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 of toil, especially long marches on foot, having applied himself to field-sports in Italy, and become an expert walker. His face was strikingly handsome, of a perfect oval, and a fair complexion; his eyes light blue; his features high and noble. Contrary to the custom of the time, which prescribed perukes, his own fair hair usually in long ringlets on his neck. This goodly person was enhanced by his graceful manners; frequently condescending to the most familiar kindness, yet always shielded by a regal dignity: he had a peculiar talent to please and to persuade, and never failed to adapt his conversation to the taste or to the station of those whom he addressed." Hist. vol. iii. p. 280.-E.



363 Letter 132 To Sir Horace Mann. March 5th, 1744, eight o'clock at night.

I have but time to write you a minute-line, but it will be a comfortable one. There is just come advice, that the great storm on the 25th of last month, the very day the embarkation was to have sailed from Dunkirk, destroyed twelve of their transports, and obliged the whole number of troops, which were fifteen thousand, to debark. You may look upon the invasion is at an end, at least for the present; though, as every thing is coming to a crisis, one shall not be surprised to hear of the attempt renewed. We know nothing yet certain from Matthews; his victory grows a great doubt.

As this must go away this instant, I cannot write more-but what could be more? Adieu! I wish you all joy.



364 Letter 133 To Sir Horace Mann. March 15th, 1744

I have nothing new to tell you: that great storm certainly saved us from the invasion-then.(910) Whether it has put an end to the design is uncertain. They say the embargo at Dunkirk and Calais is taken off, but not a vessel of ours is come in from thence. They have, indeed, opened again the communication with Ypres and Nieuport, etc. but we don't yet hear whether they have renewed their embarkation. However, we take it for granted it is all over-from which, I suppose it will not be over. We expect the Dutch troops every hour. That reinforcement, and four thousand men from Ireland, will be all the advantage we shall have made of gaining time.

At last we have got some light into our Mediterranean affair, for there is no calling it a victory. Villettes has sent a courier, by which it seems we sunk one great Spanish ship; the rest escaped, and the French fled shamefully; that was, I suppose, designedly, and artfully. We can't account for Lestock's not coming up with his seventeen ships, and we have no mind to like it, which will not amaze you. We flatter ourselves that, as this was only the first day, we shall get some more creditable history of some succeeding day.

The French are going to besiege Mons: I wish all the war may take that turn; I don't desire to see England the theatre of it. We talk no more of its becoming so, nor of the plot, than of the gunpowder-treason. Party is very silent; I believe, because the Jacobites have better hopes than from parliamentary divisions,-those in the ministry run very high, and, I think, near some crisis.

I have enclosed a proposal from my bookseller to the undertaker of the Museum Florentinum, or the concerners of it, as the paper called them; but it was expressed in such wonderfully-battered English, that it was impossible for Dodsley or me to be sure of the meaning of it. He is a fashionable author, and though that is no sign of perspicuity, I hope, more intelligible. Adieu!

(910) "The pious motto," says Mr. P. Yorke, "upon the medal struck by Queen Elizabeth after the defeat of the Armada, may, with as much propriety, be applied to this event-"Flavit ventO, et dissipati sunt;' for, as Bishop Burnet somewhere observes, 'our preservation at this juncture was one of those providential events, for which we have much to answer."' MS. Parl. Journal.-E.



365 Letter 134 To Sir Horace Mann. London, March 22, 1744.

I am .sorry this letter must date the era of a new correspondence, the topic of which must be blood! Yesterday, came advice from Mr. Thompson,(911) that Monsieur Amelot had sent for him and given him notice to be gone, for a declaration of war with England was to be published in two days. Politically, I don't think it so bad; for the very name of war, though in effect, on foot before,, must make our governors take more precautions; and the French declaring it will range the people more on our side than on the Jacobite: besides, the latter will have their communication with France cut off. But, my dear child, what lives, what misfortunes, must and may follow all this! As a man, I feel my humanity more touched than my spirit-I feel myself more an universal man than an Englishman! We have already lost seven millions of money and thirty thousand men in the Spanish war-and all the fruit of all this blood and treasure is the glory of having Admiral Vernon's head on alehouse signs! for my part, I would not purchase another Duke of Marlborough at the expense of one life. How I should be shocked, were I a hero, when I looked on my own laurelled head on a medal, the reverse of which would be widows and orphans. How many such will our patriots have made!

