wild, and cry, “Long live King George and the Duke of Cumberland, and Lord Stair and Lord Carteret, and General Clayton that’s dead!” My Lord Lovel says, “Thanks to the gods that John(835) has done his duty!”
Adieu! my dear Dukes of Marlborough! I am ever your JOHN DUKE OF MARLBOROUGh.
(835) John Bull.-D.
331 Letter 112
To Sir Horace Mann.
Houghton, July 4, 1743.
I hear no particular news here, and I don’t pretend to send you the common news; for as I must have it first from London, you will have it from thence sooner in the papers than in my letters. There have been great rejoicings for the victory; which I am convinced is very considerable by the pains the Jacobites take to persuade it is not. My Lord Carteret’s Hanoverian articles have much offended; his express has been burlesqued a thousand ways. By all the letters that arrive, the loss of the French turns out more considerable than by the first accounts: they have dressed up the battle into a victory for themselves-I hope they will always have such! By their not having declared war with us, one should think they intended a peace. It is allowed that our fine horse did us no honour – the victory was gained by the foot. Two of their princes of the blood, the Prince de Dombes, and the Count d’Eu(836) his brother, were wounded, and several of their first nobility. Our prisoners turn out but seventy-two officers, besides the private men; and by the printed catalogue, I don’t think of great family. Marshal Noailles’s mortal wound is quite vanished, and Duc d’Aremberg’s shrunk to a very slight one. The King’s glory remains in its first bloom.
Lord Wilmington is dead. I believe the civil battle for his post will be tough. Now we shall see what service Lord Carteret’s Hanoverians will do him. You don’t think the crisis unlucky for him, do you? If you wanted a treasury, should you choose to have been in Arlington Street,(837) or driving by the battle of Dettingen? You may imagine our Court wishes for Mr. Pelham. I don’t know any one who wishes for Lord Bath but himself-I believe that is a pretty substantial wish.
I have got the Life of King Theodore, but I don’t know how to convey it–I will inquire for some way.
We are quite alone. You never saw any thing so unlike as being here five months out of place, to the congresses of a fortnight in place. but you know the “Justum et tenacem propositi virum” can amuse himself without the “Civium ardor!” As I have not so much dignity of character to fill up my time, I could like a little more company. With all this leisure, you may imagine that I might as well be writing an ode or so upon the victory; but as I cannot build upon the Laureate’s place till I know whether Lord Carteret or Mr. Pelham will carry the Treasury, I have vounded my compliments to a slender collection of quotations against I should have any occasion for them. Here are some fine lines from Lord Halifax’s (838) poem on the battle of the Boyne-
“The King leads on, the King does all inflame, The King!-and carries millions in the name.”
Then follows a simile about a deluge, which you may imagine, but the next lines are very good –
“So on the foe the firm battalions prest, And he, like the tenth wave, drove on the rest. Fierce, gallant, young, he shot through every place, Urging their flight, and hurrying on the chase, He hung upon their rear, or lighten’d in their face.”
The next are a magnificent compliment, and, as far as verse goes, to be sure very applicable.
“Stop, stop! brave Prince, allay that inner flame; Enough is given to England and to fame.
Remember, Sir, you in the centre stand; Europe’s divided interests you command,
All their designs uniting in your hand. Down from your throne descends the golden chain Which does the fabric of our world sustain, That once dissolved by any fatal stroke, The scheme of all our happiness is broke.”
Adieu! my dear Sir: pray for peace!
(836) The two sons of the Duke du Maine, a natural son, but legitimated, of Lewis the Fourteenth, by Madame de Montespan.-E.
(837) Where Mr. Pelham lived.
(838) Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax, the “Bufo” of Pope
“Proud as Apollo, on his forked hill
Sate full-blown Bufo, I)uff’d by every quill; Fed with soft dedication all day long,
Horace and he went hand in hand in song.”-E.
333 Letter 113
To Sir Horace Mann.
Houghton, July 11, 1743.
The Pembroke is arrived! Your brother slipped a slice of paper into a letter which he sent me from you the other day, with those pleasant words, “The Pembroke is arrived.” I am going to receive it. I shall be in town the end of this week, only stay there about ten days, and wait on the Dominichin hither. Now I tremble! If it should not stand the trial among the number of capital pictures here! But it must; It will.
O, sweet lady!(839) What shall I do about her letter? I must answer it-and where to find a penful of Italian in the world, I know not. Well, she must take what she can get: gold and silver I have not, but what I have I give unto her. Do you say a vast deal of my concern for her illness, and that I could not find decompounds and superlatives enough to express myself. You never tell me a syllable from my sovereign lady the princess: has she forgot me? What is become of Prince Beauvau?(840) is he warring against us? Shall I write to Mr. Conway to be very civil to him for my sake, if he is taken prisoner? We expect another battle every day. Broglio has joined Noailles, and Prince Charles is on the Neckar. Noailles says, “Qu’il a fait une folie, mais qu’il est pr`et `a la r`eparer.” There is great blame thrown on Baron Ilton, the Hanoverian General for having hindered the Guards from en(,aging. If they had, and the horse, who behaved wretchedly, had done their duty, it is agreed that there would be no second engagement. The poor Duke is in a much worse way than was at first apprehended: his wound proves a bad one; he is gross, and has had a shivering fit, which is often the forerunner of a mortification. There has been much thought of making knights-banneret, but I believe the scheme is laid aside; for, in the first place, they are never made but on the field of battle, and now it was not thought on till some days after; and besides, the King intended to make some who were not actually in the battle.
Adieu! Possibly I may hear something in town worth telling you.
(839) Madame Grifoni.
(840) Son of Prince Craon.
334 letter 114
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, July 19.
Here am I come a-Dominichining! and the first thing, I hear is, that the Pembroke must perform quarantine fourteen days for coming from the Mediterranean, and a week airing. It is forty days, if they bring the plague from Sicily. I will bear this misfortune as heroically as I can; and considering I have London to bear it in, may possibly support it well enough.
The private letters from the army all talk of the King’s going to Hanover, 2nd of August, N. S. If he should not, one shall be no longer in pain for him; for the French have repassed the Rhine, and think only of preparing against Prince Charles, who is marching sixty-two thousand men, full of conquest and revenge, to regain his own country. I most cordially wish him success, and that his bravery may recover what his abject brother gave up so tamely, and which he takes as little personal pains to regain. It is not at all determined whether we are to carry the war into France. It is ridiculous enough! we have the name of war with Spain, without the thing and war with France, without the name!
The maiden heroes of the Guards are in great wrath with General Ilton, who kept them out of harm’s way. They call him “the Confectioner,” because he says he preserved them.
The week before I left Houghton my father had a most dreadful accident: it had near been fatal; but he escaped miraculously. He dined abroad, and went up to sleep. As he was coming down again, not quite awakened, he was surprised at seeing the company through a glass-door which he had not observed: his foot slipped, and he, who is now entirely unwieldy and helpless, fell at once down the stairs against the door, which, had it not been there, he had dashed himself to pieces, in a stone hall. He cut his forehead two inches long to the pericranium, and another gash upon his temple; but, most luckily, did himself’ no other hurt, and was quite well again before I came away.
I find Lord Stafford (841) married to Miss Cantillon; they are to live half the year in London, half in Paris. Lord Lincoln is soon to marry his cousin Miss Pelham: it will be great joy to the whole house of Newcastle.
There is no determination yet come about the Treasury. Most people wish for Mr. Pelham; few for Lord Carteret; none for Lord Bath. My Lady TOWnshend said an admirable thing the other day to this last: he was complaining much of a pain in his side-“Oh!” said she, “that can’t be; you have no side.”
I have a new cabinet for my enamels and miniatures Just come home, which I am sure you would like: it is of rosewood; the doors inlaid with carvings in ivory.’ I wish you could see ‘It! Are you to be forever ministerial sans rel`ache? Are you never to have leave to come and “settle your private affairs,” as the newspapers call it?
A thousand loves to the Chutes. Does my sovereign lady yet remember me, or has she lost with her eyes all thought of m! Adieu!
P.S. Princess Louisa goes soon to her young Denmark: and Princess Emily, it is now said, will have the man of Lubeck. If he had missed the crown of Sweden, he was to have taken Princess Caroline, because, in his private capacity, he was not a competent match for the now-first daughter of England. He is extremely handsome; it is fifteen years since Princess Emily was so.
(841) William-Matthias, third Earl of Stafford. He died in 1751 without issue.-E.
335 letter 115
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, July 31, 1743.
If I went by my last week’s reason for not writing to you, I should miss this post too, for I have no more to tell you than I had then; but at that rate, there would be great vacuums in our correspondence. I am still here, waiting for the Dominichin and the rest of the things. I have incredibly trouble about them, for they arrived just as the quarantine was established. Then they found out that the Pembroke had left the fleet so long before the infection in Sicily began, and had not touched at any port there, that the admiralty absolved it. Then the things were brought up; then they were sent back to be aired; and still I am not to have them in a week. I tremble for the pictures; for they are to be aired at the rough discretion of a master
of a hoy, for nobody I could send would be suffered to go aboard. The city is outrageous; for you know, to merchants there is no plague so dreadful as a stoppage of their trade. The regency are so temporizing and timid, especially in this inter-ministerium, that I am in great apprehensions of our having the plague an island, so many ports, no power absolute or active enough to establish the necessary precautions, and all are necessary! And now it is on the continent too! While confined to Sicily there were hopes: but I scarce conceive that it will stop in two or three villages in Calabria. My dear child, Heaven preserve you from it! I am in the utmost pain on its being so near you. What will you do! whither will you go, if it reaches Tuscany? Never think of staying in Florence: shall I get you permission to retire out of that State, in case of danger? but sure you would not hesitate on such a crisis!
