fixed your time for returning to England. We cannot do without you. If you do not come here, I will bring all the club over to Ireland, to live with you, and that will drive you here in your own defence. Johnson shall spoil your books, Goldsmith pull your flowers, and Boswell talk to you stay then, if you can. Adieu, my dear Lord. Pray make my best compliments to Lady Charlemont. Believe me to be very sincerely and affectionately yours,

T. BEAUCLERK.

TOPHAM BEAUCLERK, ESQ. TO THE EARL OF

MY DEAR LORD,

CHARLEMONT.

Adelphi, December 24, 1773.

ENCLOSED I send you the drawing of Mr. Walpole's frames; which I did not receive till last night. I hope you received a letter from me some time ago; I mention this that I may not appear worse than I am, and likewise to hint to you that, when you receive this, you will be two letters in my debt. hope your parliament has finished all its absurdities, and that you will be at leisure to come over here to attend your club; where you will do much more good than all the patriots in the world ever did to any body, viz. you will make very many of your friends extremely happy; and you know Goldsmith has informed us that no form of government ever contributed either to the happiness or misery of any one.-I saw a letter from Foote,

with an account of an Irish tragedy, the subject is Manlius, and the last speech which he makes when he is pushed off from the Tarpeian rock, is "Sweet Jesus, where am I going?" Pray send me word if it is true. We have a new comedy here, which is good for nothing; bad as it is, however, it succeeds very well, and has almost killed Goldsmith with envy. I have no news, either literary or political, to send you. Every body except myself, and about a million of vulgars, are in the country. I am closely confined, as Lady Di. expects to be so every hour. I am, my dear lord, very sincerely and affectionately yours,

T. BEAUCLERK.

TOPHAM BEAUCLERK, ESQ. TO THE EARL OF

CHARLEMONT.

MY DEAR LORD,

Adelphi, February 12, 1774. I HAVE this moment received your letter, and I need not tell you how happy it has made me, that Lady Charlemont is well, and yourself so much better. I can now give you a better reason for not writing sooner to you, than for any other thing that I ever did in my life. When Sir Charles Bingham* came from Ireland, I, as you may easily imagine, immediately inquired after you; he told me that you were very well, but in great affliction, having just lost your child. You cannot conceive how I was shocked with this

*The late Lord Lucan. He was a member of the Literary Club.

news; not only by considering what you suffered on this occasion, but recollected that a foolish letter of mine, laughing at your Irish politics, would arrive just at that point of time. A bad joke at any time is a bad thing; but when any attempt at pleasantry happens at a moment that a person is in great affliction, it certainly is the most odious thing in the world. I could not write to you to comfort you; you will not wonder therefore that I did not write at all. I must now entreat you to lay aside your politics for some time, and to consider that the taking care of your health is one of the most public spirited things that you can possibly do; for, notwithstanding your vapour about Ireland, I do not believe that you can very well spare one honest man. Our politicians, on this side of the water, are all asleep; but I hear they are to be awakened next Monday, by a printer, who is ordered to attend the bar of the house, for having abused Sir Fletcher Norton. They have already passed a vote that Sir Fletcher's character is immaculate, and will most certainly punish the printer very severely, if a trifling circumstance does not prevent them, viz. that the printer should, as he most probably will, refuse to attend.-Our club has dwindled away to nothing. Nobody attends but Mr. Chambers, and he is going to the East Indies. Sir Joshua and Goldsmith have got into such a round of pleasures that they have no time.

In my next I will send you a long history of all our friends, and particularly an account how twelve thousand pounds may be paid without advancing one single shilling. This is certainly

very convenient, and if you can get rid of all your feeling and morality before my next letter arrives, you may put it in practice, as probably it has not yet been introduced into Ireland. Believe me to be, my dear lord,

T. BEAUCLERK.

TOPHAM BEAUCLERK, ESQ. TO THE EARL OF CHARLEMONT.

Muswell Hill, Summer Quarters, July 18th, 1774.

MY DEAR LORD,

THAT it was my full intention to visit you in Ireland, and that it still remains so, is as true as that I love and esteem you more than any man upon this earth; but various accidents have hitherto hindered me, the last of which has been a violent illness, which obliges me to a constant attendance on Doctor Turton; but, in spite of him or nature itself, I will very soon pay you a visit. Business, it is true, I have none to keep me here; but you forget that I have business in Lancashire, and that I must go there when I come to you. Now you will please to recollect, that there is nothing in this world I so entirely hate as business of any kind, and that I pay you the greatest compliment I can do, when I risk the meeting with my own confounded affairs in order to have the pleasure of seeing you; but this I am resolved to do. The D is quite a new acquaintance; he says he is a scholar, and I believe him to be so. He seemed a good

natured man, and a man of parts, and one proof I am sure he gave of his understanding, by expressing a strong desire to be acquainted with you. I had recollection enough, however, not to give him a letter to you, as I suspect that a certain thing, called politics, might be the cause of a difference between you, particularly as he told me that he was an intimate friend of Rigby's. And if the old proverb is true, Noscitur à socio, I guessed that he was not a man after your own heart. Why should you be vexed to find that mankind are fools and knaves? I have known it so long, that every fresh instance of it amuses me, provided it does not immediately affect my friends or myself. Politicians do not seem to me to be much greater rogues than other people; and as their actions affect, in general, private persons less than other kinds of villany do, I cannot find that I am so angry with them. It is true that the leading men, in both countries, at present, are, I believe, the most corrupt, abandoned people in the nation ;-but now that I am upon this worthy subject of human nature, I will inform you of a few particulars relating to the discovery of Otaheite, which Dr. Hawkesworth said placed the king above all the conquerors in the world; and if the glory is to be estimated by the mischief, I do not know whether he is not right. When Wallis first anchored off the island, two natives came alongside of the ship, without fear or distrust, to barter their goods with our people. A man, called the boat-keeper, who was in a boat that was tied to the ship, attempted to get the things from them without payment.