The embarkation at Dunkirk does not seem to go on, though, to be sure, not laid aside. We received yesterday the particulars of the Mediterranean engagement from Matthews. We conclude the French squadron retired designedly, to come up to Brest, where we every day expect to hear of them. If Matthews does not follow them, adieu our triumphs in the Channel-and then! Sir John Norris has desired leave to come back, as little satisfied with the world as the world is with him. He is certainly very unfortunate;(912) but I can't say I think he has tried to correct his fortune. If England is ever more to be England, this sure is the crisis to exert all her vigour. We have all the disadvantage of Queen Elizabeth's prospect, without one of her ministers. Four thousand Dutch are landed, and we hope to get eight or twelve ships from them. Can we now say, Quatuor maria vindico?"(913)

I will not talk any more politically, but turn to hymeneals, with as much indifference as if I were a first minister. Who do you think is going to marry Lady Sophia Fermor?(914)-only Lord Carteret!-this very week!-a drawing-room conquest. Do but imagine how many passions will be gratified in that family! her own ambition, vanity, and resentment-love she never had any; the politics, management, and pedantry of the mother, who will think to govern her son-in-law out of Froissart.(915) Figure the instructions she will give her daughter! Lincoln is quite indifferent, and laughs. My Lord Chesterfield says, "It is only another of Carteret's vigorous measures." I am really glad of it; for her beauty and cleverness did deserve a better fate, than she was on the point of having determined for her for ever,. How graceful, how charming, and how haughtily condescending she will be! how, if Lincoln should ever hint past history, she will

"Stare upon the strange man's face, As one she ne'er had known!"(916)

I wonder I forgot to tell you that Doddington had owned a match of seventeen years' standing with Mrs. Behan, to whom the one you mention is sister.

I have this moment received yours of March 10th, and thank you much for the silver medal, which has already taken its place in my museum.

I feel almost out of pain for your situation, as by the motion of the fleets this way, I should think the expedition to Italy abandoned. We and you have had great escapes, but we have still occasion for all Providence!

I am very sorry for the young Sposa Panciatici, and wish all the other parents joy of the increase of their families. Mr. Whithed is en bon train; but the recruits he is raising will scarce thrive fast enough to be of service this war. My best loves to him and Mr. Chute. I except you three out of my want of public spirit. The other day, when the Jacobites and patriots were carrying every thing to ruin, and had made me warmer than I love to be, one of them said to me, "Why don't you love your country?" I replied, "I should love my country exceedingly,'If it were not for my countrymen." Adieu!

(911) Chaplain to the late Lord Waldegrave; after whose death he acted as minister at Paris, till the war, when he returned, and was made a dean in Ireland.

(912) He was called by the seamen "Foul-weather Jack."

(913) Motto of a medal of Charles the Second.

(914) Eldest daughter of Thomas, Earl of Pomfret.

(915) lady Pomfret had translated Froissart.

(916) Verses in Congreve's Doris.



366 Letter 135 To Sir Horace Mann. April 2, 1744.

I am afraid our correspondence will be extremely disjointed, and the length of time before you get my letters will make you very impatient, when all the world will be full of events; but I flatter myself that you will hear every thing sooner than by my letters; I mean, that whatever happens will be on the Continent; for the danger from Dunkirk seems blown over. We declared war on Saturday: that is all I know, for every body has been out of town for the Easter holidays. To-morrow the Houses meet again: the King goes, and is to make a speech. The Dutch seem extremely in earnest, and I think we seem to put all our strength in their preparations.

The town is persuaded that Lord Clinton (916) is gone to Paris to make peace - he is certainly gone thither, nobody knows why. He has gone thither every year -all his life, when he was in the Opposition; but, to be sure, this is a very strange time to take that journey. Lord Stafford, who came hither just before the intended invasion, (no doubt for the defence of the Protestant religion, especially as his father-in-law, Bulkeley,(917), was colonel of one of the embarked regiments,) is gone to carry his sister to be married to a Count de Rohan,(918) and then returns, having a sign manual for leaving his wife there.