We have no news from the army: the minister there communicates nothing to those here. No answer comes about the Treasury. All is suspense: and clouds of breaches ready to burst. now strange is this jumble! France with an unsettled ministry; England with an unsettled one; a victory just gained over them, yet no war ensuing, or declared from either side; our minister still at Paris, as if to settle an amicable intelligence of the losses on both sides! I think there was Only wanting for Mr. Thompson to notify to them in form our victory over them, and for Bussy(843) to have civil letters of congratulation-’tis so well-bred an age!
I must tell you a bon-mot of Winnington. I was at dinner with him and Lord Lincoln and Lord Stafford last week, and it happened to be a maigre day of which Stafford was talking, though, you may believe, without any scruples; “Why,” said Winnington, “what a religion is yours! they let you eat nothing, and vet make you swallow every thing!”
My dear child, you will think when I am going to give you a new commission, that I ought to remember those you give me. Indeed I have not forgot one, though I know not how to execute them. The Life of King Theodore is too big to send but by a messenger; by the first that goes you shall have it. For cobolt and zingho, your brother and I have made all inquiries, but almost in vain, except that one person has told him that there Is some such thing in Lancashire; I have written thither to inquire. For the tea-trees, it is my brother-‘s fault, whom I desired, as he is at Chelsea, to get some from the Physic-garden: he forgot it; but now I am in town myself, if possible, you shall have some seed. After this, I still know not how to give you a commission, for you over-execute; but on conditions uninfringeable, I will give you one. I have begun to collect drawings: now, if you will at any time buy me any that you meet with at reasonable rates, for I will not give great prices, I shall be much obliged to you. I would not have above one, to be sure, of any of the Florentine school, nor above one of any master after the immediate scholars of Carlo Maratti. For the Bolognese school, I care not how many; though I fear they will be too dear. But Mr. Chute understands them. One condition is, that if he collects drawings as well as prints, there is an end of the commission; for you shall not buy me any, when he perhaps would like to purchase them. The other condition is, that you regularly set down the prices you pay; otherwise, if you send me any without the price, I instantly return them unopened to your brother: this, upon my honour, I will most strictly perform.
Adieu! write me minutely the history of the plague. If it makes any progress towards you, I shall be a most unhappy man. I am far from easy on our own account here.
(843) Mr. Thompson and the Abb`e de Bussy were the English and French residents.
336 letter 117
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Aug. 14, 1743.
I should write to Mr. Chute to-day, but I won’t till next post: I will tell you why presently. Last week I did not write at all; because I was every day waiting for the Dominichin, etc. which I at last got last night-But oh! that etc.! It makes me write to you, but I must leave it etc. for I can’t undertake to develop it. I can find no words to thank you from my own fund; but Must apply an expression of the Princess Craon’s to myself, Which the number of charming things you have sent me absolutely melts down from the bombast, of which it consisted when she sent it me. “Monsieur, votre g`en`erosit`e,” (I am not sure it was not “votre magnificence,”) “ne me laisse rien `a d`esirer de tout ce qui se trouve de pr`ecieux en Angleterre, dans la Chine, et aux Indes.” But still this don’t express etc. The charming Madame S`evign`e, who was still handsomer than Madame de Craon, and had infinite wit, condescended to pun on sending her daughter an excessively fine pearl necklace-“Voil`a, ma fille, un pr`esent passant tous les pr`esents pass`es et pr`esents!” Do you know that these words reduced to serious meaning, are not sufficient for what you have sent me! If I were not afraid of giving you all the trouble of airing and quarantine which I have had with them, I would send them to you back again! It is well our virtue is out of the ministry! What reproach it would undergo! Why, my dear child, here would be bribery in folio! How would mortals stare at such a present as this to the son of a fallen minister! I believe half of it would reinstate us again though the vast box of essences would not half sweeten the treasury after the dirty wretches that have fouled it since.
The Dominichin is safe; so is every thing. I cannot think it of the same hand with the Sasso Ferrati you sent me. This last is not so manier`e as the Dominichin; for the more I look at it, the more I am convinced it is of him. It goes down with me to-morrow to Houghton. The Andrea del Sarto is particularly fine! the Sasso Ferriti particularly graceful-oh! I should have kept that word for the Magdalen’s head, which is beautiful beyond measure. Indeed, my dear Sir, I am glad, after my confusion is a little abated, that your part of the things is so delightful; for I am very little satisfied with my own purchases. Donato Creti’s(844) copy is a wretched, raw daub; the beautiful Virgin of the original he has made horrible. Then for the statue, the face is not so broad as my nail, and has not the turn of the antique. Indeed, La Vall`ee has done the drapery well, but I can’t pardon him the head. My table I like; though he has stuck in among the ornaments two vile china jars, that look like the modern japanning by ladies. The Hermaphrodite, on my seeing it again, is too sharp and hard-in short, your present has put me out of humour with every thing of my own. You shall hear next week how my lord is satisfied with his Dominichin. I have received the letter and drawings by Crewe. By the way, my drawings of the gallery are as bad as any thing of my own ordering. They gave Crewe the letter for you at the-office, I believe, for I knew nothing of his going, or I had sent you the Life of King Theodore.
I was interrupted in my letter this morning by the Duke of Devonshire, who called to see the Dominichin. Nobody knows pictures better: he was charmed with it, and did not doubt its Dominichinality.
I find another letter from you to-night of August 6th, and thank you a thousand times for your goodness about Mr. Conway: but I believe I told you, that as he is in the Guards, he was not engaged. We hear nothing but that we are going to cross the Rhine. All we know is from private letters: the Ministry hear nothing. When the Hussars went to Kevenhuller for orders, he said, “Messieurs, l’Alsace est `a vous; je n’ai point d’autres ordres `a vous donner.” They have accordingly taken up their residence in a fine chateau belonging to the Cardinal de Rohan, as Bishop of Strasbourg. We expect nothing but war; and that war expects nothing but conquest.
Your account of our officers was very false; for, instead of the soldiers going on without commanders, some of them were ready to go without their soldiers. I am sorry you have such plague with your Neptune(845) and the Sardinian-we know not of them scarce.
I really forget any thing of an Italian greyhound for the Tesi. I promised her, I remember, a black spaniel-but how to send it! I did promise one of the former to Marquis Mari at Genoa, which I absolutely have not been able to get yet, though I have often tried; but since the last Lord Halifax died, there is no meeting with any of the breed. If I can, I will get her one. I am sorry you are engaged in the opera. I have found it a most dear undertaking. I was not in the management: Lord Middlesex was chief. We were thirty subscribers, at two hundred pounds each, which was to last four years, and no other demands ever to be made. Instead of that, we have been made to pay fifty-six pounds over and above the subscription in one winter. I told the secretary in a passion, that it was the last money I would ever pay for the follies of directors.
I tremble at hearing that the plague is not over, as we thought, but still spreading. You will see in the papers That Lord Hervey is dead-luckily, I think. for himself; for he had outlived the last inch of character. Adieu!
(844) A copy of a celebrated picture by Guido at Bologna, of the Patron Saints of that city. VOL. 1. 29.-D.
(845) Admiral Matthews.
338 letter 117
To John Chute, Esq.(846)
Houghton, August 20, 1743.
Indeed, my dear Sir, you certainly did not use to be stupid, and till you give me more substantial proof that you are so, I shall not believe it. As for your temperate diet and milk bringing about such a metamorphosis, I hold it impossible. I have such lamentable proofs every day before my eyes of the stupefying qualities of beef, ale, and wine, that I have contracted a most religious veneration for your spiritual nouriture. Only imagine that I here every day see men, who are mountains of roast beef, and only seem just roughly hewn out into the outlines of human form, like the giant-rock at Pratolino! I shudder when I see them brandish their knives in act to carve, and look on them as savages that devour one another. I should not stare at all more than I do, if yonder alderman at the lower end of the table was to stick his fork into his neighbour’s jolly cheek, and cut a brave slice of brown and fat. Why, I’ll swear I see no difference between a country gentleman and a sirloin; whenever the first laughs, or the latter is cut, there runs out the same stream of gravy! Indeed, the sirloin does not ask quite so many questions. I have an aunt here, a family piece of goods, an old remnant of inquisitive hospitality and economy, who, to all intents and purposes is as beefy as her neighbours. She wore me so down yesterday with interrogatories, that I dreamt all night she was at my ear with who’s and why’s, and when’s and where’s, till at last in my very sleep I cried out, For God in heaven’s sake, Madam, ask me no more questions!
Oh! my dear Sir, don’t you find that nine parts in ten of the world are of no use but to make you wish yourself with that tenth part? I am so far from growing used to mankind by living amongst them, that my natural ferocity and wildness does but every day grow worse. They tire me, they fatigue me; I don’t know what to do with them; I don’t know what to say to them; I fling open the windows and fancy I want air; and when I get by myself, I undress myself, and seem to have had people in my pockets, in my plaits, -and on my shoulders! I indeed find this fatigue worse in the country than in town, because one can avoid it there, and has more resources; but it is there too. I fear ’tis growing old; but I literally seem to have murdered a man whose name was Ennui, for his ghost is ever before me. They say there is no English word for ennui;(847) I think you may translate it most literally by what is called “entertaining people,” and “doing the honours:” that is, you sit an hour with somebody you don’t know, and don’t care for, talk about the wind and the weather, and ask a thousand foolish questions, which all begin with, “I think you live a good deal in the country,” or, “I think you don’t love this thing or that.” Oh! ’tis dreadful!
I’ll tell you what is delightful-the Dominichin!(848) My dear Sir, if ever there was a Dominichin, if ever there was an original picture, this is one. I am quite happy; for my father is as much transported with it as I am. It is hung in the gallery, where are all his most capital pictures, and he himself thinks it beats all but the two Guido’S. That of the Doctors and The Octagon-I don’t know if you ever saw them? What a chain of thought this leads me into! but why should I not indulge it? I will flatter myself with your, some time or other, passing a few days with me. Why must I never expect to see any thing but Beefs in a gallery which would not yield even to the Colonna! If I do not most unlimitedly wish to see you and Mr. Whithed in it this very moment, it is only because I would not take you from our dear Mann. Adieu! you charming people all. Is not Madam Bosville a Beef? Yours, most sincerely.
