[In the hand-writing of Charles Townshend is added:

Past ten o'clock.

I am just returned from your friend's, at the White Hart. Mr. Mathews, in an eloquent speech, proposed a thorough resolution, on behalf of himself and friends, to stand by you; and then I in return, declared on your behalf, that you looked upon your cause and that of Sir A. Hammond as one. I suspect the opinion of the most intelligent part of the company to be the same as yours, that the old members will be returned.

CHARLES TOWNSHEND, ESQ., TO GEORGE SELWYN.

DEAR SIR,

Old Burlington Street, Wednesday, 6 September, 1780.

I SUPPED last night with the Gloucester freemen. Mr. Mathews, the great man, made a speech, which, from my ignorance of Gloucester politics, I did not perfectly understand; but I thought that the point which he chiefly laboured to carry, was to persuade his friends, as he called them, to consider your interest so entirely joined with Sir A. Hammond's, that they should look upon it as a

you

common cause. There was one flower in his speech, which was often repeated and much admired that he came from an egg which never deceived, and that it was a blue egg. He abused Barrow and Webb much. I was called upon by Mr. Lloyd, the agent, to answer for you that joined heartily with Sir A. Hammond. This I did, without following Mr. Mathews in his abuse of Barrow, who might have deserved it, because I understood that many of Barrow's friends were in the room who had no objection to voting for you. I told them that you had served them twenty-eight years; that you had determined, for the rest of your life, to spend the greater part of your time at Matson: that you thought it hard to be driven out after so long a service, and after having upon so many occasions shown your attachment to the interests of Gloucester; and that you looked upon your interests and that of Sir A. Hammond as one

cause.

I was very well received, and I asked those who seemed the most considerable personages, whether I had said too much or too little; but they were very well satisfied, and Mr. Mathews assured me that he had done more for you than any of your own friends, and that he would serve you to the utmost of his power.

The best-dressed man of the company seemed to suspect that you and Barrow would be returned, as two or three of them told me; but the great

leaders are confident that you and Hammond will carry it. I write to you about your own business; but having many other letters to write, I must conclude with assuring you that I am,

Yours most affectionately,

To George Selwyn, Esq.,

C. TOWNSHEND.

at Matson, near Gloucester.

THE REV. DR. WARNER TO GEORGE SELWYN.

DEAR SIR,

Thursday, Sept. 7 [1780], at dinner at neighbour Charles's, a tête-à-tête,— so we say in the plural.

WE rejoice at the success, so much beyond our fondest hopes, of your first day's canvass, and are now en attendant the account of the second; drinking your health, and wishing the canvassing may go on as it begun; if so, the cunning man will be, as I prayed, too cunning for himself.

I sent the papers you enclosed to his Grace, by this post, to Amesbury (for there he is, and with him Lady Harrington and Lady Anna Maria, Lady Archer, General Craig, and Lord Barrington*), and gave him an account of your glorious first day's canvass. Charles Fox is going on at a great rate, we hear, in Covent Garden, and many people really

VOL. IV.

*

See ante, 26 August.

2 B

think he will carry his election. The new peers that are to be, are Sir William Bagot,* Lord Chief Justice de Grey,t General Fitzroy, and Lord Gage.§ Lord Beaulieu lately, on the Terrace at Windsor, bowed to the Duke of Montagu, then attending upon the King and Princes, and too much occupied with that duty to return his lordship's salute; upon which he stepped up to him, took his hat (the Duke's) from his head, and threw it over the terrace-wall, down, down, down, into the meadows. The King sent General Carpenter and Colonel Conway to them to prevent any rising of the lights.

Neighbour Charles has this morning voted for Lord Lincoln and Charles Fox, not to do any harm; which rule, I believe, he is determined to observe throughout the present combustion, and proceed in his calm and quiet way, by one and one of a side. Lord Carlisle, Lord Edward Bentinck, and Fawkener, expressed to him to-day great pleasure at

*

Sir William Bagot, sixth baronet, created, this year, Baron Bagot. He died October 22, 1798.

+ William de Grey, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, which office he resigned in 1780, and was advanced to the Peerage by the title of Baron Walsingham. He died about six months afterwards, May 9, 1781.

General Charles Fitzroy, created, this year Baron Southampton. He died March 21, 1797. See ante, after 11 December, 1777.

§ William Hall, second Viscount Gage in Ireland, created, this year, an English Peer. He died October 11, 1791.

your prospect of success at Gloucester. He was informed to-day that a hundred voters are coming to you from the Custom House.

[In the hand-writing of Charles Townshend is added,]

[EDWARD HUSSEY, EARL OF BEAULIEU, whose fracas with the Duke of Montagu at Windsor is recorded in the foregoing letter, was an Irishman of good family, but of slender means. Apparently possessed of no accomplishment beyond a powerful frame, he could little have dreamed, on his first entry into life, of achieving that high position in society to which he afterwards attained. In 1743, Mr. Hussey attracted the attention, and subsequently obtained the hand, of Isabella, Duchess of Manchester, eldest daughter of John, Duke of Montagu, and grand-daughter of the great Duke of Marlborough. The duchess was celebrated as the most beautiful woman, and one of the greatest fortunes of her day, and it therefore may be readily imagined that her preference of the stalwart and almost obscure Irishman, drew down upon him the secret malice of the envious, and the ridicule of the wits. It was on this occasion that