There are two uncomely features in the countenance of this business. The first is disappointment. Though the captured stores are counterband, they consist only of hemp and iron, not of masts and timber, as we expected, and which are what the French want. Whether the magazines of those materials have escaped, or have not sailed, we— that is, I do not know; but, when all the Ratisbons in Europe are to discuss our enterprise, it is not pleasant to have trespassed on punctilios,-if we, and not the Dutch, were the aggressors, and not to have been crowned with success. Thus we have involved ourselves fruitlessly in the second inconvenience, of having, perhaps, tapped a new war, without previous indemnification. You diplomatics must canvass all this; and I hope it will be left to such quiet disputants, and not be referred to red coats and trowsers. I have given you your cue, till you receive better instructions. I am sorry to open the fortieth year of our correspondence by opening another of Janus's temples; better, however, in Holland than in Ireland, where we have got a strong friendly army instead of a rebellion. The weakness of my hand should not serve me for an excuse, had I more to tell you. This right hand is the only limb not recovered; yet, dreading another relapse, I have not yet ventured to take the air. Perhaps age, and weariness of such frequent returns, rebate my spirit. Illness, that must be repeated, takes off the edge from the enjoyment of health; and, though I seem to have patience, it is rather a state of discomfort. No matter what, I am wearing out; yet take great care of myself, more from a dread of decrepitude than from desire of life, in which I can have few joys. I have no affected indifference; for nothing, not even indifference if affected, is becoming in the decline of life. Adieu, my good friend of above forty years! Sure Orestes and Pylades, if they were inseparable, could not pretend to compare with us, who have not set eyes on one another for nine-and-thirty years! LETTER CCCXXI. Berkeley Square, Jan. 13, 1780. In consequence of my last, it is right to make you easy, and tell you that I think we shall not have a Dutch war; at least nobody seems to expect it. What excuses we have made, I do not know; but I imagine the Hollanders are glad to gain by both sides, and glad not to be forced to quarrel with either. What might have been expected much sooner, appears at last,—a good deal of discontent; but chiefly where it was not much expected. The country gentlemen, after encouraging the Court to war with America now, not very decently, are angry at the expense. As they have long seen the profusion, it would have been happy had they murmered sooner. Very serious associations are forming in many counties; and orders, under the title of petitions, coming to Parliament for correcting abuses.* They talk of the waste of money; are silent on the thousands of lives that have been sacrificed-but when are human lives counted by any side? The French who may measure with us in folly, and have exceeded us in ridiculous boasts, have been extravagant in their reception of D'Estaing, who has shown nothing but madness and incapacity. How the northern monarchs, who have at least exhibited talents for war and politics, must despise the last campaign of England and France? I am once more got abroad, but more pleased to be able to do so, than charmed with any thing I have to do. Having outlived the glory and felicity of my country, I carry that reflection with me wherever I go. Last night at Strawberry Hill, I took up, to divert my thoughts, a volume of letters to Swift from Bolingbroke, Bathirst, and Gay; and what was there but lamentations on the ruin of England, in that æra of its prosperity and peace, from wretches who thought their own want of power a proof that their country was undone ! Oh, my father! twenty years of peace, and credit, and happiness, and liberty, were punishments to rascals who weighed every thing in the scales of self? It was to the honour of Pope, that, though leaged with such a crew, and though an idolater of their archfiend Bolingbroke and in awe of the malignant Swift, he never gave into their venomous railings;† railings against a man, who in twenty years, never attempted a stretch of power, did nothing but the common business of administration, and by that temperance and steady virtue, and unalterable good-humour and superior wisdom, baffled all the efforts of faction, and annihilated the falsely boasted abilities of Bolingbroke, which now appear as moderate as his character was in every light detestable. But alas! that retrospect doubled my chagrin instead of diverting it. I soon forgot an impotent cabal of mock-patriots; but the scene they vainly sought to disturb rushed on my mind, and, like Hamlet on the sight of Yorick's skull, I recollect