(846) this very lively letter is the first of a series, hitherto unpublished, addressed by Mr. Walpole to John Chute, Esq. of the Vine, in the county of Hants. Mr. Chute was the grandson of Chaloner Chute, Esq. Speaker of the House of Commons to Richard Cromwell’s parliament. On the death of his brother Anthony, in 1754, he succeeded to the family estates, and died in 1776.-E.
(847) According to Lord Byron–
“Ennui is a growth of English root,
Though nameless in our language: we retort The fact for words, and let the French translate That awful yawn, which sleep cannot abate.”
(848) Thus described by Walpole in his Description Of the Pictures at Houghton Hall:-
“The Virgin and Child, a most beautiful, bright, and capital picture, by Dominichino: bought out of the Zambeccari palace at Bologna by Horace Walpole, junior.”-E.
340 Letter 118
To Sir Horace Mann.
Houghton, Aug. 29, 1743.
You frighten me about the Spaniards entering Tuscany: it is so probable, that I have no hopes against it but in their weakness. If all the accounts of their weakness and desertion are true, it must be easy to repel them. If their march to Florence is to keep pace with Prince Charles’s entering Lorrain, it is not yet near: hitherto, he has not found the passage of the Rhine practicable. The French have assembled greater armies to oppose it than was expected. We are marching to assist him: the King goes on with the army. I am extremely sorry for the Chevalier de Beauvau’s(849) accident; as sorry, perhaps, as the prince or princess; for you know he was no favourite. The release of the French prisoners prevents the civilities which I would have taken care to have had shown him. You may tell the princess, that though it will be so much honour to us to have any of her family it) our power, vet I shall always be extremely concerned to have such an opportunity of showing my attention to them. there’s a period in her own style-“Comment! Monsieur des attentions: qu’il est poli! qu’il s`cait tOUrner une civilit`e!”
“Ha!(850) la brave Angloise! e viva!” What would I have given to have overheard you breaking it to the gallant! But of all, commend me to the good man Nykin! Why, Mamie (851) himself could not have cuddled up an affair for his sovereign lady better.
I have a commission from my lord to send you ten thousand thanks for his bronze-. He admires it beyond measure. It came down last Friday, on his birthday,(852) and was placed at the upper end of the gallery, which was illuminated on the occasion: indeed, it is incredible what a magnificent appearance it made. There were sixty-four candles, which showed all the pictures to great advantage. The Dominichin did itself and us honour. There is not the least question of its being original: one might as well doubt the originality of King Patapan! His patapanic majesty is not one of the least curiosities of Houghton. The crowds that come to see the house stare at him, and ask what creature it is. As he does not speak one word of Norfolk, there are strange conjectures made about him. Some think that he is a foreign prince come to marry Lady Mary. The disaffected say he is a Hanoverian: but the common people, who observe my lord’s vast fondness for him, take him for his good genius, which they call his familiar.
You will have seen in the papers that Mr. Pelham is at last first lord of the Treasury. Lord Bath had sent over Sir John Rushout’s valet de chambre to Hanau to ask it. It is a great question now what side he will take; or rather, if any side will take him. It is not yet known what the good folks in the Treasury will do-I believe, what they can. Nothing farther will be determined till the King’s return.
(849) Third son of Prince Craon, and knight of Malta.
(850) This relates to an intrigue which was observed in a church between an English gentleman and a lady who was at Florence with her husband. Mr. Mann was desired to speak to the lover to choose more proper places.
(851) Prince Craon’s name for the princess. She was mistress of Leopold, the last Duke of Lorrain, who married her to M. de Beauvau, and prevailed on the Emperor to make him a prince of the empire. Leopold had twenty children by her, who all resembled him; and he got his death by a cold which he contracted in standing to sea a new house, which he had built for her, furnished. The duchess was extremely jealous, and once retired to Paris, to complain to her brother the Regent; but he was not a man to quarrel with his brother-in-law for things of that nature, and sent his sister back. Madame de Craon gave into devotion after the Duke’s death.
(852) August 26.
341 letter 119
To Sir Horace Mann.
Houghton, Sept. 7, 1743.
My letters are now at their ne plus ultra of nothingness so you may hope they will grow better again. I shall certainly go to town soon, for my patience is worn out. Yesterday, the weather grew cold: I put on a new waistcoat for its being winter’s birthday-the season I am forced to love; for summer has no charms for me when I pass it in the country.
We are expecting another battle, and a congress at the same time. Ministers seem to be flocking to Aix la Chapelle: and, what will much surprise you, unless you have lived long enough not to be surprised, is, that Lord Bolingbroke has hobbled the same way too-you will suppose, as a minister for France; I tell you, no. My uncle, who is here, was yesterday stumping along the gallery with a very political march: my lord asked him whither he was going. Oh, said he, to Aix la Chapelle.
You ask me about the marrying princesses. I know not a tittle. Princess Louisa(853) seems to be going, her clothes are bought; but marrying our daughters makes no conversation. For either of the other two, all thoughts seem to be dropped of it. The senate of Sweden design themselves to choose a wife for their man of Lubeck. The city, and our supreme governors, the mob, are very angry that there @is a troop of French players at Clifden.(854) One of them was lately impertinent to a countryman, who thrashed him. His Royal Highness sent angrily to know the cause. The fellow replied, “he thought to have pleased his Highness in beating one of them, who had tried to kill his father and had wounded his brother.” This was not easy to answer.
I delight in Prince Craon’s exact intelligence! For his satisfaction, I can tell him that numbers, even here, would believe any story full as absurd as that of the King and my Lord Stair; or that very one, if any body will ever write it over. Our faith in politics will match any Neapolitan’s in religion. A political missionary will make more converts in a county progress than a Jesuit in the whole empire of China, and will produce more preposterous miracles. Sir Watkin Williams, at the last Welsh races, convinced the whole principality (by reading a letter that affirmed it), that the King was not within two miles of the battle of Dettingen. We are not good at hitting off anti-miracles, the only way of defending one’s own religion. I have read -,in admirable story of the Duke of Buckingham, who, when James II. sent a priest to him to persuade him to turn Papist, and was plied by him with miracles, told the doctor, that if miracles were proofs of a religion, the Protestant cause was as well supplied as theirs. We have lately had a very extraordinary one near my estate in the country. A very holy man, as you might be, doctor, was travelling on foot, and was benighted. He came to the cottage of a poor dowager, who had nothing in the house for herself and daughter but a couple of eggs and a slice of bacon. However, as she was a pious widow, she made the good man welcome. In the morning, in taking leave, the saint made her over to God for payment, and prayed that whatever she should do as soon as he was gone she might continue to do all day. This was a very unlimited request, and, unless the saint was a prophet too, might not have been very pleasant retribution. The good woman, who minded her affairs, and was not to be put out of her way, went about her business. She had a piece of coarse cloth to make a couple of shifts for herself and child. She no sooner began to measure it but the yard fell a-measuring, and there was no stopping it. It was sunset before the good woman had time to take breath. She was almost stifled, for she was up to her ears in ten thousand yards of cloth. She could have afforded to have sold Lady Mary Wortley a clean shift’ of the usual coarseness she wears, for a groat halfpenny.
I wish you would tell the Princess this story. Madame Riccardi, or the little Countess d’Elbenino, will doat on it. I don’t think it will be out of Pandolfini’s way, if you tell it to the little Albizzi. You see that I have not forgot the tone of my Florentine acquaintance. I know I should have translated it to them: you remember what admirable work I used to make of such stories in broken Italian. I have heard old Churchill tell Bussy English puns out of jest-books: particularly a reply about eating hare, which he translated, “j’ai mon ventre plein de poil.” Adieu!
(853) Youngest daughter of George the Second. She was married in the following October, and died in 1751, at the age of twenty-seven.-E.
(854) The residence of the Prince of Wales. This noble building was burnt to the ground in 1795, and nothing of its furniture preserved but the tapestry that represents the Duke of Marlborough’s victories.-E.
343 letter 120
To sir Horace Mann.
Houghton, Sept. 17, 1743.
As much as we laughed at Prince Craon’s history of the King and Lord Stair, you see it was not absolutely without foundation. I don’t just believe that he threatened his master with the parliament. They say he gives for reason of his Quitting, their not having accepted one plan of operation that he has offered. There is a long memorial that he presented to the King, with which I don’t doubt but his lordship will oblige the public.(856) He has ordered all his equipages to be sold by public auction in the camp. This is all I can tell you of this event, and this is more than has been written to the ministry here. They talk of great uneasinesses among the English officers, all of which I don’t believe. The army is put into commission. Prince Charles has not passed the Rhine, nor we any thing but our time. The papers of to-day tell us of a definitive treaty signed by us and the Queen of Hungary with the King of Sardinia, which I will flatter myself will tend to your defence. I am not in much less trepidation about Tuscany than Richcourt is, though I scarce think my fears reasonable; but while you are concerned, I fear every thing.
My lord does not admire the account of the lanfranc; thanks you, and will let it alone. I am going to town in ten days, not a little tired of the country, and in the utmost impatience for the winter; which I am sure from all political prospects, must be entertaining to one who only intends to see them at the length of the telescope.
I was lately diverted with an article in the Abecodario Pittorico, in the article of William Dobson: it says, “Nacque nel quartiere d’Holbrons in Inghilterra.”(857) Did the author take Holborn for a city, or Inghilterra for the capital of the island of London? Adieu!
(856) In this memorial Lord Stair complained that his advice had been slighted, hinted at Hanoverian partialities, and asked permission to retire, as he expressed it, to his plough. His resignation was accepted, with marks of the King’s displeasure at the language in which it was tendered.-E.