We shall not be surprised to hear that the Electorate(919) has got a new master; shall you? Our dear nephew of Prussia will probably take it, to keep it safe for us.

I had written thus far on Monday, and then my lord came from New Park: and I had no time the rest of the day to finish it. We have made very loyal addresses to the King on his speech, which I suppose they send you. There is not the least news, but that my Lord Carteret's wedding has been deferred on Lady Sophia's falling dangerously ill of a scarlet fever; but they say it is to be next Saturday. She is to have sixteen hundred pounds a-year jointure, four hundred pounds pin-money, and two thousand of jewels. Carteret says, he does not intend to marry the mother and the whole family. What do you think my lady intends? Adieu! my dear Sir! Pray for peace.

(916) Hugh Fortescue, afterwards Earl of Clinton and Knight of the Bath. Not long after he received that order he went into Opposition, and left off his riband and star for one day, but thought better of it, and put them on the next. He was created Lord Fortescue and Earl of Clinton in 1746, and died in 1751.)

(917) Mr. Bulkeley, an Irish Roman Catholic, married the widow Cantillon, mother of the Countess of Stafford. He rose high in the French army, and had the cordon bleu: his sister was second wife of the first Duke of Berwick.

(918)Afterwards Duke of Rohan Chabot.-D.

(919) Of Hanover.-D.



367 Letter 136 To Sir Horace Mann. London, April 15, 1744.

I could tell you a great deal of news, but it would not be what you would expect. It is not of battles, sieges, and declarations of war; nor of invasions, insurrections, and addresses. It is the god of love, not he of war, who reigns in the newspapers. The town has made up a list of six and thirty weddings, which I shall not catalogue to you; for you would know, them no more than you do Antilochum, fortemque Gyan, fortemque Cloanthum.

But the chief entertainment has been the nuptials of our great Quixote and the fair Sophia. On the point of matrimony she fell ill of a scarlet fever, and was given over, while he had the gout, but heroically sent her word, that if she was well, he would be so. They corresponded every day, and he used to plague the cabinet council with reading her letters to them. Last night they were married; and as all he does must have a particular air in it, they supped at Lord Pomfret's: at twelve, Lady Granville, his mother, and all his family went to bed, but the porter: then my lord went home, and waited for her in the lodge: she came alone in a hackney-chair, met him in the hall, and was led up the back stairs to bed. What is ridiculously lucky is, that Lord Lincoln goes into waiting, to-day, and will be to present her! On Tuesday she stands godmother with the King to Lady Dysart's(920) child, her new grand-daughter. I am impatient to see the whole m'enage; it will be admirable. There is a wild young Venetian ambassadress(921) come, who is reckoned very pretty. I don't think so; she is foolish and childish to a degree. She said, "Lord! the old secretary is going to be married!" hey told her he was but fifty-four. "But fifty-four! why," said she, "my husband is but two-and-forty, and I think him the oldest man in the world." Did I tell you that Lord Holderness(922) goes to Venice with the compliments of accommodation, and leaves Sir James Grey resident there?

The invasion from Dunkirk seems laid aside. We talk little of our fleets - Sir John Norris has resigned -. Lestock is coming home, and sent before him great complaints of Matthews; so that affair must be cleared up. the King talks much of going abroad, which will not be very prudent. The campaign is not opened yet, but I suppose will disclose at once with great 'eclat in several quarters.

I this instant receive your letter of March 31st, with the simple Demetrius, for which, however, I thank you. I hope by this time you have received all my letters, and are at peace about the invasion; which we think so much over, that the Opposition are now breaking out about the Dutch troops, and call it the worst measure ever taken. Those terms so generally dealt to every measure successively, will at least soften the Hanoverian history.

Adieu! I have nothing more to tell you: I flatter myself you content yourself with news; I cannot write sentences nor sentiments. My best love to the Chutes, and now and then let my friends the Prince and Princess and Florentines know that I shall never forget their goodness to me. What is become of Prince Beauvau?

(920) Lady Grace Carteret, eldest daughter of Lord Carteret. She was married in 1729 to Lionel Tollemache, third Earl of Dysart; by whom she had fifteen children.-E.

(921) Wife of Signor Capello.

