:

thing-late as it was given, the powder vomited him even in the agonies-had I had power to direct, he should never have quitted James; but these are vain regrets! vain to recollect how particularly kind he, who was kind to every body, was to me! I found lady Waldegrave at my brother's; she weeps without ceasing, and talks of his virtues and goodness to her in a manner that distracts one. My brother bears this mortification with more courage than I could have expected from his warm passions but nothing struck me more than to see my rough savage Swiss, Louis, in tears, as he opened my chaise. I have a bitter scene to come; to-morrow morning I carry poor lady Waldegrave to Strawberry. Her fall is great, from that adoration and attention that he paid her, from that splendour of fortune, so much of which dies with him, and from that consideration, which rebounded to her from the great deference which the world had for this character. Visions perhaps. Yet who could expect that they would have passed away even before that fleeting thing, her beauty!

If I had time or command enough of my thoughts, I could give you as long a detail of as unexpected a revolution in the political world. To-day has been as fatal to a whole nation, I mean to the Scotch, as to our family. Lord Bute resigned this morning. His intention was not even suspected till Wednesday, nor at all known a very few days before. In short there is nothing, more or less than a panic; a fortnight's opposition has demolished that scandalous but vast majority, which a fortnight had purchased, and in five months a plan of absolute power had been demolished by a panic. He pleads to the world bad health ; to his friends, more truly, that the nation was set at him. He pretends to intend retiring absolutely, and giving no umbrage. In the mean time he is packing up a sort of ministerial legacy, which cannot hold even till next session, and I should think would scarce take place at all. George Grenville is to be at the head of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer ; Charles Townshend to succeed him, and lord Shelburn Charles. Sir Francis Dashwood to have his barony of Despencer and the great wardrobe, in the room of lord Gower, who takes the privy seal, if the duke of Bedford takes the presidentship; but there are many ifs in the arrangement; the principal if is, if they dare stand a tempest, which has so terrified the pilot. You ask

what becomes of Mr. Fox? Not at all pleased with this sudden determination, which has blown up so many of his projects, and left him time to heat no more furnaces, he goes to France by the way of the House of Lords,' but keeps his place and his tools till something else happens. The confusion I suppose will be. enormous, and the next act of the drama a quarrel among the opposition, who would be all powerful, if they could do what they cannot, hold together and not quarrel for the plunder. As I shall be at a distance for some days, I shall be able to send you no more particulars of this interlude, but you will like a pun my brother made when he was told of this explosion; "Then," said he," they must turn the Jacks out of the drawing-room again, and again take them into the kitchen." Adieu; what a world to set one's heart on!

Yours ever.

To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq.

Strawberry-hill, April 14, 1763.

I HAVE received your two letters together, and foresaw that your friendly good heart would feel for us just as you do. The loss is irreparable, and my poor niece is sensible it is. She has such a veneration for her lord's memory, that if her sister and I make her cheerful for a moment, she accuses herself of it the next day to the bishop of Exeter,' as if he was her confessor, and that she had committed a crime. She cried for two days to such a degree, that if she had been a fountain it must have stopped. Til yesterday she scarce eat enough to keep her alive, and looks accordingly; but at her age she must be comforted: her esteem will last, but her spirits will return in spite of herself. Her lord has made her sole executrix, and added what little douceurs he could to her jointure, which is but a thousand pounds a-year, the estate being but three-and-twenty hundred. The little girls will have about eight thousand pounds a-piece; for the teller's place was so great during the war, that notwith

1 He was created a baron on the 16th April 1763, by the title of lord Holland, baron of Foxley. [Ed.]

2 The bishop of Exeter was married to a sister of lady Waldegrave. [Or.]

standing his temper was a sluice of generosity, he had saved thirty thousand pounds since his marriage.

Her sisters have been here with us the whole time. Lady Huntingtower is all mildness and tenderness; and by dint of attention I have not displeased the other. Lord Huntingtower has been here once; the bishop most of the time: he is very reasonable and good-natured, and has been of great assistance and comfort to me in this melancholy office, which is to last here till Monday or Tuesday. We have got the eldest little girl too, lady Laura, who is just old enough to be amusing; and last night my nephew arrived here from Portugal. It was a terrible meeting at first, but as he is very soldierly and lively, he got into spirits, and diverted us much with his relations of the war and the country. He confirms all we have heard of the villany, poltroonery, and ignorance of the Portuguese, and of their aversion to the English; but I could perceive, even through his relation, that our flippancies and contempt of them must have given a good deal of play to their antipathy.