(857) Charles the First used to call Dobson the English Tintoret. He is said to have been the first painter who introduced the practice of obliging persons who sat to him to pay half the price in advance.-E.
344 letter 121
To Sir Horace Mann.
Newmarket, Oct. 3, 1743.
I am writing to you in an inn on the road to London. What a paradise should I have thought this when I was in the Italian inns in a wide barn with four ample windows, which had nothing more like glass than shutters and iron bars ‘ no tester to the bed, and the saddles and portmanteaus heaped on me to keep off the cold. What a paradise did I think the inn at Dover when I came back! and what magnificence Were twopenny prints, saltcellars, and boxes to hold the knives: but the summum bonum was small-beer and the newspaper.
“I bless’d my stars, and called it luxury!”
Who was the Neapolitan ambassadress (858) that could not live at Paris, because there was no maccaroni? Now am I relapsed into all the dissatisfied repinement of a true English grumbling voluptuary. I could find in my heart to write a Craftsman against the Government, because I am not quite so much at my ease as on my own sofa. I could persuade myself that it is my Lord Carteret’s fault that I am only sitting in a common arm-chair, when I would be lolling in a p`ech`e-mortel. How dismal, how solitary, how scrub does this town look and yet it has actually a street of houses better than Parma or Modena. Nay, the houses of the people of fashion, who come hither for the races, are palaces to what houses in London itself were fifteen years ago. People do begin to live again now, and I suppose in a term we shall revert to York Houses, Clarendon Houses, etc. But from that grandeur all the nobility had contracted themselves to live in coops of a dining-room, a dark back-room, with one eye in a corner, and a closet. Think what London would be, if the chief houses were in it, as in the cities in other countries, and not dispersed like great rarity-plums in a vast pudding of country. Well, it is a tolerable place as it is! Were I a physician, I would prescribe nothing but recipe, CCCLXV drachm. Linden. Would you know why I like London so much? Why if the world must consist of so many fools as it does, I choose to take them in the gross, and not made into separate pills, as they are prepared in the country. Besides, there is no being alone but in a metropolis: the worst place in the world to find solitude is in the country: questions grow there, and that unpleasant Christian commodity, neighbours. Oh! they are all good Samaritans, and do so pour balms and nostrums upon one, if one has but the toothache, or a journey to take, that they break one’s head. A journey to take-ay! they talk over the miles to you, and tell you, you will be late and My Lord Lovel says, John always goes two hours in the dark in the morning, to avoid being One hour in the dark in the evening. I was pressed to set out to-day before seven: I did before nine; and here am I arrived at a quarter past five, for the rest of the night.
I am more convinced every day, that there is not only no knowledge of the world out of a great city, but no decency, no practicable society-I had almost said, not a virtue. I will only instance in modesty, which all old Englishmen are persuaded cannot exist within the atmosphere of Middlesex. Lady Mary has a remarkable taste and knowledge of music, and can sing; I don’t say, like your sister, but I am sure she would be ready to die if obliged to sing before three people, or before One with whom she is not intimate. The other day there came to see her a Norfolk heiress: the young gentlewoman had not been three hours in the house, and that for the first time of her life, before she notified her talent for singing, and invited herself up-stairs, to Lady Mary’s harpsichord; where, with a voice
like thunder, and with as little harmony, she sang to nine or ten people for an hour. “Was ever nymph like Rossvmonde?”-no, d’honneur. We told her, she had a very strong voice. “Lord, Sir! my master says it is nothing to what it was.” My dear child, she brags abominably; if it had been a thousandth degree louder, you must have heard it at Florence.
I did not write to you last post, being overwhelmed with this sort of people – I will be more punctual in London. Patapan is in my lap: I had him wormed lately, which he took famously: I made it up with him by tying a collar of rainbow-riband about his neck, for a token that he is never to be wormed any more.
I had your long letter of two sheets of Sept. 17th, and wonder at your perseverance in telling me so much as you always do, when I, dull creature, find so little for you. I can only tell you that the more you write, the happier you make me; and I assure you, the more details the better: I so often lay schemes for returning to you, that I am persuaded I shall, and would keep up my stock of Florentine ideas.
I honour Matthew’s punctilious observance of his Holiness’s dignity. How incomprehensible Englishmen are! I should have sworn that he would have piqued himself on calling the Pope the w- of Babylon, and have begun his remonstrance, with “you old d-d-.” What extremes of absurdities! to flounder from Pope Joan to his Holiness! I like your reflection, “that every body can bully the Pope.” There was a humourist called Sir James of the Peak, who had been beat by a felony, who afterwards underwent the same operation from a third hand. “Zound,” said Sir James, “that I did not know this fellow would take a beating!” Nay, my dear child, I don’t know that Matthews would!
You know I always thought the Tesi comique, pendant que `ca devroit, `etre tragique. I am happy that my sovereign lady expressed my opinion so well-by the way, is De Sade still with you? Is he still in pawn by the proxy of his clothes? has the Princess as constant retirements to her bedchamber with the colique and Amenori? Oh! I was struck the other day with a resemblance of mine hostess at Brandon to old Sarah. You must know, the ladies of Norfolk universally wear periwigs, and affirm that it is the fashion at London. “lord! Mrs. White, have you been ill, that you have shaved your head?” Mrs. White, in all the days of my acquaintance with her, had a professed head of red hair: to-day, she had no hair at all before, and at a distance above her ears, I descried a smart brown bob, from beneath which had escaped some long strands of original scarlet–so like old Sarazin at two in the morning, when she has been losing at Pharoah, and clawed her wig aside, and her old trunk is shaded with the venerable white ivy of her own locks.
i agree with you, that it would be too troublesome to send me the things now the quarantine exists, except the gun-barrels for Lord Conway, the length of which I know nothing about, being, as you conceive, no sportsman. I must send you, with the Life of Theodore, a vast pamphlet (859) in defence of’ the new administration, which makes the greatest noise. It is written, as supposed, by Dr. Pearse,(860) of St. Martin’s, whom Lord Bath lately made a dean; the matter furnished by him. There is a good deal of useful ]Knowledge of the famous change to be found in it, and much more impudence. Some parts are extremely fine; in particular, the answer to the Hanoverian pamphlets, where he has collected the flower of all that was said in defence of that measure.(861) Had you those pamphlets? I will make up a parcel: tell me what other books you would have: I will send you nothing else, for if I give you the least bauble, it puts you to infinite expense, which I can’t forgive, and indeed will never bear again: you would ruin yourself, and there is nothing I wish so much as the contrary.
Here is a good Ode, written on the supposition of that new book being Lord Bath’s; I believe by the same hand as those charming ones which I sent you last year: the author is not yet known.(862)
The Duke of Argyle is dead-a death of how little moment, and of how much it would have been a year or two ago.(863) It is provoking, if one must die, that one can’t even die a propos!
How does your friend Dr. Cocchi? You never mention him: do only knaves and fools deserve to be spoken of? Adieu!
(858) The Princess of Campoflorido.
(859) Called ” Faction Detected.”
(860) Mr. Pearse, afterwards Bishop of Bangor. He was not the author, but Lord Perceval, afterwards Earl of Egmont.
(861) Sir John Hawkins says, that Osborne the bookseller, held out to Dr. Johnson a strong temptation to answer this pamphlet; which he refused, being convinced that the charge contained in it was unanswerable.-E.
(862) The Ode by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, beginning, “Your sheets I’ve perused.”-D.
(863) “Leaving no male issue, Argyle was succeeded in his titles and estates by his brother, and of late his bitter enemy, the Earl of Islay. With all his faults and follies, Argyle was still brave, eloquent, and accomplished, a skilful officer, and a princely nobleman.”-lord Mahon, vol. iii. p. 271.
347 letter 122
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Oct. 12, 1743.
They had sent your letter of Sept. 24th to Houghton the very night I came to town. I did not receive it back till yesterday, and soon after another, with Mr. Chute’s inclosed, for which I will thank him presently. But, my dear child, I can, like you, think Of nothing but your bitter father’s letter.–! and that I should have contributed to it! how I detest myself!(864) My dearest Sir, you know all I ever said to him:(865) indeed, I never do see him, and I assure you that I would worship him as the Indians do the Devil, for fear-he should hurt you: tempt you I find he will not. He is so avaricious, that I believe,
if you asked for a fish, he would think it even extravagance to give you a stone: in these bad times, stones may come to be dear, and if he loses his place and his lawsuit, who knows but he may be reduced to turn paviour? Oh! the brute! and how shocking, that, for your sake, one can’t literally wish to see him want bread! But how can you feel the least tenderness, when the wretch talks of his bad health, and of not denying himself comforts! It is weakness in you: whose health is worse, yours or his? or when did he ever deny himself a comfort to please any mortal? My dear child, what is it possible to do for you? is there any thing in my power? What would I not do for you? and, indeed, what ought I not, if I have done you any disservice? I don’t think there is any danger of your father’s losing his place,(866) for whoever succeeds Mr. Pelham is likely to be a friend to this house, and would not turn out one so connected with it.
I should be very glad to show my lord an account of those statues you mention: they are much wanted in his hall, where, except the Laocoon, he has nothing but busts. For Gaburri’s drawings, I am extremely pleased with what you propose to me. I should be well content with two of each master. I can’t well fix any price; but would not the rate of a sequin apiece be sufficient? to be sure he never gave any thing like that: when one buys the quantity you mention to me, I can’t but think that full enough, one ‘with another. At least, if I bought so many as two hundred, I would not venture to go beyond that.