(922) Robert Darcy, Earl of Holderness, ambassador at Venice and the Hague, and afterwards secretary of state.



369 Letter 137 To Sir Horace Mann. London, May 8, 1744.

I begin to breathe a little at ease; we have done with the Parliament for this year: it rises on Saturday. We have had but one material day lately, last Thursday. The Opposition had brought in a bill to make it treason to correspond with the young Pretenders:(923) the Lords added a clause, after a long debate, to make it a forfeiture of estates, as it is for dealing with the father. We sat till one in the morning, and then carried it by 255 to 106. It was the best debate I ever heard.(924) The King goes to Kensington to-morrow, and not abroad. We hear of great quarrels between Marshal Wade and Duc d'Aremberg. The French King is at Valenciennes with Monsieur de Noailles, who is now looked upon as first minister. He is the least dangerous for us of all. It is affirmed that Cardinal Tencin is disgraced, who was the very worst for us. If he is, we shall at least have no invasion this summer. Successors of ministers seldom take up the schemes of their predecessors; especially such as by failing caused their ruin, which, I believe, was Tencin's case at Dunkirk.

For a week we heard of the affair at Villafranca in a worse light than was true: it certainly turns out ill for both sides. Though the French have had such a bloody loss, I cannot but think they will carry their point, and force their passage into Italy.

We have no domestic news, but Lord Lovel's being created Earl of Leicester, on an old promise which my father had obtained for him. Earl Berkeley(925) is married to Miss Drax, a very pretty maid of honour to the Princess; and the Viscount Fitzwilliam(926) to Sir Matthew Decker's eldest daughter , but these are people I am sure you don't know.

There is to be a great ball tomorrow at the Duchess of Richmond's for my Lady Carteret: the Prince is to be there. Carteret's court to pay her the highest honours, which she receives with the highest state. I have seen her but once, and found her just what I expected, tr'es grande dame; full of herself, and yet not with an air of happiness. She looks ill and is grown lean, but is still the finest figure in the world. The mother is not so exalted as I expected- I fancy Carteret has kept his resolution, and does not marry her too.

My Lord does not talk of' going out of town yet; I don't propose to be at Houghton till August. Adieu!

(923) Charles Edward, and Henry his brother, afterwards the Cardinal of York.-D.

(924) The Honourable Philip Yorke, in his MS. Parliamentary Journal, says, "it was a warm and long d(.-bate, in which I think as much violence and dislike to the proposition was shown by the opposers, as in any which had arisen during the whole winter. I thought neither Mr. Pelham's nor Pitt's performances equal on this occasion to what they are on most others. Many of the Prince's friends were absent; for what reason I cannot learn. This was the parting blow of the session; for the King came and dismissed us on the 12th, and the Parliament broke up with a good deal of ill-humour and discontent on the part of the Opposition, and little expectation in those who knew the interior of the court, and the unconnected state of the alliance abroad, that much would be done in the ensuing campaign to allay it, or infuse a better temper into the nation."-E.

(925) Augustus. fourth Earl Berkeley, Knight of the Thistle. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Drax, Esq, of Charborough, in Dorsetshire; and died in 1755.-D.

(926) Richard, sixth Viscount Fitzwilliam in Ireland, married Catherine, daughter and heiress of Sir Matthew Decker, Bart., and died in 1776.-E.



370 Letter 138 To Sir Horace Mann. London, May 29, 1744.

Since I wrote I have received two from you of May 6th and 19th. I am extremely sorry you get mine so late. I have desired your brother to complain to Mr. Preverau: I get yours pretty regularly.

I have this morning had a letter from Mr. Conway at the army; he says he hears just then that the French have declared war against the Dutch: they had in effect before by besieging Menin, which siege our army is in full march to raise. They have laid bridges over the Scheldt, and intend to force the French to a battle. The latter are almost double our number, but their desertion is prodigious, and their troops extremely bad. Fourteen thousand more Dutch are ordered, and their six thousand are going from hence with four more of ours; so we seem to have no more apprehensions of an invasion. All thoughts of it are over! no inquiry made into it! The present ministry fear the detection of conspiracies more than the thing itself: that is, they fear every thing that they are to do themselves.

