mother, and begged she might act. They put her off as gently as they could-she desired leave to repeat her part, and when she did, it was with so much sense, that there was no denying her. I receive yours of August 25. To all your alarms for the King of Prussia I subscribe. With little Brandenburgh he could not exhaust all the forces of Bohemia, Hungary, Austria, Muscovy, Siberia, Tartary, Sweden, &c. &c. &c.—but not to politicize too much, I believe the world will come to be fought for somewhere between the North of Germany and the back of Canada, between Count Daun and Sir William Johnson.' You guessed right about the King of Spain; he is dead, and the Queen Dowager may once more have an opportunity of embroiling the little of Europe that remains unembroiled. Thank you, my dear Sir, for the Herculaneum and Caserta that you are sending me. I wish the watch may arrive safe, to show you that I am not insensible to all your attentions for me, but endeavour, at a great distance, to imitate you in the execution of commissions. I would keep this letter back for a post, that I might have but one trouble of sending you Quebec too; but when one has taken so many places, it is not worth while to wait for one more. Lord George Sackville, the hero of all conversation, if one can be so for not being a hero, is arrived. He immediately applied for a Court-Martial, but was told it was impossible now, as the officers necessary are in Germany. This was in writing from Lord Holdernesse-but Lord Ligonier in words was more squab-"If he wanted a Court-Martial, he might go seek it in Germany." All that could be taken from him, is, his regiment, above two thousand pounds a year: commander in Germany at ten pounds a day, between three and four thousand pounds: lieutenant-general of the ordnance, one thousand five hundred pounds: a fort, three hundred pounds. He remains with a patent place in Ireland of one thousand two hundred pounds, and about two thousand pounds a year of his own and wife's. With his parts and ambition it cannot end here; he calls himself ruined, but when the Parliament meets, he will probably attempt some sort of revenge. They attribute, I don't know with what grounds, a sensible kind of plan to the French; that De la Clue was to have pushed for Ireland, Thurot for Scotland, and the Brest fleet for England-but The American general.-WALPOLE. before they lay such great plans, they should take care of proper persons to execute them. I cannot help smiling at the great objects of our letters. We never converse on a less topic than a kingdom. We are a kind of citizens of the world, and battles and revolutions are the common incidents of our neighbourhood. But that is and must be the case of distant correspondences: Kings and Empresses that we never saw, are the only persons we can be acquainted with in common. We can have no more familiarity than the "Daily Advertiser" would have if it wrote to the "Florentine Gazette." Adieu ! My compliments to any monarch that lives within five hundred miles of you. MY DEAR LORD: 628. TO THE EARL OF STRAFFORD. Arlington Street, Sept. 13, 1759. You are very good to say you would accept of my letters, though I should have no particular news to tell you; but at present, it would be treating heroes and conquerors with great superciliousness, if I made use of your indulgence and said nothing of them. We have taken more places and ships in a week than would have set up such pedant nations as Greece and Rome to all futurity. If we did but call Sir William Johnson "Gulielmus Johnsonus Niagaricus," and Amherst "Galfridus Amhersta Ticonderogicus," we should be quoted a thousand years hence as the patterns of valour, virtue, and disinterestedness; for posterity always ascribes all manner of modesty and self-denial to those that take the most pains to perpetuate their own glory. Then Admiral Boscawen has, in a very Roman style, made free with the coast of Portugal, and used it to make a bonfire of the French fleet. When Mr. Pitt was told of this infraction of a neutral territory, he replied, "It is very true, but they are burned." -In short, we want but a little more insolence and a worse cause to make us a very classic nation. My Lady Townshend, who has not learning enough to copy a Spartan mother, has lost her youngest son.' I saw her this morning -her affectation is on t'other side; she affects grief-but not so much for the son she has lost, as for t'other that she may lose. Lord George is come, has asked for a court-martial, was put off, 1 The Hon. Roger Townshend, third son of Viscount Townshend, killed at Ticonderoga on the 25th of July.-WRIGHT. and is turned out of everything. Waldegrave has his regiment, for what he did; and Lord Granby the ordnance-for what he would have done. Lord Northampton is to be married to-night in full Comptonhood. I am indeed happy that Mr. Campbell is a general; but how will his father like being the dowager-general Campbell ? You are very kind, my lord (but that is not new), in interesting yourself about Strawberry Hill. I have just finished a Holbeinchamber, that I flatter myself you will not dislike; and I have begun to build a new printing-house, that the old one may make room for the gallery and round tower. This noble summer is not yet over with us-it seems to have cut a colt's week. I never write without talking of it, and should be glad to know in how many letters this summer has been mentioned. I have lately been at Wilton, and was astonished at the heaps of rubbish. The house is grand, and the place glorious; but I should shovel three parts of the marbles and pictures into the