the prosperity of Denmark when my father ruled, and compared it with the present moment! I look about for a Sir Robert Walpole; but where is he to be found? * The business of the Associations for the redress of grievances was commenced during the Christmas recess; and the adoption of this mode of procuring a reform in the executive departments of the State not only becoming general, but the minds of the people being warmed by these meetings, the views of many, and those persons of no mean weight and consequence, were extended still further; and they gradually began to consider that nothing less than a reform in the constitution of Parliament itself, by shortening its duration, and obtaining a more equal representation of the people, could effectually prevent a return of similar evils. The great county of York led the way, and set the example to the rest of the kingdom.—Ed. The amiable character of Sir Robert Walpole in private life is thus admirably touched by Pope, in his Epilogue to the Satires "Seen him I have, but in his happier hour Of social pleasure, ill exchanged for power; This is not a letter, but a codicil to my last. You will soon probably have news enough-yet appearances are not always pregnancies. When there are more follies in a nation than principles and system, they counteract one another, and sometimes, as has just happened in Ireland, are composed pulveris exigui jactu. I sum up my wishes in that for peace: but we are not satisfied with persecuting America, though the mischief has recoiled on ourselves; nor France with wounding us, though with little other cause for exultation, and with signal mischief to her own trade, and with heavy loss of seamen; not to mention how her armies are shrunk to raise her marine, a sacrifice she will one day rue, when the disciplined hosts of Goths and Huns begin to cast an eye southward. But I seem to choose to read futurity, because I am not likely to see it: indeed I am most rational when I say to myself, What is all this to me? My thread is almost spun; almost all my business here is to bear pain with patience, and to be thankful for intervals of ease. Though Emperors and Kings may torment mankind, they will not disturb my bed-chamber; and so I bid them and you good night! P.S. I have made use of a term in this letter, which I retract, having bestowed a title on the captains and subalterns which was due only to the colonel, and not enough for his dignity. Bolingbroke was more than a rascal-he was a villain. Bathurst, I believe, was not a dishonest man, more than he was prejudiced by party against one of the honestest and best of men.* Gay was a simple poor soul, intoxicated by the friendship of men of genius, and who thought they must be good, who condescended to admire him, Swift was a wildbeast, who baited and worried all mankind almost, because his intolerable arrogance, vanity, pride, and ambition were disappointed; he abused Lady Suffolk,† who tried and wished to raise him, only be Seen him, uncumbered by the venal tribe, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's portrait of this eminent statesman in his character as a private man, gives also a most pleasing idea of him : "Such were the lively eyes and rosy hue Added new graces to the truths he spoke."-ED. * Allen, first Earl Bathurst, took an active part in the debates in the House of Lords, in 1742, for an address for the removal of Sir Robert Walpole.-En. Henrietta Hobart, sister of John, first Earl of Buckinghamshire, and mistress of George the Second. [And to whom Pope addressed the elegant lines beginning "I know the thing that's most uncommon; (Envy, be silent and attend!) I know a reasonable woman, Handsome and witty, yet a friend."-ED.] cause she had not power to do so and one is sure that a man who could deify that silly woman, Queen Anne, would have been more profuse of incense to Queen Caroline, who had sense, if the court he paid to her had been crowned with success. Such were the men who wrote of virtue to one another; and even that mean exploded miser, Lord Bath, presumed to talk of virtue too! LETTER CCCXXII. Strawberry Hill, Feb. 6, 1780. I WRITE only when I have facts to send. Detached scenes there have been in different provinces: they will be collected soon into a drama in St. Stephen's Chapel. One or two and twenty counties, and two or three towns, have voted petitions. But in Northampton-, shire Lord Spencer was disappointed, and a very moderate petitionwas ordered. The same happened at Carlisle. At first, the Court was struck dumb, but have begun to rally. Counter-protests have been signed in Hertford and Huntingdon shires, in Surrey and Sussex.* Last Wednesday a meeting was summoned in Westminster Hall: Charles Fox harangued the people finely and warmly; and not only a petition was voted, but he was proposed for candidate for that city at the next general election, and was accepted joyfully.