My father has been extremely ill, from a cold he caught last week at New-park. Princess Emily came thither to fish, and he, who is grown quite indolent, and has not been out of a hot room this twelve- month, sat an hour and a half by the water side. He was in great danger one day, and more low-spirited than ever I knew him, though I think that grows upon him with his infirmities. My sister was at his bedside; I came into the room,-he burst into tears and could not speak to me - but he is quite well now; though I cannot say I think he will preserve his life long, as he has laid aside all exercise, which has been of such vast service to him. he talked the other day of shutting himself up in the farthest wing at Houghton; I said, "Dear, my Lord, you will be at a distance from all the family there!" He replied, "So much the better!"

Pope is given over with a dropsy, which is mounted into his head: in an evening he is not in his senses; the other day at Chiswick, he said,- to my Lady Burlington, "Look at our Saviour there! how ill they have crucified him!"(927)

There is a Prince of Ost-Frize(928) dead, which is likely to occasion most unlucky broils: Holland, Prussia, and Denmark have all pretensions to his succession; but Prussia is determined to make his good. If the Dutch don't dispute it, he will be too near a neighbour; if they do, we lose his neutrality, which is now so material.

The town has been in a great bustle about a private match; but which, by the ingenuity of the ministry, has been made politics. Mr. Fox fell in love with Lady Caroline Lennox;(929) asked her, was refused, and stole her. His father(930) was a footman; her great grandfather a king: hinc illae, lachrymae! all the blood royal have been up in arms. The Duke of Marlborough, who was a friend of the Richmonds, gave her away. If his Majesty's Princess Caroline had been stolen, there could not have been more noise made. The Pelhams, who arc much attached to the Richmonds, but who have tried to make Fox and all that set theirs, wisely entered into the quarrel, and now don't know how to get out of it. They were for hindering Williams,(931) who is Fox's great friend, and at whose house they were married, from having the red riband; but he has got it, with four others, the Viscount Fitzwilliam, Calthorpe, Whitmore, and Harbord. Dashwood, Lady Carteret's quondam lover, has stolen a great fortune, a Miss Bateman; the marriage had been proposed, but the fathers could not agree on the terms.

I am much obliged to you for all your Sardinian and Neapolitan journals. I am impatient for the conquest of Naples, and have no notion of neglecting sure things, which may serve by way of d'edommagement.

I am very sorry I recommended such a troublesome booby to you. Indeed, dear Mr. Chute, I never saw him, but was pressed by Mr. Selwyn, whose brother's friend he is, to give him that letter to you. I now hear that he is a warm Jacobite; I suppose you somehow disobliged him politically.

We are now mad about tar-water, on the publication of a book that I will send you, written by Dr. Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne.(932) The book contains every subject from tar-water to the Trinity; however, all the women read, and understand it no more than they would if it were intelligible. A man came into an apothecary's shop the other day, "Do you sell tar-water?" "Tar-water!" replied the apothecary, "why, I sell nothing else!" Adieu!

(927) Pope died the day after this letter was written; "in the evening," says Spence, "but they did not know the exact time; for his departure was so easy, that it was imperceptible even to the standers by."

(928) The Prince of East Friesland.

(929) Eldest daughter of Charles Duke of Richmond, grandson of King Charles II.

(930) Sir Stephen Fox.

(931) Sir C. Hanbury Williams.

(932) Having cured himself of a nervous colic by the use of tar-water, the bishop this year published a book entitled "Philosophical Reflections and Enquiries concerning the Virtues of Tar-water.',-E.



372 Letter 139 To Sir Horace Mann. June 11, 1744.

Perhaps you expect to hear of great triumphs and victories; of General Wade grown into a Duke of Marlborough; or of the King being in Flanders, with the second part of the battle of Dettingen-why, ay: you are bound in conscience, as a good Englishman, to expect all this -but what if all these 10 paeans should be played to the Dunkirk tune? I must prepare you for some such thing; for unless the French are as much their own foes as we are our own, I don't see what should hinder the festival to-day(933) being kept next year a day sooner. But I will draw no consequences; only sketch you out our present situation: and if Cardinal Tencin can miss making his use of it, we may burn our books and live hereafter upon good fortune.

