long, and I suppose soon will demand their wages le pistolet à la main. I could draw other reflections; but a man who in a month will enter on his grand climacteric, and should busy himself with visions of what may happen when he is in his grave, would resemble Hogarth's debtor, who, in prison, is writing a scheme for paying the debts of the nation.

I forgot to tell you, that the moment I received your letter to your nephew, I sent it to his house in town-where he was not; and the servant believed he was to set out the next morning, but would send it to him. I have not been able to learn since whether he is gone or not; for your sake I own I wish he may be.

LETTER CCCXIII.

Sep. 16, 1779.

I HAVE received your letter by Colonel Floyd, and shall be surprised indeed if Cæsar does not find his own purple a little rumpled, as well as his brother's mantle. But how astonished was I at finding that you did not mention the dreadful eruption of Vesuvius. Surely you had not heard of it! What are kings and their popguns to that wrath of Nature! How Sesostris, at the head of an army of nations, would have fallen prostrate to earth before a column of blazing embers eleven thousand feet high !* I am impatient to hear more, as you are of the little conflict of us pigmies. Three days after my last set out, we received accounts of D'Estaing's success against Byron and Barrington, and of the capture of Grenada. I do not love to send first reports, which are rarely authentic. The subsequent narrative of the engagement† is more favourable. It allows the victory to the enemy, but makes their loss of men much the more considerable. Of ships we lost but one, taken after the fight as going into port

An eruption of Mount Vesuvius had taken place in August, which, for its extraordinary and terrible appearance, is considered the most remarkable of any recorded concerning this or any other volcano. An account of it was published in October by Sir William Hamilton, in a letter to Mr., afterwards Sir Joseph, Banks: -"In an instant," says Sir William, "a fountain of liquid transparent fire began to rise, and gradually increasing, arrived at so amazing a height as to strike every one who beheld it with the most awful astonishment. I shall scarcely be credited when I assure you, sir, that the height of this stupendous column of fire could not be less than three times that of Vesuvius itself, which, as you know, rises perpendicularly 37000 above the level of the sea!

'Se tu se' or, lettore, à creder lento

Còi ch' io dirò, non sarà maravigilia,

Che io, che 'l vidi, appena il mi consento." "-ED.

The unsatisfactory engagement which took place on the 6th of July between Admirals Byron and Barrington, and Count D'Estaing; in which the latter, though considerably superior in force, eluded every effort which was made by the British commanders to bring on a close and decisive battle.-ED.

to refit. Sir Charles Hardy and D'Orvilliers have not met; the latter is at Brest, the former at Portsmouth. I never penetrated an inch into what is to be; and into some distant parts of our history, I mean the Eastern, I never liked to look. I believe it an infamous scene; you know I have always thought it so; and the Marattas are a nation of banditti very proper to scourge the heroes of Europe, who go so far to plunder and put themselves in their way. Nature gave to mankind a beautiful world, and larger than it could occupy, -for, as to the eruption of Goths and Vandals occasioned by excess of population, I very much doubt it; and mankind prefers deforming the ready Paradise, to improving and enjoying it. Ambition and mischief, which one should not think were natural appetites, seem almost as much so as the impulse to propagation; and those pious rogues, the clergy, preach against what Nature forces us to practice, (or she could not carry on her system,) and not twice in a century say a syllable against the Lust of Destruction! Oh! one is lost in moralizing, as one is in astronomy! In the ordinance and preservation of the great universal system one sees the Divine Artificer, but our intellects are too bounded to comprehend any thing

more.

Lord Temple is dead by accident.* I never had any esteem for his abilities or character. He had grown up in the bask of Lord Chatham's glory, and had the folly to mistake half the rays for his own. The world was not such a dupe; and his last years discovered to him, too, that no mortal regarded him but himself.

The Lucans are in my neighbourhood, and talk with much affec tion of you. Adieu!

LETTER CCCXIV.

Strawberry Hill, Oct. 11, 1779.

It is very difficult to write at such a time as this, when there have been no events, are no good prospects, and when we have not abundance of friends in the post-offices abroad, through which one's letters are to pass. You must remember this position, and curb your impatience when you do not hear from me often.