I am not at all easy from what you tell me of the Spaniards. I have now no hopes but in the winter, and what it may produce. I fear ours will be most ugly-the disgusts about Hanover swarm and increase every day. The King and Duke have left the army, which is marching to winter-quarters in Flanders, He will not be here by his birthday, but it will be kept when he comes. The parliament meets the 22d of November. All is distraction! no union in the Court: no certainty about the House of Commons: Lord Carteret making no friends, the King making enemies: Mr. Pelham in vain courting Pitt, etc. Pultney unresolved. How will it end? No joy but in the Jacobites. I know nothing more, so turn to Mr. Chute.
My dear Sir, how I am obliged to you for your poem! Patapan is so vain with it, that he will read nothing else; I only offered him a Martial to compare it with the original, and the little coxcomb threw it into the fire, and told me, “He had never heard of a lapdog’s reading Latin; that it was very well for house-dos and pointers that live in the country, and have several hours upon their hands: for my part,” said he,
“I am so nice, who ever saw
A Latin book on my sofa?
You’ll find as soon a primer there
Or recipes for pastry ware.
Why do ye think I ever read
But Crebillon or Calpren`ede?
This very thing of Mr. Chute’s
Scarce with my taste and fancy suits, oh! had it but in French been writ,
‘Twere the genteelest, sweetest bit! One hates a vulgar English poet:
I vow t’ ye, I should blush to show it To women de ma connoissance,
Did not that agr`eable stance.
Cher double entendre! furnish means Of making sweet Patapanins!”(867)
My dear Sir, your translation shall stand foremost in the Patapaniana: I hope in time to have poems upon him, and sayings of his own, enough to make a notable book. En attendant, I have sent you some pamphlets to amuse your solitude; for, do you see, tramontane as I am, and as much as I love Florence, and hate the country, while we make such a figure in the world, or at least such a noise in it, one must consider you other Florentines as country gentlemen. Tell our dear Miny that when he unfolds the enchanted carpet, which his brother the wise Galfridus sends him, he will find all the kingdoms of the earth portrayed in it. In short, as much history as was described on the ever-memorable and wonderful piece of silk which the puissant White Cat(868) inclosed in a nutshell, and presented to her paramour Prince. In short, in this carpet, which (filberts being out of season) I was reduced to pack up in a walnut, he will find the following immense library of political lore: Magazines for October, November, December; with an Appendix for the year 1741; all the Magazines for 1742, bound in one volume; and nine Magazines for 17’43. The Life of King Theodore, a certain fairy monarch; with the Adventures of this Prince and the fair Republic of Genoa. The miscellaneous thoughts of the fairy Hervey. ‘The Question Stated. Case of the Hanover Troops; and the Vindication of the Case. Faction Detected. Congratulatory Letter to Lord Bath. The Mysterious Congress; and @our Old England Journals. Tell Mr. Mann, or Mr. Mann tell himself, that I would send him nothing but this enchanted carpet, which he can’t pretend to return. I will accept nothing under enchantment. Adieu all ! Continue to love the two Patapans.
(864) Sir Horace Mann in a letter to Walpole, dated Sept. 24th, 1743, gives an account of his father’s refusal to give him any money; and then quotes the following passage from his father’s letter-“He tells me he has been baited by you and your uncle on my account, which was very disagreeable, and believes he may charge it to me.”-D.
(865) See ant`e, p.325. (letter 108)
(866) Mr. Robert Mann, father of Sir Horace Mann, had a place in Chelsea College, under the Paymaster of the Forces.
(867) Mr. Chute had sent Mr. Walpole the following imitation of an epigram of Martial:
“Issa est passere nequior Catulli,
Issa est pUrior osculo columbae.”
Martial, Lib. i, Ep. 110.
“Pata is frolicksome and smart,
As Geoffry once was-(Oh my heart!)
He’s purer than a turtle’s kiss,
And gentler than a little miss;
A jewel for a lady’s ear,
And Mr. Walpole’s pretty dear.
He laughs and cries with mirth or spleen; He does not speak, but thinks, ’tis plain. One knows his little Guai’s as well
As if he’d little words to tell.
Coil’d in a heap, a plumy wreathe,
He sleeps, you hardly hear him breathe. Then he’s so nice, who ever saw
A drop that sullied his sofa?
His bended leg!-what’s this but sense?- Points out his little exigence.
He looks and points, and whisks about, And says, pray, dear Sir, let me out.
Where shall we find a little wife,
To be the comfort of his life,
To frisk and skip, and furnish means Of making sweet Patapanins?
England, alas! can boast no she,
Fit only for his cicisbee.
Must greedy Fate then have him all?- No; Wootton to our aid we’ll call-
The immortality’s the same,
Built on a shadow, or a name.
He shall have one by Wootton’s means, The other Wootton for his pains.”
(868) See the story of the White Cat in the fairy tales.
349 Letter 123
To Sir Horace Mann.
London, Nov. 17, 1743.
I would not write on Monday till I could tell you the King was come. He arrived at St. James’s between five and six on Tuesday. We were in great fears of his coming through the city, after the treason that has been publishing for these two months; but it is incredible how well his reception was beyond what it had ever been before: in short, you would have thought it had not been a week after the victory at Dettingen. They almost carried him into -the palace on their shoulders; and at night the whole town was illuminated and bonfired. He looks much better than he has for these five years, and is in great spirits. The Duke limps a little. The King’s reception of the Prince, who was come to St. James’s to wait for him, and who met him on the stairs with his two sisters and the privy councillors, was not so gracious-pas un mot-though the Princess was brought to bed the day before, and Prince George is ill of the small-pox. It is very Unpopular! You will possibly, by next week, hear great things: hitherto, all is silence, expectation, struggle, and ignorance. The birthday is kept on Tuesday, when the parliament was to have met; but that can’t be yet.
Lord Holderness has brought home a Dutch bride:(869) I have not seen her. The Duke of Richmond had a letter yesterday from Lady Albemarle,(870) at Altona. She says the Prince of Denmark is not so tall as his bride, but. far from a bad figure: he is thin, and not ugly, except having too wide a mouth. When she returns, as I know her particularly, I will tell you more; for the present, I think I have very handsomely despatched the chapter of royalties. My lord comes to town the day after to-morrow.
The opera is begun, but is not so well as last year. The Rosa Maricini, who is second woman, and whom I suppose you have heard, is now old. In the room of Amorevoli, they have got a dreadful bass, who, the Duke of Montagu says he believes, was organist at Aschaffenburgh.
DO you remember a tall Mr. Vernon,(871) who travelled with Mr. Cotton? He is going to be married to a sister of Lord Strafford.
I have exhausted my news, and you shall excuse my being short to-day. For the future, I shall overflow with preferments, alterations, and parliaments.
Your brother brought me yesterday two of yours together, of Oct. 22 and 27, and I find you still overwhelmed with Richcourt’s folly and the Admiral’s explanatory ignorance. It is unpleasant to have old Pucci (872) added to your embarrassments.
Chevalier Ossorio (873) was with me the other morning, and we were talking over the Hanoverians, as every body does. I complimented him very sincerely on his master’s great bravery and success: he answered very modestly and sensibly, that he was glad amidst all the clamours, that there had been no cavil to be found with the subsidy paid to his King. Prince Lobkowitz makes a great figure, and has all my wishes and blessings for having put Tuscany out of the question.
There is no end of my giving you trouble with packing me up cases: I shall pay the money to your brother. Adieu! Embrace the Chutes, who are heavenly good to you, and must have been of great use in all your illness and disputes.
(869) Her name was Mademoiselle Doublette, and she is called in the Peerages “the niece of M. Van Haaren, of the Province of Holland.”-D.
(870) Lady Anne Lennox, sister of the Duke of Richmond, and wife of William Anne van Keppel, Earl of Albemarle: she had been lady of the bedchamber to the Queen; and this year conducted Princess Louisa to Altona, to be married to the Prince Royal of Denmark.
(871) Henry Vernon, Esq. a nephew of Admiral Vernon, married to Lady Henrietta Wentworth, daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Strafford, of the second creation.-D.
(872) Signor Pucci was resident from Tuscany at the Court of England.
(873) Chevalier Ossorio was several years minister in England from the King of Sardinia, to whom he afterwards became first minister.
351 Letter 124
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Nov. 30, 1743.
I have had two letters from you since I wrote myself This I begin against to-morrow, for I should have little time to write. The parliament opens, and we are threatened with a tight Opposition, though it must be vain, if the numbers turns out as they are calculated; three hundred for the Court, two hundred and five opponents; that is, in town; for, you know, the whole amounts to five hundred and fifty-eight. The division of the ministry has been more violent than between parties; though now, they tell you, it is all adjusted. The Secretary,(874) since his return, has carried all with a high hand, and treated the rest as ciphers; but he has been so beaten in the cabinet council, that in appearance he submits, though the favour is most evidently with him. All the old ministers have flown hither as zealously as in former days; and of the three lev`ees (875) in this street, the greatest is in this house, as my Lord Carteret told them the other day; “I know you all go to Lord Orford – he has more company than any of us– do you think I can’t go to him too?” He is never sober; his rants are amazing; so are his parts and spirits. He has now made up with the Pelhams, though after naming to two vacancies in the Admiralty without their knowledge; Sir Charles Hardy and Mr. Philipson. The other alterations are at last fixed. Winnington is to be paymaster; Sandys, cofferer, on resigning the exchequer to Mr. Pelham; Sir John Rushout, treasurer of the navy; and Harry Fox, lord of the treasury. Mr. Compton,(876) and Gybbons remain at that board. Wat. Plumber, a known man, said, the other day, “Zounds! Mr. Pultney took those old dishclouts to wipe out the ‘treasury, and now they are going to lace them and lay them up!” It is a most just idea: to be sure, Sandys and Rushout, and their fellows, are dishclouts, if dishclouts there are in the world: and now to lace them!
The Duke of Marlborough has resigned every thing, to reinstate himself in the old duchess’s will. She said the other day, “It is very natural: he listed as soldiers do when they are drunk, and repented when he was sober.” So much for news: now for your letters.