The French King's army is at least ninety thousand strong; has taken Menin already, and Ypres almost. Remains then only Ostend; which you will look in the map and see does not lie in the high road to the conquest of the Austrian Netherlands. Ostend may be laid under water, and the taking it an affair of time. But there lies all our train of artillery Which cost two hundred thousand pounds; and what becomes of our communication with our army? Why, they may go round by Williamstadt, and be in England just time enough to be some other body's army! It turns out that the whole combined army, English, Dutch, Austrians, and Hanoverians, does not amount to above thirty-six thousand fighting men! and yet forty thousand more French, under the Duc d'Harcourt are coming into Flanders. When their army is already so superior to ours, for what can that reinforcement be intended, but to let them spare a triumph to Dunkirk? Now you will naturally ask me three questions: where is Prince Charles? where are the Dutch? what force have you to defend England? Prince Charles is hovering about the Rhine to take Lorrain, which they seem not to care whether he does or not, and leaves you to defend the -Netherlands. The Dutch seem indifferent, whether their barrier is in the hands of the Queen or the Emperor and while you are so mad, think it prudent not to be so themselves. For our own force, it is too melancholy to mention: six regiments go away to-morrow to Ostend, with the six thousand Dutch. Carteret and Botzlaer, the Dutch envoy extraordinary, would have hurried them away without orders; but General Smitsart, their commander, said, he was too old to be hanged. This reply was told to my father yesterday: "Ay," said he, "so I thought I was, but I may live to be mistaken!" When these troops are gone, we shall not have in the whole island above six thousand men, even when the regiments are complete; and half of those pressed and new-listed men. For our sea-force, I wish it may be greater in proportion! Sir Charles Hardy, whose name(934) at least is ill-favoured, is removed, and old Balchen, a firm Whig, put at the head of the fleet. Fifteen ships are sent for from Matthews; but they may come as opportunely as the army from Williamstadt-in short-but I won't enter into reasonings-the King is not gone. The Dutch have sent word, that they can let us have but six of the twenty ships we expected. My father is going into Norfolk, quite shocked at living to see how terribly his own conduct is justified. In the city the word is, "Old Sunderland'S(935) game is acting over again." Tell me if you receive this letter: I believe you will scarce give it about in memorials.

Here are arrived two Florentines, not recommended to me, but I have been very civil to them, Marquis Salviati and Conte Delci; the latter remembers to have seen me at Madame Grifoni's. The Venetian ambassador met my father yesterday at my Lady Brown's: you would have laughed to have seen how he stared and @eccellenza'd him. At last they fell into a broken Latin chat, and there was no getting the ambassador away from him.

If you have the least interest in any one Madonna in Florence, pay her well for all the service she can do us. If she can work miracles, now is her time. If she can't, I believe we all shall be forced to adore her. Adieu! Tell Mr. Chute I fear we should not be quite so well received at the conversazzioni, at Madame de Craon's, and the Casino,(936) when we are but refugee heretics. Well, we must hope! Yours I am, and we will bear our wayward fate together.

(933) The 10th of June was the Pretender's birthday, and the 11th the accession of George II.

(934) He was of a Jacobite family.

(935) Lord Sunderland, who betrayed James II.

(936) The Florentine coffee-house.



373 Letter 140 To Sir Horace Mann. London, June 18, 1744. I have not any immediate bad news to tell you in consequence of my last. The siege of Ypres does not advance so expeditiously as was expected; a little time gained in sieges goes a great way in a campaign. The Brest squadron is making just as great a figure in our channel as Matthews does before Toulon and Marseilles. I should be glad to be told by some nice computers of national glory, how much the balance is on our side.

Anson(937) is returned with vast fortune, substantial and lucky. He has brought the Acapulca ship into Portsmouth, and its treasure is at least computed at five hundred thousand pounds. He escaped the Brest squadron by a mist. You will have all the particulars in a gazette.

