heard that disgraces and disappointments were palliatives; but I will not descant, nor is it right to vaunt of having been in the right when one's country's shame is the solution of one's prophecy, nor would one join in the triumph of her enemies. Details you will hear from France sooner than I can send them; but I will write again the moment I know any thing material. I am sorry your nephew is not arrived; who, by being in Parliament and in the world, would be sooner and better informed than I, who stir little out of my own house, and have no political connexions, nor scarce a wish but to die in peace.

LETTER CCCLXIV.

Nov. 29, 1781.

YOUR nephew is arrived, as he has told you himself; the sight of him, for he called on me the next morning, was more than ordinarily welcome, though your letter of the 10th, which I received the night. before, had dispelled many of my fears. I will now unfold them to you. A packet-boat from Ostend was lost last week, and your nephew was named for one of the passengers. As Mrs. Noel had expected him for a fortnight, I own my apprehensions were strengthened; but I will say no more on a dissipated panic. However, this incident and his half-wreck at Lerici will, I hope, prevent him for the future from staying with you so late in the year; and I see by your letter that you agree with me, of which I should be sure though you had not said so.

I mentioned on Tuesday the captivity of Lord Cornwallis and his army, the Columbus who was to bestow America on us again. A second army taken in a drag-net is an uncommon event,* and hap pened but once to the Romans, who sought adventures every where. We have not lowered our tone on this new disgrace, though I think we shall talk no more of insisting on implicit submission, which would rather be a gasconade than firmness. In fact, there is one very unlucky circumstance already come out, which must drive every Ame rican, to a man, from ever calling himself our friend. By the tenth article of the capitulation, Lord Cornwallis demanded that the loyal

* Dr. Franklin, in a letter written on the 26th of November to Mr. Adams, makes the same reflection: "It is a rare circumstance," he says, "and scarce to be met with in history, that in one war two armies should be taken prisoners completely, not a man in either escaping. It is another singular circumstance, that in an expedition so complex, formed of armies of different nations and of land and sea forces, should with such perfect concord be assembled from different places by land and water, form their junction punctually, without the least retard by cross accidents of wind or weather, or interruption from the enemy; and that the army which was their object should in the mean time have the goodness to quit a situation from whence it might have escaped, and place itself in another whence any escape was impossible."-ED.

Americans in his army should not be punished. This was flatly refused, and he has left them to be hanged.* I doubt no vote of Parliament will be able to blanch such a-such a-I don't know what the word is for it. He must get his uncle the Archbishop to christen it. There is no name for it in any Pagan vocabulary. I suppose it will have a patent for being called Necessity. Well! there ends another volume of the American war. It looks a little as if the history of it would be all we should have for it, except forty millions of debt, and three other wars that have grown out of it, and that do not seem so near to a conclusion. They say that Monsieur de Maurepas, who is dying, being told that the Duc de Lauzun had brought the news of Lord Cornwallis's surrender, said, from Racine's Mithridate I think, "Mes derniers regards ont vu fuir les Romains."†

How Lord Chatham will frown when they meet! for, since I began my letter, the papers say that Maurepas is dead. The Duc de Nivernois, it is said, is likely to succeed him as Minister; which is probable, as they were brothers-in-law and friends, and the one would naturally recommend the other. Perhaps, not for long; as the Queen's influence gains ground.

The warmth in the House of Commons is prodigiously rekindled;§

* Lord Cornwallis strove earnestly to obtain some favourable conditions on behalf of the inhabitants of York-town and other Americans who were under the protection, as they had shared the fortune, of the British army; but they were refused, on the grounds of their being civil matters, which did not come within the authority of the military commanders. He, however, to extricate those Americans who would have been exposed to imminent danger, made it a condition, that the sloop which was to convey his despatches to New York should pass without search or examination, he being only answerable that the number of persons she conveyed should be accounted for as prisoners of war upon exchange.-ED.

Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, who happened to dine with Lord George Sackville, then one of the Secretaries of State, on the day upon which the intelligence of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis's army reached Government, relates the following anecdote: The party, nine in number, sat down to table; Lord George appeared serious though he manifested no discomposure. After his three daughters had withdrawn, his lordship acquainted us, that information had just arrived from Paris of the old Count de Maurepas lying at the point of death. "It would grieve me,' said I, to finish my career, however far advanced in years, were I Minister of France, before I had witnessed the termination of this great contest between England and America.' He has survived to see that event,' replied Lord George, with some agitation. Utterly unsuspecting what had happened beyond the Atlantic, My meaning,' said I, is, that if I were the Count de Maurepas, I should wish to live long enough to behold the final issue of the war in Virginia.' He has survived to witness it completely answered Lord George; the army has surrendered, and you may peruse the particulars of the capitulation in that paper;' taking at the same time, one from his pocket, which he delivered into my hand, not without visible emotion." Hist. Mem. vol. ii. p. 437.-ED.

6

Count de Maurepas died at Versailles, in the month of November, and in the eighty-first year of his age; holding, at that very advanced period of life, in a season of great national exertion and of a perilous and hard-fought foreign war, the arduous office of Prime Minister of France.-ED.