All joy to Mr. Whithed on the increase of his family! and joy to you; for now he is established in so comfortable a way, I trust you will not lose him soon-and la Dame s’appelle?
If my Lady Walpole has a mind once in her life to speak truth, or to foretell,-the latter of which has as seldom any thing to do with truth as her ladyship has,-why she may now about the Tesi’s dog, for I shall certainly forget what it would be in vain to remember. My dear Sir, how should one convey a dog to Florence! There are no travelling Princes of Saxe Gotha or Modena here at present, who would carry a little dog in a nutshell. The poor Maltese cats, to the tune of how many! never arrived here; and how should one little dog ever find its way to Florence! But tell me, and, if it is possible, I will send it. Was it to be a greyhound, or of King Charles’s breed? It was to have been the latter; but I think you told me that she rather had a mind to the other sort, which, by the way, I don’t think I could get for her.
Thursday, eight o’clock at night.
I am just come from the House, and dined. Mr. Coke(877) moved the address, seconded by Mr. Yorke, the lord chancellor’s son.(878) The Opposition divided 149 against 278; which gives a better prospect of carrying on the winter easily. In the lords’ house there was no division. Mr. Pitt called Lord Carteret the execrable author of our measures, and sole minister.(879) Mr. Winnington replied, that he did not know of any sole minister; but if my Lord Carteret was so, the gentlemen of the other side had contributed more to make him so than he had.
I am much pleased with the prospect you show me of the Correggio. My lord is so satisfied with the Dominichin, that he will go as far as a thousand pounds for the Correggio. Do you really think we shall get it, and for that price?
You talk of the new couple, and of giving the sposa a mantilla: What new couple! you don’t say. I suppose, some Suares, by the raffle. Adieu!
(874) Lord Carteret.
(875) Lord Carteret’s, Mr. Pelham’s, and Lord Orford’s.
(876) The Hon. George Compton, second son of George, fourth Earl of Northampton. He succeeded his elder brother James, the fifth earl, in the family titles and estates in 1754, and died in 1758.-D.
(877) The only son of Lord Lovel.-D.
(878) Philip Yorke, eldest son of Lord Hardwicke; and afterwards the second earl of that title.-D.
(879) In Mr. Yorke’s MS. parliamentary journal, the words are”an execrable, a sole minister, who had renounced the British nation, and seemed to have drunk of the potion described in poetic fictions.”-E.
352 Letter 125
To Sir Horace Mann.
Dec. 15, 1743.
I write in a great fright, lest this letter should come too late. My lord has been told by a Dr. Bragge, a virtuoso, that, some ye(irs ago, the monks asked ten thousand pounds for our Correggio,(880) and that there were two copies then made of it: that afterwards, he is persuaded, the King of Portugal bought the original; he does not know at what price. Now, I think it very possible that this doctor, hearing the picture was to be come at, may have invented this Portuguese history; but as there is a possibility, too, that it may be true, you must take all imaginable precautions to be sure it is the very original-a copy would do neither you nor me great honour.
We have entered upon the Hanoverian campaign. Last Wednesday, Waller moved in our House an address to the King, to continue them no longer in our pay than to Christmas-day, the term for which they were granted. The debate lasted till half an hour after eight at night. Two young officers (881) told some very trifling stories against the Hanoverians, which did not at all add any weight to the arguments of the Opposition; but we divided 231 to 181. On Friday,’ Lord Sandwich and Lord Halifax, in good speeches, brought the same motion into the Lords. I was there, and heard Lord Chesterfield make the finest oration I ever did hear.(882) My father did not speak, nor Lord Bath. They threw out the motion by 71 to 36. These motions will determine the bringing on the demand for the Hanoverians for another year in form; which was a doubtful point, the old part of the ministry being against it, though very contrary to my lord’s advice.
Lord Gower, finding no more Tories were to be admitted, resigned on Thursday; and Lord Cobham in the afternoon. The privy-seal was the next day given to Lord Cholmondeley. Lord Gower’s resignation is one of the few points in which I am content the prophecy in the old Jacobite ballad should be fulfilled-“The King shall have his own again.”
The changes are begun, but will not be completed till the recess, as the preferments will occasion more re-elections than they can spare just now in the House of Commons. Sandys has resigned the exchequer to Mr. Pelham; Sir John Rushout is to be treasurer of the navy; Winnington, paymaster; Harry Fox, lord of the treasury: Lord Edgcumbe, I believe, lord of the treasury,(883) and Sandys, cofferer and a peer. I am so scandalized at this, that I will fill up my letter (having told you all the news) with the first fruits of my indignation.
VERSES ADDRESSED TO THE HOUSE OF LORDS ON ITS RECEIVING A NEW PEER,
THou senseless Hall, whose injudicious space, Like Death, confounds a various mismatched race, Where kings and clowns, th’ ambitious and the mean, Compose th’ inactive soporific scene,
Unfold thy doors!-and a promotion see That must amaze even prostituted thee!
Shall not thy sons, incurious though they are, Raise their dull lids, and meditate a stare? Thy sons, who sleep in monumental state, To show the spot where their great fathers sate. Ambition first, and specious warlike worth, Call’d our old peers and brave patricians forth; And subject provinces produced to fame
Their lords with scarce a less than regal name. Then blinded monarchs, flattery’s fondled race, Their favourite minions stamp’d with titled grace, And bade the tools of power succeed to Virtue’s place, Hence Spensers, Gavestons, by crimes grown great, Vaulted into degraded Honour’s seat:
Hence dainty Villiers sits in high debate, Where manly Beauchamps, Talbots, Cecils sate Hence Wentworth,(884) perjured patriot, burst each tie, Profaned each oath, and gave his life the lie: Renounced whate’er he sacred held and dear, Renounced his country’s cause, and sank into a Peer. Some have bought ermine, venal Honour’s veil, When set by bankrupt Majesty to sale
Or drew Nobility’s coarse ductile thread >From some distinguished harlot’s titled bed. Not thus ennobled Samuel!-no worth
from his mud the sluggish reptile forth; No parts to flatter, and no grace to please, With scarce an insect’s impotence to tease, He struts a Peer-though proved too dull to stay, Whence (885) even poor Gybbons is not brush’d away.
Adieu! I am just going to Leicester House, where the Princess sees company to-day and to-morrow, from seven to nine, on her lying-in. I mention this per amor del Signor Marchese Cosimo Riccardi.(886)
(880) One of the most celebrated pictures of Correggio, with the Madonna and Child, saints, and angels, in a convent at Parma.
(881) Captain Ross and Lord Charles Hay.-E.
(882) “Lord Chesterfield’s performance,” says Mr. Yorke, “was much cried up; but few of his admirers could distinguish the faults of his eloquence from its beauties.” MS. Part. Journal.-E.
(
883 This did not happen.
(884) Earl of Strafford; but it alludes to Lord Bath.
(885) The Treasury.
(886) A gossiping old Florentine nobleman, whose whole employment was to inform himself of the state of marriages, pregnancies, lyings-in, and such like histories.
354 Letter 126
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Dec. 26, 1743.
I shall complain of inflammations in my eyes till you think it is an excuse for not writing; but your brother is@My Witness that I have been shut up in a dark room for this week. I got frequent colds, which fall upon my eyes; and then I have bottles of sovereign eye- waters from all my acquaintance; but as they are Only accidental colds, I never use any thing but sage, which braces my eye-fibres again in a few days. I have had two letters since my last to you; One Complaining of my silence, and the other acknowledging one from me after a week’s intermission: indeed, I never have been so long without writing to you – I do sometimes miss two weeks on any great dearth of news, which is all I have to fill a letter; for living as I do among people, whom, from your long absence, you cannot know, should talk Hebrew to mention them to you. Those, that from eminent birth, folly, or parts, are to be found in the chronicles of the times, I tell you of, whenever necessity or the King puts them into new lights. The latter, for I cannot think the former had any hand in it, has made
Sandys, as I told you, a lord and cofferer! Lord Middlesex is one of the new treasury, not ambassador as you heard. So the Opera-house and White’s have contributed a commissioner and a secretary to the treasury,(887) as their quota to the government. It is a period to make a figure in history.
There is a recess of both Houses for a fortnight; and we are to meet again, with all the quotations and flowers that the young orators can collect-,ind forcibly apply to the Hanoverians; with all the malice which the disappointed Old have hoarded against Carteret, and with all the impudence his defenders can sell him – and when all that is vented-what then?-why then, things will just be where they were.
General Wade (888) is made field-marshal, and is to have command of the army, as it is supposed, on the King’s not going abroad; but that is not declared . The French preparations go on with much more vigour than ours; they not having a House of Commons to combat all the winter; a campaign that necessarily engages all the attention of ministers, who have no great variety of apartments in their understandings.
I have paid your brother the bill I received from you, and give you a thousand thanks for all the trouble you have had; most particularly from the plague of hams,(889) from which you have saved me. Heavens! how blank”I should have looked at unpacking a great case of bacon and wine! My dear child, be my friend, and preserve me from heroic presents. I cannot possibly at this distance begin a new courtship of regalia; for I suppose all those hams were to be converted into watches and toys. Now it would suit Sir Paul Methuen very well, who is a knight-errant at seventy-three, to carry on an amour between a Mrs. Chenevix’s(890) shop and a noble collar in Florence; but alas! I am neither old enough nor young enough to be gallant, and should ill become the writing of heroic epistles to a fair mistress in Italy-no, no: “ne sono uscito con onore, mi pare, e non
voglio riprendere quel impegno pi`u” You see how rustic I am grown again!
I knew your new brother-in-law(891) at school, but have not seen him since. But your sister was in love, and must consequently be happy to have him. Yet I own, I cannot much felicitate any body that marries for love. It is bad enough to marry; but to marry where one loves, ten times worse. it is so charming at first, that the decay of inclination renders it infinitely more disagreeable afterwards. Your sister has a thousand merits; but they don’t count: but then she has good sense enough to make her happy, if her merit cannot make him so.