I will not fail to make your compliments to the Pomfrets and Carterets. I see them seldom, but I am in favour; so I conclude, for my Lady Pomfret told me the other night, that I said better things than any body. I was with them all at a subscription-ball at Ranelagh last week, which my Lady Carteret thought proper to look upon as given to her, and thanked the gentlemen, who were not quite so well pleased at her condescending to take it to herself. My lord stayed with her there till four in the morning. They are all fondness -walk together, and stop every five steps to kiss. Madame de Craon is a cypher to her for grandeur. The ball was on an excessively hot night: yet she was dressed in a magnificent brocade, because it was new that morning for the inauguration-day. I did the honours of all her dress:-"How charming your ladyship's cross is! I am sure the design was your own."-"No, indeed; my lord sent it me just as it is."-"How fine your ear-rings are!"-"Oh! but they are very heavy." Then as much to the mother. Do you wonder I say better things than any body?

I send you by a ship going to Leghorn the only new books at all worth reading. The Abuse(938) of Parliaments is by Doddington and Waller, circumstantially scurrilous. The dedication of the Essay(939) to my father is fine; pray mind the quotation from Milton. There is Dr. Berkeley's mad book on tar-water, which has made every body as mad as himself.

I have lately made a great antique purchase of all Dr. Middleton's collection which he brought from Italy, and which he is now publishing. I will send you the book as soon as it comes out. I would not buy the things till the book was half printed, for fear of an 'e Museo Walpoliano.-Those honours are mighty well for such known and learned men as Mr. Smith,(940) the merchant of Venice. My dear Mr. Chute, how we used to enjoy the title-page(941) of his understanding! Do you remember how angry he was when showing us a Guido, after pompous roomsfull of Sebastian Riccis, which he had a mind to establish for capital pictures, you told him he had now made amends for all the rubbish he had showed us before?

My father has asked, and with some difficulty got, his pension of four thousand pounds a-year, which the King gave him on his resignation and which he dropped, by the wise fears of my uncle and the Selwyns. He has no reason to be satisfied with the manner of obtaining it now, or with the manner of the man(942) whom he employed to ask it - yet it was not a point that required capacity-merely gratitude. Adieu!

(937) The celebrated circumnavigator, afterwards a peer, and first lord of the admiralty.-D.

(938) Detection of the Use and Abuse of Parliaments, by Ralph, under the direction of Doddington and Waller.

(939) Essay on Wit, Humour, and Ridicule, by Corbyn Morris.

(940) Mr. Smith, consul at Venice, had a fine library" of which he knew nothing at all but the title-pages.

(941) Expression of Mr. Chute.

(942) Mr. Pelham.



375 Letter 141

To The Hon. H. S. Conway.(943) Arlington Street, June 29, 1744.

My dearest Henry, I don't know what made my last letter so long on the road: yours got hither as soon as it could. I don't attribute it to any examination at the post-office. God forbid I should suspect any branch of the present administration of attempting to know any one kind of thing! I remember when I was at Eton, and Mr. Bland(944) had set me an extraordinary task, I used sometimes to pique myself upon not getting it, because it was not immediately my school business. What! learn more than I was absolutely forced to learn! I felt the weight of learning that; for I was a blockhead, and pushed up above my parts.

Lest you maliciously think I mean any application of this last sentence any where in the world, I shall go and transcribe some lines out of a new poem, that pretends to great impartiality, but is evidently wrote by some secret friend of the ministry. It is called Pope's, but has no good lines but the following. The plan supposes him complaining of being put to death by the blundering discord of his two physicians. Burton and Thompson; and from thence makes a transition to show that all the present misfortunes of the world flow from a parallel disagreement; for instance, in politics:

"Ask you what cause this conduct can create? The doctors differ that direct the state. Craterus, wild as Thompson, rules and raves, A slave himself yet proud of making slaves; Fondly believing that his mighty parts Can guide all councils and command all hearts; Give shape and colour to discordant things, Hide fraud in ministers and fear in kings. Presuming on his power, such schemes he draws For bribing Iron(945) and giving Europe laws, That camps, and fleets, and treaties fill the news, And succours unobtain'd and unaccomplish'd views.

"Like solemn Burton grave Plumbosus acts; He thinks in method, argues all from facts; Warm in his temper, yet affecting ice, Protests his candour ere he gives advice; Hints he dislikes the schemes he recommends, And courts his foes-and hardly courts his friends; Is fond of power, and yet concerned for fame- >From different parties would dependents claim Declares for war, but in an awkward way, Loves peace at heart, which he's afraid to say; His head perplex'd, altho' his hands are pure- An honest man,-but not a hero sure!"