Nothing has happened since my last, though near a month ago, but the surprisal of Stony Point by the Americans, where they made eight hundred prisoners. These events seem trifles to me, who look on America as totally lost, and do not take account of the modes by which we part with the ruins.

D'Orvilliers is certainly laid aside, though his disgrace is palliated. The combined fleets have as surely lost many thousands by the small

* The Earl was thrown from his phaton; by which melancholy accident his skull was fractured.-ED.

pox.* We are bidden at this very time to expect their re-appearance. The year is so far advanced that we must know soon, whether any blow will be attempted, or the campaign conclude. In my own opinion, the principal effort will be against Ireland; but I do not trust my guesses a yard out of my sight, and keep still closer guard upon my ears, for almost every body's mouth seems to have a design on one's senses. They tell one lies as solemnly as Swift related his voyages to Brobdignag and Lilliput.

Notions there are, or have been lately, that the two Empresses wish to mediate a peace. I do believe that on France notifying to the Emperor that she should send some troops to Flanders to impose neutrality on the Dutch, he replied, à la bonne heure; but, for every squadron, he would despatch two. It cannot be the interest of the rest of Europe that the Bourbons should be sole sovereigns of the ocean; nor should I think that, so excellent a milch-cow as England has been to Germany, the latter would like to see the pail demolished, though the cow has kicked it down herself, when it was out of reach of every body else. But adieu retrospect! it is as idle as prophecy, the characteristic of which is, never to be believed where alone it could be useful-i. e. in its own country.

I complained unjustly of your silence on Vesuvius, having since received the view of its terrors in the compass of a card, excellently done. I thank you much for it.

Of late-indeed, for the entire summer-I have been much out of order, and thought my constitution breaking fast; but it exerted its internal strength, and, when I was lowest, threw out the gout in several joints. In short, I have stamina of iron, in a case, as I used to call yours, of wet brown-paper. I am now taking the bark, and find great benefit from it: nay, I am removing into a new house in London, that I bought last winter, as if I believed I had several years to come. It is in Berkeley Square, whither for the future you must direct. It is a charming situation, and a better house than I wanted -in short, I would not change my two pretty mansions for any in England: but I do not shut my eyes on the transitory tenure of them; though, if mortals did not coin visions for themselves, they would sit with folded arms, and take no thought for the morrow! I hold visions to be wisdom; and would deny them only to ambition, which exists by destruction of the visions of every body else. Like Vesuvius, it overwhelms the fair face of the world, though to reign. over cinders, and only lift its head above the desolation it has occasioned and cannot enjoy.

Dreading the effects of the approaching equinoctial gales, D'Orvilliers withdrew his vast armament into Brest harbour, where it remained useless and inactive. On board the Spanish ships three thousand men were swept away by disease, and the mortality among the French is considered to have been still more formidable. Thus ended the expectations of the enemy, and the apprehensions of the people of England.-ED.

VOL. II.-11

LETTER CCCXV.

Berkeley Square, Oct. 14, 1779. I HAVE been desired, and never acquiesced with more pleasure, both for the sake of the recommended and of yours, to give a recommendatory letter to you for Mr. Windham, a gentleman of large fortune in Norfolk, who is obliged to go to Italy for the recovery of his health, which I most earnestly wish he may retrieve there. He is