river, Adieu, my lord and lady! 629. TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY. Arlington Street, Sept. 13, 1759. I INTENDED to send you the brief chronicle of Lord George Sackville, but your brother says he has writ to you this morning. If you want to know minute particulars, which neither he nor I should care to detail in a letter, I will tell you them if you will call for a minute at Strawberry on Sunday or Monday, as you go to your camp. I ask this boldly, though I have not been with you; but it was impossible; George Montagu and his brother returned to Strawberry with me from the Vine, and I am expecting Mr. Churchill and Lady Mary, who sent me word they would come to me as soon as I came back, and I think you will find them with me. Lady Mary Coke is stripping off all the plumes that she has been wearing for Niagara, &c., and is composing herself into religious melancholy against to-morrow night, when she goes to Princess Elizabeth's burial. I passed this whole morning most deliciously at my Lady Townshend's. Poor Roger, for whom she is not concerned, has given her a hint that her hero George may be mortal too; she scarce spoke, unless to improve on some bitter thing that 1 Afterwards Duke of Argyle.-WALPOLE. Charles said, who was admirable. He made me all the speeches that Mr. Pitt will certainly make next winter, in every one of which Charles says, (and I believe,) he will talk of this great campaign, "memorable to all posterity with all its imperfections-a campaign which, though obstructed, cramped, maimed-but I will say no more." The campaign in Ireland, I hear, will be very warm; the Primate is again to be the object; Ponsonby, commander against him. Lord George's situation will not help the Primate's. Adieu! 630. TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. Strawberry Hill, Saturday, Oct. 11, 1759. I DON'T desire any such conviction of your being ill as seeing you ill, nor can you wonder that I wish to persuade myself that what I should be very sorry for, never happens. Poor Fred. Montagu's gout seems more serious: I am concerned that he has so much of a judge in him already. You are very good in thinking of me about the sofas; but you know the Holbein chamber is complete, and old matters are not flung away upon you yourself. Had not you rather have your sofa than Lord Northampton's running footman? Two hundred years hence one might be amused with reading of so fantastic a dress, but they are horrid in one's own time. Mr. Bentley and I go to-morrow to Chalfont for two or three days. Mr. Chute is at the Vine already, but, I believe, will be in town this week. I don't know whether it proceeds from the menaced invasion or the last comet, but we are all dying of heat. Everybody has put out their fires, and, if it lasts, I suppose will next week make summer clothes. The mornings are too hot for walking: last night I heard of strawberries. I impute it to the hot weather that my head has been turned enough to contend with the bards of the newspapers. You have seen the French epigram on Madame Pompadour, and fifty vile translations of it. Here is mine O yes! here are flat-bottomed boats to be sold, Here are ministers richly deserving to swing, And commanders whose recompense should be a string. People again believe the invasion; and I don't wonder, con sidering how great a militia we have, with such a boy as you mention. I own, before I begin to be afraid, I have a little curiosity to see the militia tried. I think one shall at least laugh before one cries. Adieu! what time have you fixed for looking southwards? P. S. Your pictures you may have when you please; I think you had better stay and take them with you, than risk the rubbing them by the waggon. Mr. Muntz has not been lately in town-that is, Hannah has drawn no bill on him lately-so he knows nothing of your snuff-box. This it is to trust to my vivacity, when it is past its bloom. Lord! I am a mere antiquarian, a mere pains-taking mortal. Mr. Bentley says, that if all antiquarians were like me, there would be no such thing as an antiquarian, for I set down everything so circumstantially that I leave them nothing to find out. 631. TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY. Strawberry Hill, Oct. 14, 1759. IF Strawberry Hill was not as barren of events as Chatham, I would have writ to you again; nay, if it did not produce the very same events. Your own Light Horse are here, and commit the only vivacities of the place-two or three of them are in the cage every day for some mischief or other. Indeed, they seem to have been taken from school too soon, and, as Rigby said of some others of these new troops, the moment their exercise is over, they all go a bird's-nesting. If the French load their flat-bottomed boats with rods instead of muskets, I fear all our young heroes will run away. The invasion seems again come into fashion: I wish it would come, that one might hear no more of it-nay, I wish it for two or three reasons. If they don't come, we shall still be fatigued with the militia, who will never go to plough again till they see an enemy: if there is a peace before the militia runs away, one shall be robbed every day by a constitutional force. I want the French, too, to have come, that you may be released; but that will not be soon enough for me, who am going to Park-place. I came from Chalfont to-day, and I cannot let the winter appear without making my Lady Ailesbury a visit. Hitherto my impediments may have looked like excuses, though they were nothing less. Lady Lyttelton goes on Wednesday: I propose to follow her on Monday; but I won't |