I beg you will never tell me any news till it has past every impression of the Dutch gazette; for one is apt to mention what is wrote to one: that gets about, comes at last to, the ears of the ministry, puts them in a fright, and perhaps they send to beg to see your letter. Now, you know one should hate to have one's private correspondence made grounds for a measure,-especially for an absurd one, which is just possible.

If I was writing to any body but you, who know me so well, I should be afraid this would be taken for pique and pride, and be construed into my thinking all ministers inferior to my father but, my dear Harry, you know it was never my foible to think over-abundantly well of him. Why I think as I do of the great geniuses, answer for me, Admiral Matthews, great British Neptune, bouncing in the Mediterranean, while the Brest squadron is riding in the English Channel, and an invasion from Dunkirk every moment threatening your coasts: against which you send for six thousand Dutch troops, while you have twenty thousand of your own in Flanders, which not being of any use, you send these very six thousand Dutch to them, with above half of the few of your own remaining in England; a third part of which half of which few you countermand, because you are again alarmed with the invasion, and yet let the six Dutch go, who came for no other end but to protect you. And that our naval discretion may go hand-in-hand with our military, we find we have no force at home; we send for fifteen ships from the Mediterranean to guard our coasts, and demand twenty from the Dutch. The first fifteen will be here, perhaps in three months. Of the twenty Dutch, they excuse all but six, of which six they send all but four; and your own small domestic fleet, five are going to the West Indies and twenty a hunting for some Spanish ships that are coming from the Indies. Don't it put you in mind of a trick that is done by calculation: Think of a number: halve it-double it-and ten-subtract twenty-add half the first number-take away all you added: now, what remains?

That you may think I employ my time as idly as the great men I have been talking of, you must be informed that every night constantly I go to Ranelagh; which has totally beat Vauxhall. Nobody goes any where else-every body goes there. My Lord Chesterfield is so fond of it, that he says he has ordered all his letters to be directed thither. If you had never seen it, I would make you a most pompous description of it, and tell you how the floor is all of beaten princes-you can't set your foot without treading on a Prince of Wales or Duke of Cumberland. The company is universal: there is from his Grace of Grafton down to Children out of the Foundling Hospital- from my Lady Townshend to the kitten—from my Lord Sandys to your humble cousin and sincere friend.

(943) Now first printed.

(944) Dr. Henry Bland, head-master, and from 1732 to his death, in 1746, provost of Eton College. In No. 628 of the Spectator is a Latin version by him of Cato's soliloquy.-E.

(945) This is nonsense@H. W.



377 Letter 142 To Sir Horace Mann. London, June 29, 1744.

Well, at last this is not to be the year of our captivity! There is a cluster of good packets come at once. The Dutch have marched twelve thousand men to join our army; the King of Sardinia (but this is only a report) has beaten the Spaniards back over the Varo, and I this moment hear from the Secretary's office, that Prince Charles has undoubtedly passed the Rhine at the head of fourscore thousand men-where, and with what circumstances, I don't know a word; ma basta cos'i. It is said, too, that the Marquis de la Ch'etardie(946) is sent away from Russia: but this one has no occasion to believe. False good news are always produced by true good, like the waterfall by the rainbow. But why do I take upon me to tell you all this?-you, who are the centre of ministers and business! the actuating genius in the conquest of Naples! You cannot imagine how formidable you appear to me. My poor little, quiet Miny, with his headache and 'epuisements, and Cocchio, and coverlid of cygnet's down, that had no dealings but with a little spy-abb'e at Rome, a civil whisper with Count Lorenzi,(947) or an explanation on some of Goldsworthy's absurdities, or with Richcourt about some sbirri,(948) that had insolently passed through the street in which the King of Great Britain's arms condescended to hang! Bless me! how he is changed, become a trafficking plenipotentiary with Prince lobkowitz, Cardinal Albani(949) and Admiral Matthews! Why, my dear child, I should not know you again; I should not dare to roll you up between a finger and thumb like wet brown paper. Well, heaven prosper your arms! But I hate you, for I now look upon you as ten times fatter than I am.