Adieu! I rejoice for your sake that Madame Royale’ is recovered, as I saw in the papers.
(887) John JefFries.
(888)General George Wade, afterwards commander of the forces in Scotland. He died in 1748. A fine monument, by Roubillac, was erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey.-E.
(889) Madame Grifoni was going to send Mr. W. a Present of hams and Florence wine.
(890) The proprietress of a celebrated toy-shop.-D.
(891) Mr. Foote.
(892) The Duchess of Lorrain, mother of the Great Duke: her death would have occasioned a long mourning at Florence. [Elizabeth of Orleans, only daughter of Philip, Duke of Orleans
(Monsieur), by his second wife, the Princess Palatine.] -D.
To Sir Horace Mann.
Dear Sir,
I have been much desired by a very particular friend, to recommend to you Sir William Maynard,(893) who is going to Florence. You will oblige me extremely by any civilities you show him while he stays there; in particular, by introducing him to the Prince and Princess de Craon, Madame Suares, and the rest of my acquaintance there, who, I dare say, will continue their goodness to me, by receiving him with the same politeness that they received me. I am, etc.
(893) Sir William Maynard, the fourth baronet of the family, and a younger branch of the Lords Maynard. His son, Sir Charles Maynard, became Viscount Maynard in 1775, upon the death of his cousin Charles, the first viscount, who had been so created, with special remainder to him.-D.
356 Letter 127
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Jan. 24, 1744.
Don’t think me guilty of forgetting you a moment, though I have missed two or three posts. If you knew the incessant hurry and fatigue in which I live, and how few ‘moments I have to myself, you would not suspect Me. You know, I am naturally indolent, and without application to any kind of business; yet it is- impossible, in this country, to live in the world, and be in parliament, and not find oneself every day more hooked into politics and company, especially inhabiting a house that is again become the centre of affairs. My lord becomes the last resource, to which they are all forced to apply. One part of the ministry, you may be sure, do; and for the other, they affect to give themselves the honour of it too.
Last Thursday I would certainly have written to give you a full answer to your letter of grief (894) but I was shut up in the House till past ten at night; and the night before till twelve. But I must speak to you in private first. I don’t in the least doubt but my Lady Walpole and Richcourt would willingly be as mischievous as they are malicious, If they could: but, my dear child, it is impossible. Don’t fear from Carteret’s silence to you; he never writes: if that were a symptom of disgrace, the Duke of’ Newcastle would have been out long ere this: and when the regency were not thought worthy of his notice, you could not expect it. As to your being attached to Lord Orford, that is your safety. Carteret told him the other day, “My Lord, I appeal to the Duke of Newcastle, if I did not tell the King, that it was you who had carried the Hanover troops.” That, too, disproves the accusation of Sir Robert’s being no friend to the Queen of Hungary. That is now too stale and old. However, I will speak to my lord and Mr. Pelham-would I had no more cause to tremble for you, than from little cabals! But, my dear child, when we hear every day of the ‘Toulon fleet sailing, can I be easy for you? or can I not foresee where that must break, unless Matthews and the wonderful fortune of England can interpose effectually? We are not without our own fears; the Brest fleet of twenty-two sail is out at sea; they talk, for Barbadoes. I believe we wish it may be thither destined? Judge what I think; I cannot, nor may write: but I am in the utmost anxiety for your situation.
The whole world, nay the Prince himself allows, that if Lord Orford had not come to town, the Hanover troops had been lost.(895) They were in effect given up by all but Carteret. We carried our own army in Flanders by a majority of 112.(896) Last Wednesday was the great day of expectation: we sat in the committee on the Hanover troops till twelve at night: the numbers were 271 to 226. The next day on the report we sat again till past ten, the opposition having moved to adjourn till Monday, on which we divided, 265 to 177. Then the Tories all went away in a body, and the troops were voted.
We have still tough work to do: there are the estimates on The extraordinaries of the campaign, and the treaty of Worms (897) to come;–I know who (898) thinks this last more difficult to fight than the Hanover troops. It is likely to turn out as laborious a session as ever was. All the comfort is, all the abuse don’t lie at your door nor mine; Lord Carteret has the full perquisites of the ministry. The other day, after Pitt had called him “the Hanover troop-minister, a flagitious taskmaster,” and said, “that the sixteen thousand Hanoverians were all the party he had, and were his placemen;” in short, after he had exhausted invectives, he added, “But I have done: if he were present, I would say ten times more.”(899) Murray shines as bright as ever he did at the bar; which he seems to decline, to push his fortune in the House of Commons under Mr. Pelham.
This is the present state of our politics, which is our present state; for nothing else is thought of. We. fear the King will again go abroad.
Lord Hartington has desired me to write to you for some melon-seeds, which you will be so good to get the best, and send to me for him.
I can’t conclude without mentioning again the Toulon squadron: we vapour and say, by this time Matthews has beaten them, while I see them in the port of Leghorn!
My dear Mr. Chute, I trust to your friendship to comfort our poor Miny: for my part, I am all apprehension! My dearest child, if it turns out so, trust to my friendship for working every engine to restore you to as good a situation as you will lose, If my fears prove prophetic! The first peace would reinstate you in your favourite Florence, whoever were sovereign of it. I wish you may be able to smile at the vanity of my fears, as I did at yours about Richcourt. Adieu! adieu!
(894) Sir Horace Mann had written in great uneasiness, in consequence of his having heard that Count Richcourt, the Great Duke’s minister; was using all his influence with the English government, in conjunction with Lady Walpole, to have Sir Horace removed from his situation at Florence.-D.
(895) “Lord Orford’s personal credit with his friends was the main reason that the question was so well disposed of: he never laboured any point during his own administration with more zeal, and at a dinner at Hanbury Williams’s had a meeting with such of the old court party as were thought most averse to concurring in this measure; where he took great pains to convince them of the necessity there was for repeating it.” Mr. P. Yorke’s MS. Journal.-E.
(896) It appears from Mr. Philip Yorke’s Parliamentary Journal, that the letter-writer took a part in the debate-“Young Mr. Walpole’s speech,” he says, “met with deserved applause from every body: it was judicious and elegant: he applied the verse which Lucan puts in Curia’s mouth to Caesar, to the King:-
“Livor edax tibi cuncta negat, Gallasque subactos, Vix impune feres.”-E.
(897) Between the King of England, the Queen of Hungary, and the King of Sardinia, to whom were afterwards added Holland and Saxony. It is sometimes called “the triple alliance.”-D.
(898) Lord Orford.
(899) “Pitt as usual,” says Mr. Yorke, in his MS. Parliamentary Journal, ,fell foul of Lord Carteret, called him a Hanover troop-minister; that they were his party, his placemen; that he had conquered the cabinet by their means, and after being very lavish of his abuse, wished he was in the House, that he might give him more of it.” Tu the uncommon accuracy of Mr. Walpole’s reports of the proceedings in Parliament, the above-quoted Journal bears strong evidence.-E.
358 Letter 128
To Sir Horace Mann.
Feb. 9, 1744.
I have scarce time to write, or to know what I write. I live in the House of Commons. We sat on Tuesday till ten at night, on a Welsh election; and shall probably stay as long to-day on the same.
I have received all your letters by the couriers and the post: I am persuaded the Duke of Newcastle is much pleased with your despatch; but I dare not enquire, for fear he should dislike your having written the same to me.
I believe we should have heard more of the Brest squadron, if their appearance off the Land’s End on Friday was se’nnight, steering towards Ireland, had occasioned greater consternation. It is incredible how little impression it made: the stocks hardly fell: though it was then generally believed that the Pretender’s son was on board. We expected some invasion; but as they were probably disappointed on finding no rising in their favour, it is now believed that they are gone to the Mediterranean. They narrowly missed taking the Jamaica fleet, which was gone out convoyed by two men-of-war. The French pursued them, outsailed them, and missed them by their own inexpertness. Sir John Norris is at Portsmouth, ready to sail with nineteen
men-of-war, and is to be joined by two more from Plymouth. We
hope to hear that Matthews has beat the Toulon squadron before they can be joined by the Brest. This is the state of our situation. “le have stopped the embarkation of the six thousand men for Flanders; and I hope the King’s journey thither, The Opposition fight every measure of supply, but very unsuccessfully. When this Welsh election is over, they will probably go out of town, and leave the rest of the session at ease.
I think you have nothing to apprehend from the new mine that is preparing against you. My lord is convinced it is an idle attempt and it will always be in his power to prevent any such thing from taking effect. I am very unhappy for Mr. Chute’s gout, or for any thing that disturbs the peace of people I love so much, and that I have such vast reason to love. You know my fears for you: pray Heaven they end well!
It is universally believed that the Pretender’s son, who is at Paris, will make the campaign in one of their armies. I suppose this will soon produce a declaration of war; and then France, perhaps, will not find her account in having brought him as near to England as ever he is like to be. Adieu! My Lord is hurrying me down to the House. I must go!
359 Letter 129
To Sir Horace Mann.
House of Commons, Feb. 16, 1744.
We are come nearer to a crisis than indeed I expected! After the various reports about the Brest squadron, it has proved that they are sixteen ships of the line off Torbay; in all probability to draw our fleet from Dunkirk, where they have two men-of-war and sixteen large Indiamen to transport eight thousand foot and two thousand horse, which are there in the town. There has been some difficulty to persuade people of the imminence of our danger – but yesterday the King sent a message to both Houses to acquaint us that he has certain information of the young Pretender being in France, and of the designed invasion from thence, in concert with the disaffected here.(900) Immediately the Duke of Marlborough, who most handsomely and seasonably was come to town on purpose, moved for an Address to assure the King of standing by him with lives and fortunes. Lord Hartington, seconded by Sir Charles Windham,(901) the convert son of Sir William, moved the same in our House. To our amazement, and little sure to their own honour, Waller and Doddington, supported in the most indecent manner by Pitt, moved to add, that we would immediately inquire into the state of the navy, the causes of our danger by negligence, and the sailing of the Brest fleet. They insisted on this amendment, and debated it till seven at night, not one (professed) Jacobite speaking. The division was 287 against 123. In the Lords, Chesterfield moved the same amendment, seconded by old dull Westmoreland; but they did not divide.