* William Windham, Esq., of Felbrigg in the county of Norfolk, the subject of this high but strictly merited eulogium, was born in London in 1750, and sent in his seventh year to Eton; whence he was removed in 1766 to the University of Glasgow, and in the following year to University College, Oxford. In 1773 his love of adventure and thirst of knowledge induced him to accompany his friend, Constantine Lord Mulgrave, in his voyage towards the North Pole; but sea-sickness compelled him to land in Norway, and abandon his purpose. The ill-health referred to by Walpole, was occasioned by riding, in a sort of frolic, through a deep rivulet, and remaining for several hours in wet clothes. With a view to its restoration, he, in 1779, proceeded to the Continent; where he remained for two years. In 1782, he came into Parliament; where he sat for twenty-eight years. In 1783, he was appointed Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; upon which occasion, on his expressing to Dr. Johnson, of whose Literary Club he was a member, some doubts that he should be called on in his new office to sanction practices of which he could not approve, "Don't be afraid, sir," said the Doctor, with a smile, "you will soon make a very pretty rascal." It appears that Mr. Windham's doubts were not ill-founded, as he yielded up his secretaryship four months after his appointment. He sided with Opposition until the celebrated se cession from the Whig party in 1793; when he followed the lead of Mr. Burke. In 1794, he was appointed Secretary at War, with a seat in the cabinet. In the same year, he took his degree of LL.D. at Oxford; upon which occasion, on his entering the theatre, the whole assembly rose, and greeted him with loud acclamations. When Mr. Pitt resigned, in 1801, Mr. Windham retired from office; but on the death of that great man, in 1806, he again took it, as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, and on the dismissal of the Grenville Administration, returned to the ranks of Opposition which he never afterwards quitted. His death was occasioned by the following circumstance. About midnight, on the 8th of July 1809, in walking home from an evening party, he observed a house in Conduit Street on fire. He hastened to the spot to render his assistance, and found that the House in flames was so near to that of his friend, the Honourable Frederick North, (afterwards fifth earl of Guildford,) as to threaten its destruction. Knowing that his friend possessed a very valuable library, Mr. Windham determined, with the assistance of persons whom he selected from the crowd, to make an effort for the preservation of it. After four hours' labour four-fifths of the books were saved; nor did he quit the house till the flames, which finally consumed it, had rendered farther exertions highly dangerous. Unfortunately, by a fall, he received a blow on his hip. He took no notice of the accident, until an indolent tumour had been formed, which at length compelled him to submit to a most painful and dangerous operation. The tumour was removed with success on the 17th of May, 1810; but unfavourable symptoms soon afterwards appeared, and he expired on the 4th of the following month. A Collection of his Speeches in Parliament, in three volumes, to which is prefixed a Biographical Sketch of his Life, was published in 1812 by his friend, Thomas Amyot, Esq. His talents, accomplishments, and virtues have been happily summed up, by describing him as the true model of an English gentleman; and it has been well observed, that if this country had been required to produce, in a trial of strength with another nation, some individual who was at

young, but full of virtues, knowledge, and good sense; and, in one word, of the old rock-of which so few gems are left in this wretched country! His ill-health has prevented my being much acquainted with him, which I regret; but I well know his worth, and respect him exceedingly. In short, this is not a common letter of recommendation, but one that I shall confirm in my next by the post. I do not beg attentions for him; those you have even for the least deserving, from your own good nature: but I intreat and advise you to get acquainted with Mr. Windham as fast as you can; your friendship will soon follow, and then he can want nothing in my power to ask,-unless his modesty should prevent his pressing you for letters of recommendation to other parts of Italy, and therefore I beg them for him, and indeed every service you can perform for him. My unlimited expressions will tell you how confident I am that your goodness will not be misplaced, as it has often been on travelling boys and their more unlicked governors. Mr. Windham is not so young as to want to be formed, nor so old as to be insensible to the merit of others; and, therefore, I trust you will both be mutually pleased with each other. I envy him a little the satisfaction of visiting you; and, as he is a genuine Englishman, should lament his being forced to leave his own country, if I thought its honour or principles retrievable; and if I was not sure, by what I feel myself, that his health would be but more prejudiced by his remaining spectator of its blindness and disgraces.

LETTER CCCXVI.

Strawberry Hill, Oct. 31, 1779. YOUR last letter was so full of encomiums on my tragedy, that, veteran author as I am, it made me blush. But I recollected your partiality, and then I accepted the motive with pleasure, though I must decline the exaggerations. It is plain that I am sincerely modest about it, for I not only never thought of its appearing on the stage, but have not published it. It has indeed received greater honour than any of its superiors; for Lady Di. Beauclerc has drawn seven scenes of it, that would be fully worthy of the best of Shakspeare's plays-such drawings, that Salvator Rosa and Guido could not surpass their expression and beauty. I have built a closet on purpose for them here at Strawberry Hill. It is called the Beauclerc Closet; and whoever sees the drawings allows that no description comes up to their merit-and then, they do not shock and disgust, like their original, the tragedy.*

once eminent for learning, taste, eloquence, wit, courage, and personal accomplishments, the choice must have fallen upon Mr. Windham.-ED.

* The following is Walpole's account of these drawings in his Description of Strawberry Hill:-"The beauty and grace of the figures and of the children are