The King had opened the session on the 27th. "So much had the expected debates," writes Sir Samuel Romilly, in the letter quoted in a recent note, “roused the attention of men, that the lobby of the House of Commons was full long before VOL. 11.-18

but Lord Cornwallis's fate has cost the Administration no ground there. The names of most éclat in the Opposition are two names to which those walls have been much accustomed at the same periodCHARLES FOX* and WILLIAM PITT, second son of Lord Chatham.† Eloquence is the only one of our brilliant qualities that does not seem

the Speaker arrived; nor was it without difficulty he could make his way into the House. The moment he had entered, the people crowded after him; it was impossible to shut the doors, and the gallery was in a moment filled with a promiscuous crowd. I, among the rest, had the good fortune to get a seat. As you have already seen the King's speech, you have observed that, after boasting of successes in the East Indies, announcing the disaster in Virginia, and declaring bis resolu tion to prosecute the war with vigour, he goes on to involve the future conduct of the war in darkness and uncertainty. Let me recall his words to you, for they are very material: 'I should not answer the trust committed to the sovereign of a free people, &c., if I consented to sacrifice, either to my own desire of peace, or to their temporary ease and relief, those essential rights and permanent interests, upon the maintainance and preservation of which the future strength and security of this country must ever principally depend;' and afterwards, The late misfor tune calls loudly for your firm concurrence and assistance, to frustrate the designs of our enemies, equally prejudicial to the real interests of America and to those of Great Britain.' In both Houses, all the speakers on the side of Opposition understood these words to intimate that the war in America was still to be carried on; and the Address, which echoed them back to the Throne, they understood as pledging the House to give their sanction to that measure." Life, vol. i. p. 184.— ED.

* Mr. Fox had, on the first day of the Session, after a long and impassioned speech, moved, by way of amendment to the proposed Address, to pledge the House to apply themselves with united hearts to propose and digest such counsels as might in this crisis excite the efforts, point the arms, and, by a total change of system, command the confidence of the nation. It was rejected, on a division by 218 to 129.-ED.

Upon the report of the Address on the King's speech, WILLIAM PITT, the son of Chatham, addressed the House of Commons for the fourth time; arguing strongly and powerfully against persevering in the American war, and inveighing with great severity against the incapacity of Ministers, who, by their fatal system, had led the country, step by step, to the most calamitous and disgraceful situationa situation which threatened the final dissolution of the empire, if not prevented by timely, wise, and vigorous efforts. "The applause in the House," says the Bishop of Winchester," was so great when Mr. Pitt sat down, that it was some time before Mr. Dundas, the Lord Advocate, who rose immediately, could be heard. He began by saying, that the lustre of abilities and splendour of eloquence displayed by the honourable gentleman who spoke last, having proved that an astonishing extent and force of understanding had descended in an hereditary line, from a parent un commonly gifted, to a son equally endowed with all the fire, and strength, and grace of oratory, it did not at all surprise him, that an involuntary emotion of ap plause should burst out on the conclusion of the speech the House had just heard, and that each gentleman should be anxious to communicate to his neighbour his approbation of it.' Mr. Fox afterwards noticed the universal admiration the speech had excited; and Mr. Courtenay said, that Mr. Pitt's splendid diction, manly elocution, brilliant periods, and pointed logic, conveyed in a torrent of rapid and impressive eloquence, brought strongly to his recollection that great and able statesman, whose memory every grateful and generous Briton revered." Life, vol. i. p. 44. Sir Samuel Romilly, in alluding to this speech, says, "Applause was echoed from one side of the House to the other; and Mr. Fox, in an exaggerated strain of panegyric, said he would no longer lament the loss of Lord Chatham, for he was again living in his son, with all his virtues and all his talents." "He studies,' adds Sir Samuel," for the bar, and to whatever he applies himself, whether to law or politics, he is likely soon to take precedence of all our orators; he possesses

to have degenerated rapidly-but I shall leave debates to your nephew, now an ear-witness: I could only re-echo newspapers. Is it not another odd coincidence of events, that while the father Laurens is prisoner to Lord Cornwallis as Constable of the Tower, the son Laurens signed the capitulation by which Lord Cornwallis became prisoner?* It is said too, I don't know if truly, that this capitulation and that of Saratoga were signed on the same anniversary. These are certainly the speculations of an idle man, and the more trifling when one considers the moment. But alas! what would my most grave speculations avail? From the hour that fatal egg, the Stamp Act, was laid, I disliked it, and all the vipers hatched from it. I now hear many curse it, who fed the vermin with poisonous weeds. Yet the guilty and the innocent rue it equally hitherto! I would not answer for what is to come! Seven years of miscar

those talents which are said to have been peculiar to his father-warmth of utterance, command of language, strength and closeness of reasoning, and, above all, an energy and irresistible vigour of eloquence."