All the troops have been sent for in the greatest haste to London but we shall not have above eight thousand men together at most. An express is gone to Holland, and General Wentworth followed it last night, to demand six thousand men, who will probably be here by the end of next week. Lord Stair (902) has offered the King his service, and is to-day named commander-in-chief. This is very generous, and will be of great use. He is extremely beloved in the -army, and most firm to this family.
I cannot say our situation is the most agreeable; we know not whether Norris is gone after the Brest fleet or not. We have three ships in the Downs, but they cannot prevent a landing, which will probably be in Essex or Suffolk. Don’t be surprised if you hear that this crown is fought for on land. As yet there is no rising; but we must expect it on the first descent.
Don’t be uneasy for me, when the whole is at stake. I don’t feel as if my friends would have any reason to be concerned for me: my warmth will carry me as far as any man; and I think I can bear as I should the worst that can happen; though the delays of the French, I don’t know from what cause, have not made that likely to happen.
The King keeps his bed with the rheumatism. He is not less obliged to Lord Orford for the defence of his crown, now he is out of place, than when he was in the administration. His zeal, his courage, his attention, are indefatigable and inconceivable. He regards his own life no more than when it was most his duty to expose it, and fears for every thing but that.
I flatter myself that next post I shall write you a more comfortable letter. I would not have written this, if it were a time to admit deceit. Hope the best, and fear as little as you would do if you were here in the danger. My best love to the Chutes; tell them -I never knew how little I was a Jacobite till it was almost my interest to be one. Adieu!
(900) “February 13. Talking upon this subject with Horace Walpole, he told me confidentially, that Admiral Matthews intercepted, last summer, a felucca in her passage from Toulon to Genoa, on board of which were found several papers of great consequence relating to a French invasion in concert with the Jacobites; one of them particularly was in the style of an invitation from several of the nobility and gentry of England to the Pretender. These papers, he thought had not been sufficiently looked into and were not laid before the cabinet council until the night before the message was sent to both Houses.” Mr. P. York(,@’s Parliamentary Journal.-E.
(901) Afterwards Earl of Egmont.
(902) The Duke of Marlborough and Lord Stair had quitted the army in disgust, after last campaign, on the King’s showing such unmeasurible preference to the Hanoverians.
361 Letter 130
To Sir Horace Mann.
Thursday, Feb. 23, 1744.
I write to you, in the greatest hurry, at eight o’clock at night, whilst they are all at dinner round me. I am this moment come from the House, where we have carried a great Welsh election against Sir Watkyn Williams by 26. I fear you have not had my last, for the packet-boat has been stopped on the French stopping our messenger at Calais. There is no doubt of the invasion: the young Pretender is at Calais, and the Count de Saxe is to command the embarkation. Hitherto the spirit of the nation is with us. Sir John Norris was to sail yesterday to Dunkirk, to try to burn their transports; we are in the utmost expectation of the news. The Brest squadron was yesterday on the coast of Sussex. We have got two thousand men from Ireland, and have sent for two more. The Dutch are coming: Lord Stair is general. Nobody is yet taken up-God knows why not! We have repeated news of Matthews having beaten and sunk eight of the Toulon ships; but the French have so stopped all communication that we don’t yet know it certainly; I hope you do. Three hundred arms have been seized in a French merchant’s house at Plymouth. Attempts have been made to raise the clans in Scotland, but unsuccessfully.
My dear child, I write short, but it is much: and I could not say more in ten thousand words. All is at stake we have great hopes, but they are but hopes! I have no more time: I wait with patience for the event, though to me it must and shall be decisive.
361 Letter 131
To Sir Horace Mann.
March 1st, 1744.
I wish I could put you out of the pain my last letters must have given you. I don’t know whether your situation, to be at such a distance on so great a crisis, is not more disagreeable than ours, who are expecting every moment to hear the French are landed. We had great ill-luck last week: Sir John Norris, with four-and-twenty sail, came within a league of the Brest squadron, which had but fourteen. The coasts were covered with people to see the engagement; but at seven in the evening the wind changed, and they escaped. There have been terrible winds these four or five days . our fleet has not suffered materially, but theirs less. Ours lies in the Downs; five of theirs at Torbay-the rest at La Hague. We hope to hear that these storms, which blew directly on Dunkirk, have done great damage to their transports. By the fortune of the winds, which have detained them in port, we have had time to make preparations; if they had been ready three weeks ago. when the Brest squadron sailed, it had all been decided. We expect the Dutch in four or five days. Ten battalions, which make seven thousand men, are sent for from our army in Flanders, and four thousand from Ireland, two of which are arrived. If they still attempt the invasion, it must be a bloody war!
The spirit of the nation has appeared extraordinarily in our favour. I wish I could say as much for that of’ the ministry. Addresses are come from all parts, but you know how little they are to be depended on-King James had them. The merchants of London are most zealous: the French name will do more harm to their cause than the Pretender’s service. One remarkable circumstance happened to Colonel Cholmondeley’s regiment on their march to London: the public-houses on all the road would not let them pay any thing, but treated them, and said, “You are going to defend us against the French.” There are no signs of any rising. Lord Barrymore,(903) the Pretender’s general, and Colonel Cecil, his secretary of state, are at last taken up; the latter, who having removed his papers, had sent for them back, thinking the danger over, is committed to the Tower, on discoveries from them; but, alas! these discoveries go on but lamely.(904) One may perceive who is not minister, rather than who is. The Opposition tried to put off the suspension of the Habeas Corpus -feebly. Vernon (905) and the Grennvilles are the warmest: Pitt and Lyttelton went away without voting.(906) My father has exerted himself most amazingly – the other day, on the King’s laying some information before the House, when the ministry had determined to make no address on it, he rose up in the greatest agitation, and made a long and fine speech On the present situation.(907) The Prince was so pleased with it, that he has given him leave to go to his court, which he never would before. He went yesterday, and was most graciously received.
Lord Stair is at last appointed general. General Oglethorpe (908) is to have a commission for raising a regiment of Hussars, to defend the coasts. The Swiss servants in London have offered to form themselves into a regiment; six hundred are already clothed and armed, but no colonel or officers appointed. We flatter ourselves, that the divisions in the French ministry will repair what the divisions in our own undo.
The answer from the court of France to Mr. Thomson on the subject of the boy (909) is most arrogant: “that when we have given them satisfaction for the many complaints which they have made on our infraction of treaties, then they will think of giving us des `eclaircissements.”
We have no authentic news yet from Matthews: the most credited is a letter from Marseilles to a Jew, which says it was the most bloody battle ever fought; that it lasted three days; that the two first we had the worst, and the third, by a lucky gale, totally defeated them. Sir Charles Wager always said, “that if a sea-fight lasted three days, he was sure the English suffered the most for the two first, for no other nation would stand beating for two days together.”
Adieu! my dear child. I have told you every circumstance I know: I hope you receive my letters; I hope their accounts will grow more favourable. I never found my spirits so high, for they never were so provoked. hope the best, and believe that, as long as I am, I shall always be yours sincerely.
P. S. My dear Chutes, I hope you will still return to your own England.
(903) James Barry, fourth Earl of Barrymore. He died in 1747. See ant`e, p. 269. Letter 74.
(904) “Some treasonable papers of consequence were found in Cecil’s pockets, which gave occasion to the apprehending of Lord Barrymore. They were both concerned in the affair of transmitting the Pretender’s letter to the late Duke of Argyle; which it was now lamented had not then undergone a stricter examination. I observed the Tories much struck with the news of this being secured.” Mr. P. Yorke’s Parl. Journal.-E.
(905) Admiral Vernon.
(906) “Lord Barrington’s motion for deferring the suspension was thrown out by 181 against 83. Pitt and Lyttelton walked down the House whilst Lord Barrington was speaking, and went away; so did Mr. Crowne, though a Tory; but most of that party voted with the Ayes. Lord Chesterfield told the chancellor there was no opposition to this bill intended amongst the Lords; not even a disposition to it in any body; and greatly approved the limiting it to so short a time.” Mr. P. Yorke’s Parl. journal.-E.
(907) “Lord Orford, though he had never spoken in the House of Lords, having remarked to his brother Horatio that he had left his tongue in the House of Commons, yet on this occasion his eloquent voice was once more raised, beseeching their lordships to forget their cavils and divisions, and unite in affection round the throne. It was solely owing to him, that the torrent of public opposition was braved and overcome.” Lord Mahon, Hist. vol. iii. p. 273.-E.
(908) General James Oglethorpe, born in 1698. His activity in settling the colony of Georgia obtained for him the friendship and panegyric of Pope-
“One, driven by strong benevolence of soul, Shall fly, like Oglethorpe, from pole to pole.”
He was one of the earliest patrons of Johnson’s “London,” on its first appearance, and the Doctor, throughout life, acknowledged the kind and effectual support given to that poem. The General sat in five parliaments, and died in 1785, at the age of eighty-seven. For a striking pen-and-ink whole.length sketch, taken a few months before that event, while the General was attending the sale of Dr. Johnson’s library at Christie’s auction-room, see “Johnsoniana,” 8vo. edit. p. 378.-E.
(909) Charles Edward, the young Pretender. His person, at this time, is thus described by Lord Mahon: “The Prince was tall and well-formed; his limbs athletic and active. He excelled in all manly exercises, and was inured to every kind