him, and then fell upon the bed, kissing' and hugging him. Grafton waked; "God! what's here ?"-"Only I, my dear lord"-Buss, buss, buss, buss!"God! how can you be such a beast to kiss such a creature as I am, all over plaisters! get along, get along!" and turned about and went to sleep. Newcastle hurries home, tells the mad Duchess that the Duke of Grafton was certainly light-headed, for he had not known him, frightens her into fits, and then was forced to send for Dr. Shaw-for this Lepidus are struggling Octavius and Anthony!' I have received three letters from you, one of March 25th, one of the second of this month inclosing that which had journeyed back to you unopened. I wish it lay in my way to send you early news of the destination of fleets, but I rather avoid secrets than hunt them. I must give you much the same answer with regard to Mr. Dick, whom I should be most glad to serve; but when I tell you that in the various revolutions of Ministries I have seen, I have never asked a single favour for myself or any friend 1 have; that whatever friendships I have with the man, I avoid all connexions with the Minister; that I abhor courts and levee-rooms and flattery; that I have done with all parties and only sit by and smile-(you would weep)—when I tell you all this, think what my interest must be! I can better answer your desiring me to countenance your brother James, and telling me it will cost me nothing.-My God! if you don't believe my affection for you, at least believe in the adoration I have for dear Gal.'s memory-that, alas! cannot now be counterfeited! If ever I had a friend, if ever there was a friend, he was one to me; if ever there were love and gratitude, I have both for him-before I received your letter, James was convinced for all this but my dear child, you let slip an expression which sure I never deserved--but I will say no more of it.-Thank you for the verses on Buondelmonti'-I did not know he was dead-for the prayer for Richcourt, for the Pope's letter, and for the bills of lading for the liqueurs. You will have heard all the torments exercised on that poor wretch Damien, for attempting the least bad of all murders, that of a King. 1 "I have heard much of the Duke of Newcastle's kisses, but never had one from him till to-day; and I thought his Majesty and Lord Bute would have kissed me too, I was so received by them both at St. James's.-Richard Rigby to the Duke of Bed ford, April 24, 1761.-CUNNINGHAM. ? Lepidus, Duke of Newcastle; Octavius and Anthony, Pitt and Fox.-DOVER, a A Florentine abbé and wit; author of several poetical pieces.-WRIGHT. They copied with a scrupulous exactness horrid precedents, and the dastardly monarch permitted them! I don't tell you any particulars, for in time of war, and at this distance, how to depend on the truth of them ? This is a very long letter, but I will not make excuses for long ones and short ones too-I fear you forgive the long ones most easily! 501. TO SIR HORACE MANN. Arlington Street, May 5, 1757. You may expect what you please of new ministries, and revolutions, and establishments; we are a grave people, and don't go so rashly to work—at least when we have demolished anything rashly, we take due time before we repair it. At a distance you may be impatient. We, the most concerned, wait very tranquilly to see the event of chaos. It was given out, that nothing would be settled till the Inquiries were at an end.-The world very obediently stayed for the time appointed. The Inquiries are at an end, yet nothing is in more forwardness. Foreign nations may imagine (but they must be at a great distance!) that we are so wise and upright a people, that every man performs his part, and thence everything goes on in its proper order without any government-but I fear, our case is like what astronomers tell us, that if a star was to be annihilated, it would still shine for two months. The Inquiries have been a most important and dull farce, and very fatiguing; we sat six days till past midnight. If you have received my last letter, you have already had a description of what passed just as I foresaw. Mr. Pitt broke out a little the second day, and threatened to secede, and tell the world the iniquity of the majority; but recollecting that the majority might be as useful as the world, he recomposed himself, professed meaning no personalities, swallowed all candour as fast as it was proposed to him, swallowed camels and haggled about gnats, and in a manner let the friends of the old Ministry state and vote what resolutions they pleased. They were not modest, but stated away; yet on the last day of the committee, on their moving that no greater force could have been sent to the Mediterranean than was under Byng, the triumphant majority shrank to one of seventy-eight, many absenting themselves, and many of the independent sort voting with the minority. This alarmed so much, that the pre-determined vote of acquittal or approbation was forced to be dropped, and to their great astonishment the late Cabinet is not thanked parliamentarily for having lost Minorca. You may judge what Mr. Pitt might have done, if he had pleased; when, though he starved his own cause, so slender an advantage was obtained against him. I retired before the vote I have mentioned; as Mr. Fox was complicated in it, I would not appear against him, and I could not range myself with a squadron who I think must be the jest of Europe and posterity. sue. It now remains to settle some ministry: Mr. Pitt's friends are earnest, and some of them trafficking for an union with Newcastle. He himself, I believe, maintains his dignity, and will be sued to, not The Duke of Newcastle, who cannot bear to resign the last twilight of the old sun, would join with