You are admirably kind, as you always are, in inviting me to Greatworth, and proposing Bath; but besides its being impossible for me to take any journey just at present, I am really very well in health, and the tranquillity and air of Strawberry have done much good. The hurry of London, where I shall be glad to be just now, will dissipate the gloom that this unhappy loss. has occasioned; though a deep loss I shall always think it. The time passes tolerably here; I have my painters and gilders, and constant packets of news from town, besides a thousand letters of condolence to answer; for both my neice and I have received innumerable testimonies of the regard that was felt for lord Waldegrave. I have heard of but one man who ought to have known his worth, that has shewn no concern; but I suppose his childish mind is too much occupied with the loss of his last governor! I have given up my room to my neice, and have betaken myself to the Holbein chamber, where I am retired from the rest of the family when I choose it, and nearer to overlook my workmen. The chapel is quite finished, except the carpet. The sable mass of the altar gives it a very sober air:

3 The king, George III., to whom lord Waldegrave had been governor, and who had just lost the services of lord Bute. [Ed.]

for notwithstanding the solemnity of the painted windows, it had a gaudiness that was a little profane.

I can know no news here but by rebound; and yet, though they are to rebound' again to you, they will be as fresh as any you can have at Greatworth. A kind of administration is botched up for the present, and even gave itself an air of that fierceness with which the winter sat out. Lord Hardwicke was told, that his sons must vote with the court, or be turned out; he replied, as he meant to have them in place, he chose they should be removed now. It looks ill for the court when he is sturdy. They wished, too, to have Pitt, if they could have had him without consequences; but they don't find any recruits repair to their standard. They brag that they should have had lord Waldegrave; a most notorious falsehood, as he had refused every offer they could invent the day before he was taken ill. The duke of Cumberland orders his servants to say, that so far from joining them, he believes if lord Waldegrave could have been foretold of his death, he would have preferred it to an union with Bute and Fox. The former's was a decisive panic; so sudden, that it is said lord Egremont was sent to break his resolution of retiring to the king. The other, whose journey to France does not indicate much less apprehension, affects to walk in the streets at the most public hours to mark his not trembling. In the mean time the two chiefs have paid their bravoes magnificently: no less than fifty-two thousand pounds a-year are granted in reversion! Young Martin, who is older than I am, is named my successor; but I intend he shall wait some years: if they had a mind to serve me, they could not have selected a fitter tool to set my character in a fair light by the comparison, Lord Bute's son has the reversion of an auditor of the imprest; this is all he has done ostensibly for his family, but the great things bestowed on the most insignificant objects, make me suspect some private compacts. Yet I may wrong him, but I do not mean it. Lord Granby has refused Ireland, and the Northumberlands are to transport their magnificence thither. I lament

4 Samuel Martin, esq. M.P. for Camelford, one of the joint secretaries of the Treasury, named to succeed Walpole as usher of the receipts of Exchequer, comptroller of the great roll, and keeper of the foreign receipts. [Ed.]

5 The earl of Northumberland was gazetted, on the 20th April, lord lieutenant of Ireland, and on the 14th May, the marquis of Granby was ppointed master of the Ordinance. [Ed.]

that you made so little of that voyage, but this is the season of unrewarded merit! One should blush to be preferred within the same year. Do but think that Calcraft is to be an Irish lord! Fox's millions, or Calcraft's tythes of millions, cannot purchase a grain of your virtue or character. Adieu!

Yours most truly.

V

To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq.

Arlington-street, April 22, 1763.

I HAVE two letters from you, and shall take care to execute the commission in the second. The first diverted me much. . I brought my poor niece from Strawberry on Monday. As executrix, her presence was quite necessary, and she has never refused to do any thing reasonable that has been desired of her. But the house and the business have shocked her terribly; she still eats nothing, sleeps worse than she did, and looks dreadfully: I begin to think she will miscarry. She said to me t'other day, "They tell me that if my lord had lived, he might have done great service to his country at this juncture, by the respect all parties had for him. This is very fine; but as he did not live to do those services, it will never be mentioned in history!". I thought this solicitude for his honour charming. But he will be known by history; he has left a small volume of memoirs,1 that are a chef-d'œuvre. He twice shewed them to me, but I kept his secret faithfully; now it is for his glory to divulge it.

I am glad you are going to Dr. Lewis. After an Irish voyage I do not wonder you want careening. I have often preached to you-nay, and lived to you, too; but my sermons were flung away and my example.

This ridiculous administration is patched up for the present; the detail is delightful, but that I shall reserve for Strawberrytide. Lord Bath has complained to Fanshaw of lord Pulteney's'

1 The "Memoirs from 1754 to 1758, by James earl of Waldegrave,” which were published in 1821, with an introduction, said to be from the pen of lord Holland. [Ed.]

2

2 Son of the earl of Bath. [Or.] Lord viscount Pulteney was a lord of the bed chamber, member for Westminster, and colonel of the royal volun