this occasion must be confessed to have been
wholly unconstitutional, it was defeated in the House of Lords. The King
on this dismissed the Ministry, and Pitt became Prime Minister.]
Do not wonder that we do not entirely attend to things of earth: Fashion
has ascended to a higher element. All our views are directed to the air.
_Balloons_ occupy senators, philosophers, ladies, everybody. France gave
us the _ton_; and, as yet, we have not come up to our model. Their
monarch is so struck with the heroism of two of his subjects who
adventured their persons in two of these new _floating batteries_, that
he has ordered statues of them, and contributed a vast sum towards their
marble immortality. All this may be very important: to me it looks
somewhat foolish. Very early in my life I remember this town at gaze on
a man who _flew down_ a rope from the top of St. Martin's steeple; now,
late in my day, people are staring at a voyage to the moon. The former
Icarus broke his neck at a subsequent flight: when a similar accident
happens to modern knights-errant, adieu to air-balloons.
_Apropos_, I doubt these new kites have put young Astley's nose out of
joint, who went to Paris lately under their Queen's protection,[1] and
expected to be Prime Minister, though he only ventured his neck by
dancing a minuet on three horses at full gallop, and really in that
attitude has as much grace as the Apollo Belvedere. When the arts are
brought to such perfection in Europe, who would go, like Sir Joseph
Banks, in search of islands in the Atlantic, where the natives in six
thousand years have not improved the science of carving fishing-hooks
out of bones or flints! Well! I hope these new mechanic meteors will
prove only playthings for the learned and the idle, and not be converted
into new engines of destruction to the human race, as is so often the
case of refinements or discoveries in science. _The wicked wit of man
always studies to apply the result of talents to enslaving, destroying,
or cheating his fellow-creatures._ Could we reach the moon, we should
think of reducing it to a province of some European kingdom.
[Footnote 1: In the spring Montgolfier had made the first ascent in a
balloon, which as a novelty created great excitement in Paris. The Queen
gave permission for the balloon to be called by her name; and the next
year, during a visit of Gustavus, King of Sweden, to Versailles, it went
up from the grounds of the Trianon, and made a successful voyage to
Chantilly (the Editor's "Life of Marie Antoinette," c. 19).]
_5th._
P.S.--The Opposition in the House of Commons were so humbled by their
two defeats, that, though Mr. Pitt had declared he would contest every
clause (of the India Bill) in the committee, (where in truth, if the
Bill is so bad as he says, he ought at least to have tried to amend it,)
that he slunk from the contest, and all the blanks were filled up
without obstruction, the opponents promising only to resist it in its
last stage on Monday next; but really, having no hopes but in the House
of Lords, where, however, I do not believe they expect to succeed. Mr.
Pitt's reputation is much sunk; nor, though he is a much more correct
logician than his father, has he the same firmness and perseverance. It
is no wonder that he was dazzled by his own premature fame; yet his late
checks may be of use to him, and teach him to appreciate his strength
better, or to wait till it is confirmed. Had he listed under Mr. Fox,
who loved and courted him, he would not only have discovered modesty,
but have been more likely to succeed him, than by commencing his
competitor. But what have I to do to look into futurity?[1]
[Footnote 1: Evidently not much: as few prophecies have been more
strikingly and speedily falsified.]
_BALLOONS._