Fox; but the Chancellor, who hates him, and is alarmed at his unpopularity, and at the power of Pitt with the people, holds back. Bath, Exeter, Yarmouth, and Worcester, have followed the example of London, and sent their freedoms to Pitt and Legge: I suppose Edinburgh will, but instead of giving, will ask for a gold box in return. Here are some new epigrams on the present politics: To THE NYMPH OF BATH. Mistaken Nymph, thy gifts withhold; ANOTHER. The two great rivals London might content, ON DR. SHEBBEAR ABUSING HUME CAMPBELL FOR BEING A PROSTITUTE ADVOCATE. "Tis below you, dear Doctor, to worry an elf, Who you know will defend anything, but himself The two first are but middling, and I am bound to think the last so, as it is my own. Shebbeare is a broken Jacobite physician, who has threatened to write himself into a place or the pillory: he has just published a bitter letter to the Duke of Newcastle, which occasioned the above two lines. The French have seized in their own name the country of Bentheim, a purchase of the King's, after having offered him the most insulting neutrality for Hanover, in the world; they proposed putting a garrison into the strongest post [Hamelen] he has, with twenty other concessions. We have rumours of the Prince of Bevern having beaten the Austrians considerably. I believe, upon review, that this is a mighty indefinite letter; I would have waited for certainties, but not knowing how long that might be, I thought you would prefer this parenthesis of politics. Lord Northumberland's great gallery' is finished and opened; it is a sumptuous chamber, but might have been in a better taste. He is wonderfully content with his pictures, and gave me leave to repeat it to you. I rejoiced, as you had been the negotiator-as you was not the painter, you will allow me not to be so profuse of my applause. Indeed I have yet only seen them by candle-light. Mengs's School of Athens pleased me: Pompeio's two are black and hard; Mazucci's Apollo, fade and without beauty; Costanza's piece is abominable. Adieu! till a ministry. 502. TO MR. GRENVILLE.2 DEAR SIR: Arlington Street, May 13, 1757. I FLATTER myself that you have goodness enough for me, to excuse the liberty I am now taking. The ridiculous situation of this country for some months drew from me yesterday the enclosed thoughts,' which I beg you will be so good as to run over and return. As it certainly was my intention, so it has been my endeavour, to offend no man or set of men: it most assuredly was my desire to give no umbrage to you or your friends, and therefore I will beg you freely to tell me, if there is the least expression which can be disagreeable to you or them. The paper is a summary of melancholy truths, but which, as my nature is rather inclined to smile, I have placed in a ridiculous. light. If it should not displease your good heart, or divert Mrs. Grenville' for a moment, I should be happy; but I must 1 At Northumberland House, in London.-CUNNINGHAM. 2 The right honourable George Grenville, brother of Lord Temple, and on the resignation of Lord Bute in 1763, First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He died 13 Nov. 1770. Walpole was never very friendly with him. We shall see that Walpole's affection for his cousin Conway was the cause.— CUNNINGHAM. 3 A letter from Xo Ho.-CUNNINGHAM. ⚫ Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Wyndham, and sister to the Earl of Egremont, She died in December, 1769.-CUNNINGHAM. beg the return of the enclosed copy, as I go out of town early to-morrow. I am, &c., HOR. WALPOLE 508. TO SIR HORACE MANN. Arlington Street, May 19, 1757. WE are not yet arrived at having a ministry, but we have had two or three alarms of one. On Monday, the Duke of Devonshire, impatient for a plaything, took the chamberlain's staff and keythese were reckoned certain prognostics; but they were only symptoms of his childishness. Yesterday it was published that Mr. Pitt's terms were so extravagant, that the Duke of Newcastle could not comply with them—and would take the whole himself— perhaps leave some little trifle for Mr. Fox-to-day all is afloat again, and all negotiations to re-commence. Pitt's demands were, that his grace should not meddle in the House of Commons, nor in the Province of Secretary of State, but stick to the Treasury, and even there to be controlled by a majority of Mr. Pitt's friendsthey were certainly great terms, but he has been taught not to trust to less. But it is tautology to dwell on these variations; the inclosed' is an exact picture of our situation-and is perhaps the only political paper ever written, in which no man of any party can dislike or deny a single fact. I wrote it in an hour and half, and you will perceive that it must be the effect of a single thought.❜ 1 Letter from Xo Ho, a Chinese philosopher at London, to his friend Lien-Chi at Pekin.-WALPOLE. Folio, 1757, reprinted in 'The Fugitive Pieces,' 1758, 12mo, with this note: "This piece was written May 12, 1757, was sent to the press next day, and went through five editions in a fortnight."-CUNNINGHAM. Walpole sent it to Mr. Fox for his opinion, who replied by letter (first printed in Mahon's Hist. of England,' iv. xix. ed. 1853): MR. FOX TO WALPOLE. DEAR SIR: Burlington Street, May 13, 1757. I EITHER don't understand the line I have marked, or it says nothing particular— "Vassals airy"—where are vassals either of the Crown or of the Nobles? I think you might work more into this very pretty plan, and I wish you would what is there being so pretty. I can have no objection to your showing this. If the third and least party and "Lord Gawkee" had been a little worse treated, I should have liked it better. I would not have them very ill-treated neither. Adieu. You |