† Wilkes was his zealous advocate: how few years since a public breakfast was given at Holland House to support Colonel Lutterel against Wilkes! Charles Fox and his brother rode thence at the head of their friends to Brentford.. Ovid's Metamorphoses contains. not stranger transformations than party can work. I must introduce a new actor to you, a Lord George Gordon,metamorphosed a little too, for his family were Jacobites and Roman Catholics: he is the Lilburne of the Scottish Presbyterians, and an apostle against the Papists. He dresses, that is, wears long lank hair about his shoulders, like the first Methodist; though I take the modern ones to be no Anti-Catholics. This mad lord-for so all his family have been too, and are-has likewise assumed the patronage of Ireland. Last Thursday he asked an audience of the King, and, the moment he was admitted into the closet, began reading an Irish pamphlet, and continued for an hour, till it was so dark he could not see; and then left the pamphlet, exacting a promise on royal honour These counter-protests did not oppose the prayer of the petitions; but the protestors were of opinion, that the whole ought to be left to the discretion of Parliament, in whose public spirit and integrity they thought it improper to express any sort of distrust.-ED. Mr. Fox took the chair at this meeting. A committee, consisting of the Duke of Portland, the Earls of Egremont and Temple, Lords John and George Cavendish, Messrs. Townshend, Sawbridge, Wilkes, and about ninety other noblemen and gentlemen, were appointed to correspond with the other committees throughout the kingdom.-ED. that his Majesty would finish it. Were I on the throne, I would make Dr. Monro a Groom of my Bed-chamber: indeed it has been necessary for some time; for, of the King's lords, Lord Bolingbroke is in a mad-house, and Lord Pomfret and my nephew ought to be there. The last, being fond of onions, has lately distributed bushels of that root to his militia ;-Mr. Windham† will not be surprised. By the tenor of the petitions you would think we were starving; yet there is a little coin stirring. Within this week there has been a cast at hazard at the Cocoa Tree, the difference of which amounted to a hundred and four-score thousand pounds. Mr. O'Birne, an Irish gamester, had won one hundred thousand pounds of a young Mr. Harvey of Chigwell, just started from a midshipmant into an estate by his elder brother's death. O'Birne said, "You can never pay me." "I can," said the youth; "my estate will sell for the debt." "No," said O.; "I will win ten thousand-you shall throw for the odd ninety." They did, and Harvey won. However, as it is a little necessary to cast about for resources, it is just got abroad, that about a year ago we took possession of a trifling district in India called the Province of Oude, which contains four millions of inhabitants, produces between three and four millions of revenue, and has an army of 30,000 men: it was scarce thought of consequence enough to deserve an article in the newspapers. If you are so old-style as to ask how we came to take possession, I answer, by the new law of nations; by the law by which Poland was divided. You will find it in the future editions of Grotius, tit. "Si une terre est à la bienséance d'un grand Prince." Oude appertained by that very law to the late Sujah Dowla. His successors were weak men, which in India is incapacity. Their Majesties the East-India Company, whom God long preserve, have succeeded. This petty event has ascertained the existence of a certain being, who, till now, has not been much more than a matter of faith,-the Grand Lama. There are some affairs of trade between the sovereigns of Oude and his Holiness the Lama. Do not imagine the East India Company have leisure to trouble their heads about religion. Their commanding officer corresponded with the Tartar Pope, who, it seems, is a very sensible man. The Attorney-General asked this officer, who is come over, how the Lama wrote. "Oh," said he, "like any person." "Could I see his letters?" said Mr. Wedderburne. Upon my word," said the officer," when the busi 66 *Physician of Bedlam. Mr. + Mr. Windham had been Lieutenant-Colonel of the Norfolk Militia under Lord Orford, and had resigned on the trouble he gave them. [This is not correct. Windham was Major, not Lieutenant-Colonel. His resignation is distinctly stated by his biographer to have been occasioned by a severe illness; on his recovery from which he visited the Continent.-ED.] This young midshipman was afterwards Admiral Sir Eliab Harvey, Knt., G. C.B., and distinguished himself as one of the heroes of Trafalgar. He sat in the House of Commons for the town of Malden from 1780 to 1784, and for the county of Essex from 1802 to his death in 1830.-Ed. |