Mr. Pitt, at the general election in the autumn of 1780, was an unsuccessful candidate for the University of Cambridge; but in the January following he was returned for the borough of Appleby. During the winter of that year he was an habitual frequenter of the club at Goostree's, where the intimacy he had formed at Cambridge and in the gallery of the House of Commons with Mr. Wilberforce ripened into friendship "He was," says the youthful member for Hull, "the wittiest man I ever knew, and, what was quite peculiar to himself, had at all times his wit under entire control. Others appeared struck by the unwonted association of brilliant images; but every possible combination of ideas seemed always present to his mind, and he could at once produce whatever he desired. I was one of those who met to spend an evening in memory of Shakspeare at the Boar's Head, Eastcheap. Many professed wits were present; but Pitt was the most amusing of the party, and the readiest and the most apt in the required allusions. He entered with the same energy into all our different amusements: we played a good deal at Goostree's, and I well remember the intense earnestness which he displayed when joining in those games of chance. He perceived their increasing fascination, and Soon after suddenly abandoned them for ever." Life, vol. i. p. 17. Mr. Pitt took his seat in the House of Commons on the 23rd of January, 1781, and made his first speech on the 26th of February, upon the second reading of Mr. Burke's bill for an economical reform in the Civil List establishment. He spoke for the second time on the 31st of May, in reply to Lord North, on the bill for appointing Commissioners to examine the Public Accounts. "The papers will have informed you," wrote Mr. Wilberforce, on the 9th of June, to a friend, "how Mr. William Pitt, second son of the late Lord Chatham, has distinguished himself: he comes out, as his father did, a ready-made orator, and I doubt not but that I shall one day or other see him the first man in the country. His famous speech, however, delivered the other day, did not convince me, and I stayed in with the old fat fellow [Lord North:] by the way, he grows every day fatter; so, where he will end, I know not." Life, vol. i. p. 22.-ED.

*The land-forces became prisoners to America; but the seamen, with the ships and furniture, were assigned to Count de Grasse, as a compliment to and return for the French naval assistance. It was certainly remarkable, that the commissioner appointed by the Americans to settle the terms, and who himself drew up the articles of the capitulation, by which a British army became prisoners to his country, was Colonel Laurens, son of Mr. Laurens, late President of the Congress, who was then a close prisoner in the Tower of London. The Viscount de Noailles was the commissioner appointed on the side of France, to act in conjunction with Colonel Laurens.-ED.

riages may sour the sweetest tempers, and the most sweetened. Oh! where is the Dove with the olive-branch? Long ago I told you that you and I might not live to see an end of the American war. It is very near its end indeed now-its consequences are far from a conclusion. In some respects, they are commencing a new date, which will reach far beyond us. I desire not to pry into that book of futurity. Could I finish my course in peace-but one must take the chequered scenes of life as they come. What signifies whether the elements are serene or turbulent, when a private old man slips away? What has he and the world's concerns to do with one another? He may sigh for his country, and babble about it; but he might as well sit quiet and read or tell old stories; the past is ,as important to him as the future.

Dec. 3rd.

I had not sealed my letter, as it cannot set out till to-morrow; and since I wrote it I have received yours, of the 20th of November, by your courier.

I congratulate you on the success of your attempts, and admire the heroic refusal of the General.* I shall certainly obey you, and not mention it. Indeed, it would not easily be believed here, where as many pence are irresistible.

Your nephew told me that Mrs. Damer was hasting to Rome. I am glad that, as far as you could in so short a time, you did not find that I had exaggerated; but I know her shyness too well not to be sure that you could not discover a thousandth part of her understanding.

Your Mr. Terney was an ostentatious fool, of whom there is no more to be said. Formerly, when such simpletons did not know what to do with their wealth, they bequeathed it to the Church; and then, perhaps, one got a good picture for an altar, or a painted window.

Don't trouble yourself about the third set of Galuzzi. They are to be had here now, and those for whom I intended them can buy them. I have not made so much progress as I intended, and have not yet

*General Murray, Governor of Minorca, which was besieged by the Spaniards, was offered a vast bribe by the Duc de Crillon, the Spanish commander, to give up Fort St. Philip, but spurned at the offer. ["The eagerness of Spain to gain posses sion of this island was," says the Annual Register," so excessive, that the Court seems to have departed in some degree from that dignity of character which should ever be inseparably united with royalty, by an insidious endeavour, through the medium of an immense bribe, to corrupt the fidelity of the Governor. Nor did the Duc de Crillon seem entirely to pay a proper attention to his own rank and reputation, nor to preserve a due recollection of the honour and distinction entailed upon his family by the peculiar virtue of an illustrious ancestor, when he descended to become the instrument in such a business. General Murray treated the insult with a mixture of that haughty disdain incident to the consciousness of an ancient line and illustrious ancestry, and with the generous indignation and stern resentment of a veteran soldier, who feels himself wounded in the tenderest part, by an insidious attempt upon, and consequently suspicion of, that honour which he had set up as the great object and idol of his life." General the Honourable James Murray was the brother of John, third Duke of Atholl. He represented the county of Perth in five parliaments; and at his death, in 1794, was a Major-General in the army, and Governor of Fort William in Scotland.-ED.]